Somerset school board’s law firm sues MD’s K-12 insurer

The Somerset County Board of Education‘s law firm sued the Maryland Association of Boards of Education, accusing a high-level staffer at the nonprofit of defaming a lawyer in emails about a chaotic meeting that prompted a federal lawsuit.

Filed Tuesday in Somerset County Circuit Court, the defamation lawsuit marks another escalation of the disorder embroiling the Eastern Shore school district in the wake of a conservative takeover of its board of education.

Schifanelli Law and founding partner Marc Schifanelli alleged in the defamation complaint that an attorney at the Maryland Association of Boards of Education falsely stated in an internal email that Schifanelli “tried to fight” a parent speaking at a board meeting before the man sued the school system for removing him.

Schifanelli, who represents the school district in that federal lawsuit, says he wasn’t at the meeting in question.

“We just feel that this misinformation needs to stop,” he said in an email.

“We just feel we cannot sit around and ignore these falsities regarding our reputation any longer,” Schifanelli added.

MABE lobbies for and trains the state’s local school board officials and administers worker’s compensation and liability insurance for most of the districts. The association declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

The email in question, sent by the association’s deputy director of association programs, Sam Mathias, came after Schifanelli notified the nonprofit of the federal lawsuit filed by Joseph Hylton, a vocal opponent of the new board’s practices.

Schifanelli had been seeking “to secure legal representation” in the federal lawsuit for school board chair Matthew Lankford through the nonprofit’s insurance pool, according to the defamation complaint. Mathias then sent five MABE employees an email about the federal suit, saying that Schifanelli “tried to fight” Hylton — then followed up with a link to a video of the school board meeting in question, according to the lawsuit.

The man seen in the video is not Marc Schifanelli, whose wife and business partner, Gordana Schifanelli, was present as the board’s attorney.

The video shows the public comment portion of the Aug. 19, 2025, meeting erupting into disarray as Lankford squabbles with Hylton, who was speaking toward the audience about the opaque procurement process surrounding the Schifanellis’ hiring. After Lankford orders Hylton out and calls a break, a man wearing a suit approaches Hylton from behind; Hylton tells the man to get away from him. The two are then physically separated but continue arguing before Hylton is escorted out by sheriff’s deputies.

Hylton’s federal complaint does not allege that the man assaulted him or mention that interaction. The chaos during the August 2025 meeting prompted the board to shut down public comment and move subsequent meetings online.

Meanwhile, the board also faces another lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, which alleges that the school district is hiding public records regarding the Schifanellis’ hiring and the board’s split with its superintendent. The board’s attorneys have been trading barbs with the Maryland State Education Association over a proposed book ban, and at a Tuesday night meeting, Lankford called for discipline over a teachers’ union post suggesting that the board wanted to “ban Harry Potter.”

Gordana Schifanelli, who was Republican Dan Cox’s running mate in his 2022 run for governor, is the attorney of record in her law firm’s defamation complaint. The lawsuit seeks $264,000 in personal and reputational damages from MABE for Marc Schifanelli and $300,000 more for reputational damages to his law firm.