District 51 parts ways with superintendent 

District 51 parts ways with superintendent

• KATIE LANGFORD

John Williams watches as Gretchen Haptonstall walk away from him after some exchange in words after the School District 51 Board of Education members voted to fire the district's superintendent Ken Haptonstall.
Chancey Bush

The School District 51 Board of Education voted unanimously to terminate Superintendent Ken Haptonstall's employment Friday for his mishandling of an administrative reorganization, paying him an undisclosed amount of severance as part of a separation agreement that immediately ends his employment with the district.

Board members also released the results of a third-party investigation into the reorganization, which concluded that while Haptonstall did not intentionally obscure the financial impact of his plan, he mismanaged it and failed to communicate effectively with staff and the Board of Education throughout the process.

Haptonstall was terminated a little more than a year after he was hired to replace Superintendent Steve Schultz.

Haptonstall, who did not attend the meeting, wrote a six-page rebuttal to the 12-page report compiled by investigator and retired FBI agent Jane Quimby, whom the board hired to conduct the investigation.

At multiple points Haptonstall questioned Quimby's conclusions, claiming there was no evidence for her assertions and that several of them were false, conjecture and/or inappropriate. Haptonstall also questioned whether she was a "quality" investigator.

Haptonstall's separation agreement includes a severance payment, according to board President Tom Parrish, but Parrish claimed he did not know how much it was. School district staff did not have access to the separation agreement late Friday night.

The details of separation agreements, including any amount of money paid whenever a public employee is terminated, are a matter of public record and must be disclosed under the state's open records laws.

The school board's investigation was prompted by a Daily Sentinel review of the administration changes, which included more employees, higher salaries and a $1.2 million price tag. That cost includes salaries for positions with titles such as coordinator, supervisor, executive director and more.

Quimby's report contended that the Sentinel's calculations included 12 positions that are not on the "Administrative — Professional and Technical" salary schedule and "failed to account for scheduled annual salary schedule increases that would have occurred regardless of the reorganization."

According to the report, the cost of Haptonstall's administration reorganization was $946,322 as of Aug. 27.

Haptonstall told the school board and the Sentinel in January that he thought the shake-up would not add any top-level positions and save the district money. After the Sentinel published the results of its investigation on July 22, he said he thought the reorganization would cost $500,000.

After the board members voted to accept the agreement, Parrish read a joint statement from the board and Haptonstall. Parrish and board members John Williams and Paul Pitton also made statements to the nearly 50 people at the meeting.

Parrish, Williams and Pitton apologized for the controversy surrounding the administration reorganization.

"The board has some complicity in this from a lack of oversight," Williams said. "We had information occasionally along the way that should have led me to ask harder questions and for more information. I'm deeply embarrassed and I apologize to everyone in this room for that."

Williams also cautioned against vilifying people with the label of administrator, stating that people in administration have great success stories and want to do great things for kids.

Pitton said it was the board's hope that the dust will settle, new leadership will be found and the district will move forward.

"I personally would like to make an apology to the teaching staff, the administration and the people who have been enduring a lot of stress and tension over unanswered questions, insecurity over their jobs and where we're headed as a district," Pitton said.

Parrish said he hopes good will come out of the investigation, including shining a spotlight on areas where the school board is not as strong or attentive and being able to improve those areas.

"This has been a miserable four weeks for everyone involved," Parrish said. "This has not been an enjoyable four weeks, so I apologize as well, and we're going to move forward."

After the meeting, Parrish said the board will appoint an interim superintendent and start the search for a new superintendent.