OZARK, MO — The Ozark R-VI Board of Education fielded questions from the public in a Town Hall meeting Tuesday, October 25 in the Ozark High School auditorium.
Christina Tonsing of Ozark Mo School District Awareness asked the first question, essentially asking what investigation board members would conduct regarding claims from teachers that “false infomation” was put into their teacher files by administrators who admitted the claims were false but that it “didn’t matter.”
Board member Jeff Laney (who is an attorney) said “it’s not our job” (to investigate such claims) because the board acts as a judge and jury in cases that come to a formal hearing and must remain neutral.
Major Danny Cazier, who went public with his allegations against the district for forcing him to resign last year, asked if it were possible that an administrator could try to eliminate a teacher deliberately.
Laney said “absolutely” but that would be “incredibly reckless” to subject the district to litigation.
MORE TO COME…
One response to “R-VI Board: “not our job” to investigate allegations against administrators”
I guess those “several teachers’ claims” were pretty much verified on Thursday evening, huh? (Mr. Laney scoffed at leading the question with “Several teachers…” I can count 7 district employees to whom I’ve personally talked in as many months (8 if you count one other who wrote about it in a conversation on FB) who have been targeted (and false charges compiled) and then issued the same surprising ultimatum without due process: resign or be fired.
If board members think it’s not their job to evaluate their sole employee’s job performance — the board continually reminds the public that they hire only one employee, the superintendent — then perhaps it shouldn’t be their job to rehire him, nor to raise his pay (like they just did this past spring!)
More likely, we just need some board members willing to take on all the aspects of their job.