JAMESTOWN

A federal court jury in Erie ruled Monday that Jamestown Area School District did not pass over a secretary for an administrative position because of her age.

Carol Saylor, a district secretary for about two decades, sued the district in 1999 after it became apparent she would not be named the new business manager and school board secretary. The job would have meant about $25,000 a year more in salary for Ms. Saylor.

Ms. Saylor continues to work in the district as a secretary for the current business manager and board secretary, Cheryl Goodemote, who is 50.

Ms. Saylor, 54, claimed her age factored into the school board's decision and that the personnel retaliated against her after learning she had taken subsequent steps to sue.

The jury didn't agree.

After four days of testimony and opening and closing arguments, the eight-person jury needed just an hour of deliberation to dismiss all four of Ms. Saylor's claims.

Ms. Saylor's attorney, Neal Sanders of Butler, appeared disgusted after the verdict was handed down and refused to answer questions from The Herald as he pushed a dolly carrying boxes of paperwork related to the case out of the courtroom. After deflecting questions to his client, he said, "We have 30 days to appeal."

During his closing arguments, Sanders argued that Ms. Saylor was the best candidate for the business manager/board secretary position, based on her years of experience in the district and familiarity with its accounting practices. And, Sanders added, Ms. Saylor had proven she was capable of handling the rigors of the job for a year before she was allegedly snubbed.

Sandra Fry formerly held the position but took a leave of absence for health reasons in April 1998 and retired a year later. Sanders said Ms. Saylor - who was Ms. Fry's secretary for several years and had aspired to fill Ms. Fry's shoes after she retired, a goal set before her leave of absence - "performed 90 percent of her (Ms. Fry's) duties" in the year she was gone.

The district said duties were split among several employees.

Erie attorney James T. Marnen, who represented the district, said there was no merit to the age-discrimination or retaliation claims.

"In early 1999, Ms. Saylor made it clear she was interested in the job and even said that she would go get more education. The school board said it wanted her to get a four-year bachelor's degree. That's a pretty tall mountain to climb for someone with a full-time job," Marnen said during his closing arguments. "But the board opted to hire someone who already had a four-year degree (in mathematics) and had impeccable qualifications in 17 years in the Reynolds School District."

"I'm not here to trash secretaries. It's an honorable profession. But it's not the same thing as being a business manager in charge of running the finances for a school district," Marnen added.

Sanders argued that Ms. Goodemote did not possess accounting, business or finance degrees called for in the job description.

Ms. Saylor was seeking $110,000 in wages she could have earned during Ms. Fry's sick leave, had she collected the same wages as Ms. Fry earned as business manager and board secretary; an unspecified amount she could have earned working as business manager/board secretary through her retirement 11 years from now; and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.