As part of a settlement in a suit filed by a same-sex couple, the State College Area School District this week agreed to offer domestic-partner benefits to the same-sex partners of its employees.
The SCASD will now offer the same health-insurance benefits to same-sex partners that were previously available to heterosexual married spouses and non-married opposite-sex domestic partners.
The former policy explicitly stated that domestic partners “cannot be the same gender.”
The policy shift came after a federal discrimination suit filed by district employee Kerry Wiessmann, who sued the district in May after she was prevented from adding her partner of 25 years, Beth Resko, to her insurance plan.
The district school board voted to approve the consent decree that authorized the settlement, and a judge signed off on the agreement Tuesday.
“I am pleased that the board moved quickly to provide benefit equality to the district’s gay and lesbian workers,” said Wiessmann’s attorney Andrew Shubin, who was joined on the case by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania.
“I am proud of the plaintiffs for their courage in pursuing the important constitutional American principle of equality for all citizens — gay and straight,” Shubin added. “I look forward to working with the district to resolve the remaining issues in this case.”
The parties will continue to negotiate unresolved damages claims in the next 75 days.
The change to the benefits plan, which covers medical, dental and prescription, will go into effect immediately, and the settlement also requires that, by August, the district amend its nondiscrimination policy for staff and students to include both sexual orientation and gender identity.
The complaint, filed with the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, contended that the district violated the plaintiffs’ federal constitutional rights to equal protection and intimate association and the Pennsylvania Equal Rights Amendment on the basis of sex discrimination.
Wiessmann has worked as a district employee since 2003 and Resko, who previously worked as an independent contractor, in 2007 took on a full-time position to attain health coverage, which she previously purchased on her own at a “considerable cost.”
The SCASD encompasses 13 schools from elementary to high school and is home to approximately 7,200 students.
The district did not respond to a request for comment.
Other Pennsylvania school districts that offer domestic-partner benefits for same-sex couples include Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Lower Merion.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].
