Robyn Bomar v. Board of Education of Harford County

Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit·Decided April 16, 2026·No. 25-1065·Unpublished

Opinion

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 25-1065

ROBYN BOMAR; LETINA HALL; JONISE STALLINGS; SHAKERA ADKINS, Plaintiffs – Appellants,

v.

BOARD OF EDUCATION OF HARFORD COUNTY; SEAN BULSON, Defendants – Appellees,

and

STACEY GERRINGER, Defendant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore. Lydia Kay Griggsby, U.S. District Judge. (1:21-cv-00870-LKG)

Argued: October 24, 2025 Decided: April 16, 2026

Before NIEMEYER, GREGORY, and BERNER, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

ARGUED: Corlie McCormick, Jr., MCCORMICK LAW FIRM, LLC, Washington, D.C., for Appellants. Adam Elliot Konstas, PESSIN KATZ LAW, P.A., Towson, Maryland, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Edmund J. O’Meally, PESSIN KATZ LAW, P.A., Towson,

Maryland, for Appellees.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

PER CURIAM:

Appellants Robyn Bomar, Letina Hall, Jonise Stallings, and Shakera Adkins served as assistant principals in Harford County, Maryland Public Schools until they were reassigned pursuant to a county-wide reduction in force. Believing that their non-selection was unlawful, Appellants filed suit against the Board of Education of Harford County (School Board) and Superintendent of Harford County Public Schools Dr. Sean Bulson.

Appellants, all Black women over the age of forty, allege that they were demoted because of their race, sex, and age. They also claim that the reduction in force procedure was unlawful because it disproportionately impacted Black women. They further allege that the School Board retaliated against them for raising concerns about this alleged unlawful discrimination. Hall and Adkins assert that Harford County retaliated against them because they took time off from work on protected medical leave. Finally, Appellants argue that Superintendent Bulson violated their constitutional rights.

Following discovery, the district court granted summary judgment to the School Board and to Superintendent Bulson. On appeal, Appellants argue that summary judgment was improperly granted because genuine issues of material fact remain regarding whether the reasons given by the School Board and Superintendent Bulson for their various employment actions were pretextual. We disagree. Appellants failed to produce evidence upon which a reasonable jury could find the School Board’s reasons pretextual. Nor have Appellants carried their burden to propose an alternative mechanism for a reduction in force that would adequately serve the School Board’s legitimate business necessities. Finally, Appellants failed to carry their burden to make out a prima facie case in support of

their remaining retaliation claims. Accordingly, we affirm in full the ruling of the district court.

I. Factual Background

We present the facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving parties, here the former assistant principals, as this is a review of an award of summary judgment. Haynes v. Waste Connections, Inc., 922 F.3d 219, 223 (4th Cir. 2019).

A. 2019 Reassignment Plan Dr. Sean Bulson became superintendent of Harford County Public Schools in 2018.

Not long after assuming this role, Superintendent Bulson learned that the school system was facing a budget deficit, which he decided to address by significantly reducing the number of administrative staff, including assistant principals. After discussions with members of the School Board staff regarding previous procedures for reductions in force (RIFs), Superintendent Bulson opted to create a new procedure, one aimed at better evaluating the employees and that would provide supervisors more of a say regarding which employees would retain their positions.

To achieve these goals, Superintendent Bulson, in consultation with School Board officials, developed a new RIF procedure, which we will refer to as “the 2019 Reassignment Plan.” Under the 2019 Reassignment Plan, all current assistant principals interested in continuing to serve in their positions were required to apply anew. The application process included submitting a resume and recorded video and written responses

to uniform interview questions. The process also required applicants to submit references from their current immediate supervisors, which were to follow a standardized format. Each applicant was asked to specify whether she wished to be considered for an assistant principal position at the elementary level or the secondary (middle school to high school) level. School principals were then asked to review and score each applicant’s interview responses on a scale of one to five. All told, thirty-three individuals evaluated each elementary school level applicant, and nineteen individuals evaluated each secondary school level applicant. Thus, applicants for positions at the elementary school level could earn a maximum of 1,155 possible points, and secondary school level applicants could earn a maximum of 665 points.

The 2019 Reassignment Plan called for each school principal to provide two ranked lists of her top five applicants for the position of assistant principal at her school. The first list was to include the principal’s top applicants should the School Board determine that the school would receive its own dedicated assistant principal. The second list was to include the principal’s top five applicants should the school be required to share an assistant principal with another school. Superintendent Bulson and designated members of the School Board would then review the applicants’ materials, the principals’ scoring, the principals’ preferred applicant lists, and the supervisor references to make final determinations as to applicants’ placements. Applicants not initially selected to serve as assistant principals were to be placed in a pool of potential applicants to be considered when assistant principal positions become vacant in the future for a period of three years.

B. Appellants’ Applications Beginning in February 2019, Robyn Bomar, Letina Hall, Jonise Stallings, and Shakera Adkins each submitted an application in accordance with the 2019 Reassignment Plan to remain in her assistant principal position. After the applications were assessed, none of the Appellants placed at or near the top of the applicant pool. None were selected.

Robyn Bomar, Letina Hall, and Jonise Stallings applied to retain their positions as secondary school assistant principals. Bomar’s recorded video and written responses earned her a total of 501 points, ranking her seventeenth out of fifty-three secondary school applicants. Hall’s responses earned 436 points, ranking her forty-fifth, and Stallings’s responses earned 360 points, ranking her fifty-second.

Bomar’s immediate supervisor did not recommend that she be rehired, noting that Bomar had been repeatedly reprimanded. Although two principals included Bomar on their top five applicant lists, none listed her as their first choice. Hall’s immediate supervisor recommended her “with reservations,” and one principal listed her as fourth on one of his top five applicant lists. Although Stallings’s supervisor recommended her for hire, she rated her as only “average” in six out of nine applicable categories. Stallings did not appear on any principal’s top five applicant lists.

Shakera Adkins applied to retain her position as an elementary school assistant principal. Her recorded video and written responses earned 702 points, ranking her thirty- fifth out of thirty-nine elementary school applicants. Adkins’s immediate supervisor gave her a “recommend with reservations” reference, and she was not included on a single principal’s top five applicant list.

During the period when applications were being submitted and evaluated under the 2019 Reassignment Plan, both Hall and Adkins took time away from work for medical reasons.

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