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You mean well, really Our view: There are times you should get out of the way

People willing to serve in elected office usually do so for admirable reasons. They generally want to do what they perceive is the right thing.
But there are occasions when the best thing to do is to state your piece, make your best argument on an issue, and then get out of the way. Monday, Oct. 14, was one of those times.
The Glencoe-Silver Lake School Board was discussing what to do about the waiver expected for its interim community education director employed to fill the spot of the regular director on medical leave. The waiver didn’t come through as Superintendent Chris Sonju expected it would. Back in August, he said the district should be able to obtain a waiver. It didn’t work out that way.
To amicably address the situation with the interim community education director the district hired, the school district and the interim community education director agreed to change the title from community education director to community education coordinator and Panther Field House director. A licensed director would be brought in for a day or two per week or month to provide guidance and meet the state’s requirements, a practice the state supports and has been used elsewhere time and again.
Administration pointed out to the board the district had a signed, legal contract with the community education director that included title and salary for the interim period. An agreement had been reached to change the title but not the salary. It was an agreement that was OK’d by the interim community education director and, more importantly in this case, endorsed by the district’s legal counsel.
School board directors Jamie Alsleben, Kevin Kuester and Donna VonBerge missed that oh-so-critical point.
To Alsleben’s credit, he insisted back in August the interim director should have a license. Administration’s opinion at the time was that GSL likely couldn’t get a licensed community education district for only one year, and certainly not for the $57,000 it is paying the interim director. It would probably cost close to $80,000.
The district’s other coordinators make close to $48,000 but don’t have the responsibility for the field house.
The majority of the board voted in August to seek an unlicensed interim at the lower cost with the expectation of receiving a waiver on the required community education license. Sonju listened to the majority of the board and hired an unlicensed interim director with the expectation of receiving a waiver.
Kuester and VonBerge, who both opted not to participate in the hiring process of an unlicensed interim director, are now questioning it after the fact. It should be noted the other finalist had a license but no experience running a community education department or a field house.
The school board made the right choice back in August.
The key point in this mess is the district has a signed contract to pay the interim community education director $57,000 and board members want to reduce the salary without the employee’s consent under the pretense of taking care of taxpayer dollars. They never thought about the impact of disregarding the contract, never considered how they might explain disregarding a contract to their attorney or a person or group the district might seek to work with under the terms of a contract?
School board directors should make policy decisions. They should strongly consider the guidance of professionals, especially their attorney, the board hires to guide the creation of policy.
That is how you take good care of taxpayers’ money.
-jm