The Shawano School Board is still feeling the heat from a recent vote in closed session to issue nonrenewal notices for contracts to three teachers, even though the board voted again on the matter in open session.
Shawano Community High School teacher Matt Brunette read a letter May 18 at the board meeting on behalf of another teacher warning that the actions taken in secret could result in legal troubles for the Shawano School District due to “a growing number and severity of issues.” When asked by a school board member who wrote the letter, Brunette declined to disclose the teacher’s identity in public.
According to the letter read by Brunette, poor video and audio recording of meetings has made it difficult to keep up on what has happened as the board has taken steps to cut $1.7 million in expenses from next year’s budget for the school district. This has included the nonrenewal notices, not filling positions vacated by staff resigning or retiring, and cutting course offerings, according to the letter.
Brunette said through the letter that some of the actions involving the nonrenewal notices could be illegal.
“Two grievances related to improper disciplinary actions resulted from alleged improper communications between staff and board members and alleged improper and illegal actions surrounding nonrenewals have been properly submitted in late April and the fifth of May,” Brunette said through the letter. “The former was denied on the basis of timeliness by the superintendent and the review by the board was immediately requested by the grievant, but no action by the board appears to have been scheduled or taken as required by board policy PO3340.”
In both grievances, it was requested the matter be brought before an impartial hearing officer, as required under the policy, according to the letter.
Another grievance was filed May 17, according to the letter, specifically referring to the board votes on the nonrenewal notices. Initially, the board voted in its April 27 closed session to issue the notices. Another vote took place at a May 11 board workshop to meet the state deadline of May 15 for the notices.
According to the letter as read by Brunette, the votes involve “statutory violations of the open meeting law.”
Shawano Community Middle School teacher Dan O’Connell, who has been vocal in other meetings about the board’s actions in recent months, said his own attorney has also found the recent closed session vote suspect. He reiterated a stance taken by Jennifer Schmidt, president of the Shawano Education Association, that the vote for the nonrenewal notices should have taken place originally in open session.
“School boards should not vote in closed session when it comes to cutting positions,” O’Connell said.
O’Connell called out the district’s attorney, Geoff Lacy, for first saying the notices could be voted on in closed session, only to reverse his stance two weeks later, saying that the vote in open session was to protect the district’s interests and to avoid any appearance that the district did not want the vote to be public.
“Is it possible to be cautious against allegations after they have already been alleged?” O’Connell said. “Again, Ms. Schmidt already warned against this two weeks before.”
O’Connell said the district received a public records request May 12, the day after the open vote on the notices.
“Members of the board, we need you to ask yourself if you can put your confidence in the competency and actions of the district’s leadership and legal counsel,” O’Connell said. “The district’s legal counsel is apparently not paying attention to what you are doing, doesn’t fully understand the law or is willing to let the district cross the legal line.”
