A former employee of New Canaan Public Schools on Tuesday sued the Board of Education, saying age and race played a role in her demotion and dismissal about two years ago.
Employed by NCPS since 2004, the plaintiff, Giovanna Cicirello, is white and was 57 at the time of her dismissal in January 2024, according to a complaint filed in state Superior Court by attorney John T. Bochanis of Bridgeport-based Daly, Weihing & Bochanis LLC.
She worked as kitchen manager at South School, and her supervisor was younger and Hispanic, the complaint said.
“During Plaintiff’s employment with the Defendant, Plaintiff supervised two employees which two employees were younger than the Plaintiff and Hispanic,” the complaint said.
It continued: “The two employees raised complaints about Plaintiff’s supervision of them. Such complaints were unfounded. On or about November 6, 2023 and prior thereto, Plaintiff’s supervisor contacted the Plaintiff and stated that the two younger Hispanic employees the Plaintiff supervised had made complaints about the Plaintiff’s supervision of them. The Plaintiff explained that the complaints by the two employees were unfounded. Plaintiff’s supervisor accepted the claims made by the two younger Hispanic employees that Plaintiff supervised, and Plaintiff’s supervisor informed the Plaintiff that as a result of the claims by the two employees Plaintiff supervised, the Plaintiff was going to be removed from her position as cafeteria manager and Plaintiff was going to be reassigned as a general cafeteria worker in the cafeteria kitchen of another school (New Canaan High School).”
Cicirello had been a cafeteria manager for about eight years and “satisfactorily performed her job duties,” the complaint said. Her reassignment “amounted to a constructive discharge in that Plaintiff’s job responsibilities were materially changed,” it said.
The district “discriminated against the Plaintiff in the terms and conditions of her employment as a result of Plaintiff’s age and race,” according to the complaint.
Cicirello “was discriminated against, constructively discharged, harassed, retaliated against, a hostile work environment was created and the Plaintiff was treated differently than other employees based on her age and race (Caucasian) in violation of [state law],” the complaint said. The district’s actions caused her to lose salary, benefits and caused “extreme humiliation, mental anxiety and emotional distress, and has been required to assume various incidental expenses,” it said.
The school board is listed in Connecticut Judicial Branch records as a non-appearing defendant.
The lawsuit seeks monetary damages, attorney fees and “[s]uch other and further relief as in law and equity may pertain.”
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