The second arbitration case related to Ottoson e-mails between a principal and a teacher got underway this week as two sessions were held, Jan. 27 and 28. Kay Hodge, an attorney for the School Department's law firm, confirmed that the sessions involving Stavroula Bouris occurred and said no date for a new session has been agreed upon.

Bouris was fired in August 2007 following an investigation of e-mails between technology teacher Chuck Coughlin and her. Coughlin was fired two weeks before Bouris.

The arbitration involving Coughlin, who is seeking to be reinstated, has continued since January 2008. The next session is set for Feb. 6. The last sessions were held Jan. 7 and 21.

The meetings are closed to the public and press. Hodge declined to discuss the proceedings.

Frank Mondano, the attorney for both fired employees, was asked to confirm the Bouris session, but he did not retrun a call. Since YourArlington first reported about this case, in July 2007, Mondano has never returned a call from the Web site's publisher.

Yet, throughout the case, has remained available to The Advocate, as the paper's most recent story shows.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association, the statewide union, is known to be supporting the arbitration cases, but the extent of that support remains unclear except to those involved.

Interim Superintendent Kathleen Bodie, whose contract through June 2010 was approved this week, is seeking a replacement for acting Ottoson Principal Judy Malone Neville, a retiree from Newton who took the position after Bouris was fired. Candidates for the position are expected to be invited to public meetings after February vacation, and Bodie wants to have a person in place by March.

UPDATE: Former School Committee member Paul Schlichtman wrote the Arlington e-mail list Friday, Jan. 30:

"Chapter 71: Section 41 of the Massachusetts General Laws. Superintendents hire principals for finite contracts. The superintendent has the absolute right not to renew a principal's
contract. Under the law, if the arbitration finds that the dismissed principal was wrongfully dismissed, the maximum award legally possible would be an obligation to pay her through the end of the contract, June 30, 2009.

"Thus, no matter the result of the arbitration pertaining to the dismissal of the principal, it is legally without dispute that a vacancy will exist on July 1, 2009 -- a vacancy the district needs to fill.

"In addition, principals may be dismissed for good cause, which is a lesser legal standard than the "just cause" requirement for dismissing a teacher with professional status. It would be possible for the same arbitrator to evaluate the same facts and find the district was entitled to dismiss a principal and not a professional status teacher."

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