Pasadena Elementary School principal Karen Heitner's disciplinary hearing continues, with heated exchanges and new allegations

A longtime Plainview-Old Bethpage elementary principal created a hostile and unsafe environment when she repeatedly contacted a teacher during off hours and asked an aide to take photos from the roof of the school, a district administrator testified during recent disciplinary hearings into the matter.

Karen Heitner, principal of Pasadena Elementary School, faces allegations of sexual harassment, age discrimination and creating a hostile and unsafe work environment. She was suspended with pay in August and the district is seeking to fire her.

Over the course of four sometimes-testy hearings, Christopher Donarummo, the district's assistant superintendent for human resources and safety, laid out the findings of his investigation into the allegations made by eight staffers, including two women who claimed Heitner touched them inappropriately on the buttocks during a PTA luncheon. He completed his testimony this week.

Donarummo’s investigation originally centered on the PTA incident. Her lawyers have called the physical contact an “innocent glance.”

But Donarummo said the scope of his investigation expanded after he learned of more claims against Heitner brought by other employees.

In one alleged incident, Donarummo testified that Heitner asked a teacher about her retirement plan, which he argued was not appropriate. The principal explained in an interview with Donarummo that she was trying to figure out the following year’s assignments for teachers, Donarummo said.

Heitner also allegedly tried to set up a teacher with a friend of hers. During the hearings, her lawyers said it was the teacher who mentioned the subject first, telling others she was on the lookout for dates. Donarummo said he could not confirm the teacher brought it up first but said it was inappropriate for a supervisor to set up dates for a subordinate, and the teacher reported that it made her uncomfortable.

With regard to the aide taking photographs on the roof of the school building, Donarummo testified that it was not safe for anyone to be on the roof and stand on an unsecured, 8-foot-tall ladder to take photos. Heitner accompanied the computer technology aide, who was tasked with photographing students who had formed the shape of a ribbon to raise awareness for breast cancer. Donarummo said Heitner told him the aide volunteered to go, but he said the aide reported to him she was scared and felt pressured to comply with the principal’s request.

In addressing an allegation that Heitner had contacted a teacher after the school day ended, her attorneys said she did so to ask the teacher to reach out to a parent concerned over something that happened in school earlier that day. Other contact from Heitner, which occurred during the summer months, concerned a counseling letter for the teacher.

Heated exchanges

Heitner's attorneys, Arthur Scheuermann and Edward Heilig, with the School Administrators Association of New York State, have argued that the allegations against their client were made by "disgruntled" employees who did not want to be held accountable for their poor work performance.

They also tried to poke holes in Donarummo’s investigation, which they criticized as neither complete nor fair. Exchanges between Heilig, who conducted the cross-examination, and the witness at times became heated. At one point, Heilig sarcastically asked Donarummo: “Can you read?”

That exchange came after Heilig questioned Donarummo’s credentials as an investigator. Donarummo, who has degrees in finance and education but not human resources, acknowledged he received training that included how to conduct a sexual harassment investigation but not formal training specifically into sexual harassment, as required by district policy.

“Did you follow district policy?” Heilig asked.

“We didn’t follow it verbatim,” Donarummo said.

Heilig also questioned the timing of the complaints, some of which involved alleged incidents that occurred as early as 2022. He asked why the employees didn’t report them until after the PTA event. Donarummo said some told him they were afraid of retaliation from the principal.

Heitner's attorneys have pointed to students’ much-improved test scores during the decade Heitner was principal as proof of her effectiveness.

Donarummo, however, argued that many factors could have contributed to improved student achievement, including effective training and new literacy programs. He also tried to discredit the claim that an employee needing improvement would necessarily lead to a conflict between that person and their supervisor.

He's not arguing that someone can’t make improvements, he said, but the key is the way a supervisor treats them.

The fate of Heitner's job will be determined by state-appointed hearing officer James Brown, who has presided over the hearings and will issue a ruling when they conclude.

The next hearing is scheduled for May 19. The two female employees who reported the alleged inappropriate touching at the PTA luncheon are expected to testify.

By Dandan Zou

dandan.zou@newsday.com@DandanZou

Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.