District 150 did not violate Julie McArdle’s first-amendment rights when they terminated her contract. Evidence presented in court basically confirmed District 150’s statement to the press on April 29, 2009. Specifically, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois found that McArdle was terminated without cause, pursuant to her employment contract, and that the decision to terminate her employment was made before she reported alleged illegal activities of her supervisor, Mary Davis.
McArdle had argued that her termination was in retaliation for blowing the whistle on Davis. But the court found that the timeline of events simply didn’t comport with McArdle’s assertions:
Plaintiff’s own evidence shows that McArdle did not report Davis’ alleged illegal conduct until after learning that the District intended to terminate her contract. When Broderick, the vice-president of the Board of Education [sic], called McArdle on April 21, 2009, McArdle was given actual notice of her supervisor’s decision to exercise the buy-out provision of her contract. The record before the Court illustrates, therefore, that the decision to terminate McArdle had effectively already been made, and McArdle was notified of this decision before she engaged in allegedly constitutionally protected speech. While some of the Board members saw McArdle’s email regarding Davis’ alleged criminal conduct, the superintendent and vice president of the Board had already decided to terminate McArdle’s employment and had effectively and clearly communicated this decision to her before she ever publicized Davis’ alleged criminal activity. Thus, no reasonable factfinder could conclude that the District was motivated by McArdle’s future speech when deciding to exercise the early termination provision of her contract.
Incidentally, the court document erroneously identifies Broderick as the School Board vice president; he was actually the Human Resources administrator.
McArdle also argued that Davis orchestrated her termination by giving her unwarranted bad reviews and giving district administrators a bad report of her performance. However, the court found no evidence for this:
As illustrated in the record before this Court, the District had received numerous complaints from parents and coworkers about McArdle’s actions and statements while principal. McArdle was also informed of these complaints and given an opportunity to correct her actions and attitude before the District chose to terminate her employment. These complaints did not come solely from Davis, and there is no evidence before the Court to establish a genuine issue of material fact that Davis orchestrated these complaints, as argued by Plaintiff. […]
When making its initial determination, [Superintendent Ken] Hinton and [Human Resources Director Tom] Broderick considered numerous complaints made by parents, students, and teachers against McArdle in addition to the performance reviews and personality conflicts reported by Davis. The Board, when finalizing the decision to terminate McArdle, also considered evidence in addition to and not provided by Davis.
In short, McArdle failed to prove there was a conspiracy against her orchestrated by Davis. You can read the full 15-page opinion here:
Summary-Judgment-6-7-2011
So CTTSP5, I am curious as to what exactly is a “climate control officer” and what are his/her duties? It either sounds like a dean or a prison guard, which I’m not sure wouldn’t be appropriate given the behavior from some of the students.
I have been told by two PHS teachers that there will be no deans. One told me that the assistant principals (one on each floor) will, also, function as deans. The reason given for the dual roles is that deans get burned out just dealing with discipline problems all day. A dean by any other name is still a dean, but I would think it would be difficult for a person to wear both hats during the day since the deans’ office is generally full all day.
I don’t know the details, but it may work as a rotation. Three Assistants doing the work of two deans and one assistant with the Principal captaining the ship. Just conjecture though.
At Richwoods their will be 1 principal, 1 principal on special assignment, and 2 asst principal. Everyone will do discipline and everyone will do curriculum and operations.
Unfortunately we need someone dealing just with discipline. We need more security at the high schools or at least security that will work and not be put out when they are asked to remove insubordinate, cursing students that will not follow diirection. Or they would rather sit and watch ESPN than check students as they enter the building.
I know that there were students with double digit referrals at PHS Some teachers had students that had referrals that had not been dealt with since March and were left outstanding at the end of the year. This needs to be addressed. otherwise the students feel there are no consequences and the teachers feel like there is no support.
Leslie Smith, I have no idea what the duties of the Climate Control Officer was suppose to be. The one at MHS only handled discipline if the academy leaders were out of the building. The academy leaders handled all the discipline otherwise. As far as referrals, I think everyone would be surprised at how many were never dealt with at all the high schools. Therefore the students don’t care if they get a referral because many times nothing is done.
cttsp5–I believe you are right about the number of referrals for which no consequences are meted out. I am currently compiling the FOIAd data for this year. The number of referrals from each high school is enough to keep mutiple deans busy every day.
As for Manual, on the official 2009-2010 faculty list, Michael Kohlman was listed as the Climate Coach. There were no deans listed. Yes, I do believe the academy leaders dealt with discipline, too.
As for the assistant principals having dual roles–which role do you believe the central administration will deem most important? In other words, if the assistant principal has a duty to perform, will that one go undone or will the deans’ job take precedent? I believe there will be even more referrals for which no action is taken.
Sharon, Shannon Marlin was the Climate Coach for the 2010/2011 school year. Michael Kohlman was the Business Academy leader. The academy leaders were the primary ones dealing with discipline. Marlin only dealt with discipline when the academy leaders were out of the office or in a meeting. Kohlman is now going to PHS and Foreman is coming to MHS as the Business Academy Leader. Marlin is going to the old WHS. Sorry state MHS will be in.
Does anyone know the job description of a Climate Coach? What did he/she actually do at Manual?
Sharon, I think it’s great that you’ve FOIA’d the referral information. It has long been my belief that some people are good at dealing with discipline and some are not. Just like some teachers are more effective at classroom management than others, some deans (and other administrators) are better than others at actually reaching students and developing ideas/systems that will modify behavior..not just punish only to have the same disciplinary infractions occur again and again . Next year will be interesting. If you look around District 150 at some of the new administrative teams there doesn’t appear to be many people on them who have ever dealt effectively with discipline in his/her past positions. Some have been deans/climate control/academy leaders, etc. and not done a very good job of it then and some of these new assistant principal/deans have never even TAUGHT at the level at which they will now be asked to discipline effectively. I have watched referrals go by the wayside simply because the administrative team in the building doesn’t want it to look “out of control”. I think that “out of control” will become a popular phrase in the 2011-2012 school year to describe many District 150 buildings!
Yes, it will be interesting. I do believe that NCLB has affected discipline, also–in a rather round about way. For instance, before NCLB building administrators were more interested in discipline in a building–and not so much concerned about effective teaching. I know that early in my career, I was willing to sacrifice class time to try to modify the behaviors of the few (relative to today’s more than few) misbehaving students. And let there be no mistake, modifying behavior does require time spent with the student at the expense of teaching the others. However, now that teachers are being judged by test scores, they are far less willing to sacrifice teaching time to handle out of control students.
Since we are in the questioning mode…. Would someone explain the role of “an interventionist”. I have noticed many openings in 150 for this particular job. I can’t find a clear description of the position, thought maybe somebody was clearer than I.
I believe there are three kinds of interventionists: math, reading, and behavior. The second grader who is at my house right now says he went to an interventionist’s room. She went over words and then read them a story. A guess “A rose by any other name is still a rose.” I think she’s a reading teacher.
District Watch will meet at 6 p.m. at Monical’s on Lake and Knoxville on June 19–board meeting is Monday, June 20. All are welcome.
Will you discuss how to help support the district @ PHS now that they got the grant? Helping. What a concept.
@watchnu2~ How do you know PHS was awarded the grant? With or without the grant, PHS and District 150 in general need some constuctive help.
“How do you know PHS was awarded the grant? With or without the grant, PHS and District 150 in general need some constuctive help.”
They won’t get it here.
If the board agenda isn’t going to be made available by 4:00 pm on Fridays prior to meetings, I recommend they change the memo.
The changes continue at District 150
Here are the latest administrative appointments at Peoria District 150:
-Atkins, Douglas – Whittier Primary School Principal
-Bond, Ann – Valeska Principal/Director of Early Childhood Programs
-Jenkins, Taunya – Northmoor Primary School Principal
-McKinnon, Felicia – Instructional Imp. Officer (Pending Paperwork)
-Nunn, Carolyn – Assistant Principal Valeska/Supervising Speech Path
-Saissou, Crystal – Assistant Principal PHS (Pending Paperwork)
God help those teachers and students at Northmoor. Anybody have a house or a bucket of water????
Asst. Principal for PHS is rumored to be from the Carolinas. Funy how they want teachers to live in the district as to have a vested interest in the kids, yet we bring administrators in from the four corners of the country who have virtually no ties to the community. Things like this that make us wonder even more why we aren’t making any ground. “Do as a I say not as I do mentality.” has got to go back to one of the four corners there is no place for it here.
I don’t understand the “house or the bucket of water” comment. Can you explain plz?
notthere: It’s a “Wizard of Oz” reference.
Very good C.J.
When did Sharon Crews change the spelling of her name?
Question-i’ve been wondering the same thing!!!!!is there another sharon crews in this town or is jim stowell pretending to be sharon crews?
I was wondering what you were all writing about–sorry, I misspelled my own name. And I did it twice. Wow!
OK, now I’m wondering what is going on–I can’t believe the two “r’s” showed up again. Now I see what’s wrong–I was asked to give my name and e-mail early and I typed my name wrong.
I have yet to see what any of these people from NC have done? I take that back..they travel a lot…that’s about it. They do not meet with teachers, they do not communicate with teachers, actually Dr. Lathan rarely sends out an email. Very bizarre.