D135 Candidates on Staffing Issues

The following question was asked of all candidates running for a seat on the Orland School District 135 Board of Education.

Answers are listed in the order they were received.

Over the last two years there have been a few sudden staffing changes, including the demotion of Melanie Walsh and putting in an interim superintendent while paying the former superintendent’s salary. Given legal and salary costs involved, should the board consider other means of addressing employee issues, and if so what would you do if elected or re-elected to do so?

Michael Carroll

Yes. I can’t help but think that the majority of the current board has made decisions contrary to prudent legal advice, and without thinking about their legal and financial consequences. This is the primary issue that focused my attention on the operations of the District. A board cannot be driven by emotion, at the expense of the taxpayer. A board should not hire, fire, promote or demote based on revenge or personal relationships. It is clear that the decisions the board has made in the last few years will have financial impacts for years to come. Legal counsel is present at Board meetings for a reason. The board needs to heed their advice and make decisions that make ethical, legal sense and that strongly consider the financial consequences involved.

Tom Cunningham

First and foremost where is the question coming from about Melanie Walsh? Why don't you talk about the findings from the educators own means, ISBE, that we the Board of Orland 135 School District were found to have done the right thing, not once but twice. We have to make sure that all jobs are open and fairly executed to hire the most qualified person. We need to make sure that the Administration hires through an OPEN and honest process and not one in which it is not disclosed that your sister-in-law is the hire.

Laura Berry

While there are certainly times when there needs to be immediate changed to personnel such as when children or staff are in danger or there is fiscal irresponsibility, these current situations did not warrant the responses that this board mandated. Ms. Walsh was qualified for the position. Period. If the board wanted to assure nepotism was not an issue a policy needed to be in place. You don’t remove a qualified person and then put a policy in place. Additionally, the superintendent could have completed his contract. There were no reasonable causes for the change. This includes the retiring Assistant Superintendent being banished from the district office so that she could not reasonably complete her job. If elected I would act in a responsible and professional manner.

Michael Maratea

There is a well-defined hierarchy in an educational system.  If that system is functional, a school district will run professionally.  When it becomes dysfunctional and people overstep their roles with hidden agendas, chaos reigns.  There is a reason a school district has legal representation and that is to advise the board in all legal matters and decisions.  If one does not listen to that advice, lawsuits and duplication of services creates misuse of funds.  I would make sure everyone stayed within his/her defined roles.

Sandra Kulak

The board's decision to demote Melanie Walsh was not in the best interests of the children and the taxpayers. The Board of Education acted with full disregard for the costly repercussions to the taxpayers.  It was a fiscally irresponsible decision that will result in litigation that will far supersede the $10,000 salary differential had they just gone with the original decision, with board approval, to hire her in the first place.  Melanie successfully performed her duties for 3 months! 

Regarding administrative decisions/changes, we need to stop the practice of hiring two well-paid administrators to perform the exact same job.  Hiring experienced district office will eliminate costly training expenditures. Single year contracts should be offered for any district level administrator.  The Board should create a performance based rubric for evaluation of administration that includes clauses in their contracts that absolve them from continuing to pay their current salaries if they resign, are dismissed, or unsatisfactory performance as based on the established rubric.

The Human Resources department should form a committee composed of administrators, support staff, certified staff, and union leaders to develop a system to consistently deal with personnel issues that are in tandem with the tenets of the collective bargaining agreement. This would help to ensure the stability and consistency of the decision-making process and to avoid the prior costly personal errors in judgment made by some current Board members. This is in the best interests of the community.

Mary Bragg

One of the ways to address employee issues is to make sure hiring practices are clear, in place and followed. The next piece would be to make sure that evaluation goals are clear, measureable and followed by all staff members. Reviewing all policies and procedures for the hiring process would address this issue.

Ann Gentile

Your question references a specific individual who was directly related to an individual in control of the hiring process, as our actions were affirmed through the Illinois Judicial System. I originally brought up the institution of a Nepotism Policy in 2009 when I was first elected. Historically, the District had worked on an honor system, which resulted in 60% of the employee in the District being related. Of our total expense $36 million dollars is going to family members. Additionally, how can we rely on people to properly supervise, discipline and in some cases terminate employees where necessary. When we don’t know who are friends with whom and individual’s doing favors for others, the task becomes impossible to properly manage staff. Nepotism is a significant problem within the District and the individual you specifically referenced was such a heinous case of abuse of the system that if forced the board to unanimously vote to completely rewrite the nepotism policy. Who ultimately pays the price for nepotism? The children of our community. 

Nathan Jaisingh

To me this is a simple process. If your hands are tied by a golden parachute contract if the employee is a poor performer, negotiate a much better exit contract OR do a much better job vetting the candidate. I would suggest implementing a round of leadership and psychological testing tools, what many Fortune 500 companies do when hiring executives.

Learn about other races in the spring 2013 election.

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