Over the last two days, we have discussed some concerns voiced to Seehafer News by two former Manitowoc Public School District Board members.
First, we spoke about some alleged closed-session violations.
Then, we spoke about the Board’s hiring process.
Now, we are going to look at some potential licensing issues with Superintendent Jim Feil and his Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, Jamie McCall.
The women, whom again we will not be identifying, pointed out that on the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s website, McCall’s license is a provisional license which is only good for grades K-9.
Superintendent Feil said that is something his team is working on fixing.
“Jamie is licensed to be a superintendent in Michigan,” he noted. “We are still trying to figure out why we are having some challenges here working through getting that in place here.”
But that bears the question, why would it matter if she was licensed for the job in Michigan?
“Michigan and Wisconsin have a reciprocity agreement,” Feil explained. “Basically, if you can do it in Wisconsin, you can do it in Michigan. If you can do it in Michigan, you can do it in Wisconsin.”
The women also noticed that on the DPI website, Feil had two licenses, one that expired in June of last year, and another that expires this June.
“I can’t tell you I understand all of the requirements and processes of Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction, I only know, again as I mentioned, the reciprocity agreement,” he said. “My superintendent license in Michigan goes another five years. I just went through that renewal.”
In this particular case, the women were not 100% sure what it meant either, they just wanted to make sure the people in charge of running the district were legally allowed to do so.
Feil completely understood why they brought this topic up to us, as from an outsider’s perspective, it does seem as though both he and McCall are not licensed in Wisconsin.
He closed by saying the district is doing “whatever we need to do” to fix the discrepancy.
