Two local women have voiced some concerns regarding the Manitowoc Public School District, and have even filed a complaint with the Manitowoc County District Attorney’s office.
The complaints break down into three categories, closed-session law violations, the Board’s hiring process, and licensures.
We will go into each of these separately throughout the week, starting today with the alleged closed-session law violations.
The two women, who will not be named, claim that the MPSD and the Board of Education violated Wisconsin law with some recent closed sessions.
According to Wisconsin Statute 19.85, some exemptions need to be met in order to enter a closed session, including the discussion of specific individuals.
The women, who are both former board members, say that during several closed sessions between June of last year and January of this year, the board only spoke about groups of people as opposed to individuals.
MPSD Superintendent Jim Feil
We spoke with MPSD Superintendent Jim Feil who noted that these women could not know about the specifics of those meetings because they were in closed session and that the board regularly speaks with their attorney to make sure they are following all the pertinent laws.
He told Seehafer News, “Two things that we are allowed to discuss when individuals are impacted, whether or not we are talking about their performance or some of the changes we are going to make…Likewise, we have done some things in terms of my review.”
A good portion of what was discussed in those sessions revolved around the restructuring of the district.
We also spoke with Board President Stacey Soeldner, who disputed the claims as well.
“I looked at our meeting agenda, and we did put on there that we were going to discuss specific individuals,” she noted. “It’s hard to do a restructuring without talking about specific individuals.”
Feil said that had to be done because when he got there, the district was in a “crisis.”
MPSD School Board President Stacey Soeldner
“In terms of what we are doing, what we need to do and address that we are low on academic achievement in reading and math,” he explained. “When less than 30% of our students are reading at grade level, that’s a problem.”
Feil also added that the MPSD is “working very carefully to work within [legal] parameters.”
Tomorrow we will go more into the issue of the Board’s hiring process, including the recent addition of Jamie McCall as an Assistant Superintendent.
