The Manitowoc Public School Board may consider a different approach to hiring staff in the future.
Some board members said they felt that they should have officially hired the candidates before introducing them to the community.
The issue arose after three individuals were introduced as the district’s next Human Resources Director, Washington Middle School principal, and Business Director, before the board approved them.
Board President Biff Hansen recommended that the Personnel and Policy Committee explore alternative methods for obtaining board approval for new staff before they are introduced to the community.
Board Member Chris Able agreed, saying, “What we got for these three candidates is the blurbs on today’s report (from the board) and the press release for who has been selected. Honestly, that doesn’t give us time to develop questions.”
Superintendent Lee Thennes told the board if they approved a change, to should have hires come through them to be prepared for having special meetings.
“If we are going to move to a system in that way, I would just be concerned about getting quorums when we have to come together in a very quick manner to approve people,” he explained. “I do think there is much validity in the idea of communicating things in the right order and if the board has concerns about how things were done here. I think it’s a matter of coming up with a system of how we make sure that we communicate things in the right order.”
The board approved all three new staff members on a 5-1 vote.
The next Personnel and Policy Committee meeting has not been announced.
