FAIRMONT, W.Va. — The Marion County Board of Education is being sued by two of its employees, including the county superintendent.
The suits have been filed by superintendent Dr. Donna Heston and human resources administrator Kristin DeVaul. BOE President James Saunders, Vice President Kevin Rogers, and Co-Vice President Donna Costello are accused of sex discrimination, creating a hostile work environment, and harassment.
Saunders, Rogers, and Costello are named as defendants in Morgantown-based attorney Ryan Umina’s suit.
Umina said the two plaintiffs are dedicated, high-performing members of the district, but have been subject to damaging rumors and conduct by the BOE that has harmed them, professionally and personally.
“We did everything we could to not have this type of distraction, but this is the only recourse we have left at this point,” Umina said.
The district has been a consistent top 10 performer statewide, but yet the BOE declined to renew Heston’s contract earlier this year.
Saunders made the motion at a special meeting days later to reconsider the contract decision and clarified to the public what they are legally required to do. According to Umina, Saunders said the board “may” use the evaluation results to determine employment decisions, and they have no obligation to the public to explain why.
“They gave her a one-year contract but at the same time completely tainted her professional reputation through the process,” Umina said. “Thereafter there have been repeated acts of retaliation against her.”
The lawsuit alleges the three board members made false and damaging accusations that Heston was involved in an intimate relationship with DeVaul, a female school district employee. The board members attempted to deny the allegations in public and to Heston herself, according to Umina.
He said despite their denial, the board members reportedly made another social media post with the same accusation.
“The very thing they had just denied had anything to do with this shared a public Facebook post and immediately took it down,” Umina said. “But those screenshots of the current board president doing that have been preserved.”
Days before the lawsuit was filed, Umina said that Heston was having a regularly scheduled phone meeting with Saunders. At the end of the call, when Saunders assumed Heston had hung up, he was allegedly heard talking to another person about Heston being a lesbian.
“As recently as July 27, 2026, the current board president told someone on an open line when he forgot to hang up the phone reiterated the same false rumors about the superintendent,” Umina said. “When he thought he had immediately hung up the phone with her on a professional work call.”
Umina said they are accusing the BOE of sex-based discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, creating a hostile work environment by the BOE and retaliation against Heston and DeVaul by its members.
“I think anyone that looks at the years of treatment that these two professional women have had to endure, I don’t know how you can’t come to the conclusion that these folks should likely resign,” Umina said.