The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/331856
1050 Wernsing road, Jasper 812-482-5141 or Toll Free: 1-800-686-1444 Hours: M-F 9am-8pm; Sat 8am-4pm www.BobLuegers.com see our entire inventory at A Nice Place to Do Business! * 10,000 miles per year / 24 month lease with approved credit. Tax, title, license and dealer fee extra. Must own or lease 1999 or newer Buick to receive $500 Buick Loyalty rebate on Encore. ** 10,000 miles per year / 39 month lease with approved credit. Tax, title, license, and dealer fee extra. JUNE Specials Pre-Owned Deals of the Week 2011 Dodge Durango AWD, black, 40,885 miles, Bob Luegers Certified, #P17214A, Was $26,968 Sale Price $26,469 2011 Buick LaCrosse CXS, silver, 29,800 miles, GM Certified, #P17194, Was $24,948 Sale Price $21,947 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix GT Sport, red, 101,798 miles, #P17411 Sale Price $7,589 2013 Chevy Captiva Sport, white, 15,552 miles, factory war- ranty, #G17051, Was $21,968 Sale Price $20,989 2014 GMC Sierra Double Cab SLE 4x4 $ 34,952 #17041, quicksilver, MSRP $42,740 AFTER REBATES New GM Supplier Price for Everyone on all 2014 Sierra Double Cabs – Save over $7,000! 2014 Buick VErAno $ 199/mo. Lease for with $3,624 due at signing 32 MPG with $1,999 due at signing 33 MPG 2014 Buick EnCorE $ 199/mo. 2014 GMC TErrAIn Lease for 32 MPG with $3,459 due at signing $ 199/mo. Lease for 25 in stock! New New New Car Wash Pike Central High School Cheerleaders Donations accepted Casey's General Store in Petersburg Saturday, June 21 • 9:30am-4pm By Ed Cahill The attorney for former Otwell Elementary School principal Rick Fears is claiming that Pike Coun- ty Schools Superintendent Suzanne Blake had an "un- spoken, undisclosed agen- da for Fears' termination" when she placed him on paid administrative leave last July. Fears was terminated by the Pike County School Corporation's Board of Trustees on Sept. 3, 2013, after it concluded that ev- idence presented during a 7-hour hearing held one week earlier supported the cancellation of his contract on the grounds of "neglect of duty" and "other just and good cause." "Rick Fears, as princi- pal of the Otwell School, neglected his obligation to comply with the Pike Coun- ty School Corporation's re- quirements for the evalu- ation of teachers through the RISE Program by en- tering information unsub- stantiated and often in- correct data in the evalua- tion reports that provided at best questionable teach- er evaluations and at worst no meaningful way to ac- curately evaluate and com- pare teachers," stated the findings-of-fact adopted unanimously by the board. In addition, the findings- of-fact stated that Fears fal- sified attendance records for 15 students (by alleged- ly changing from "absent" to "present" to improve Ot- well's attendance rate) and that he released and publi- cized iRead 3 test results for students "knowing that said results were still under embargo at the time of the release." In October, Fears filed a wrongful termination law- suit in U.S. District Court, accusing the Pike Coun- ty School Corporation of breach of contract and em- ployment discrimination. In a motion filed on May 2 by Bloomington attorney Douglas Hoffman, the Pike County School Corpora- tion asked that the lawsuit be summarily dismissed, claiming that Fears' con- tract had been "lawfully ter- minated." However, in a response filed on Thursday, May 29, Fears' attorney, Mark Phil- lips, of Boonville, took issue with what were presented as "undisputed material facts" in Hoffman's memorandum of law supporting his motion for summary judgment. "Fears does dispute these facts as they have been hand plucked from the adminis- trative hearing transcript ... while other, more pertinent facts, have been excluded," Phillips wrote. For instance, Phillips not- ed, PCSC called a number of teachers as witnesses dur- ing the administrative hear- ing who, it claimed, "uni- formly stated that Mr. Fears would show up in class, of- ten unannounced, but none of them recalled any 'offi- cial' times where he sat in their class and seemed to do an evaluation until to- ward the end of the 2012- 2013 school year." "Contrary to this allega- tion, these teachers actual- ly testified that Fears was al- ways in and out of their class rooms, observing them, and that they participated in many discussions regard- ing their teaching activities and future teaching plans," Phillips wrote. "Each of the teachers agreed that the contents of their evaluations were correct, but did not re- call the dates of the evalua- tions because they did not stop teaching when Fears came in to observe or make notations as to the dates of his visits." Phillips also noted that PCSC further alleged that Blake testified that "she at- tempted to assist Mr. Fears with the RISE Program sev- eral times." "This allegation is like- wise hand plucked from the transcript while ignor- ing other more pertinent testimony," Phillips wrote. "For example, Blake reluc- tantly testified that Fears did comply with the stat- ute, but SHE did not consid- er his compliance to be suf- ficient. In other words, Su- perintendent Blake super- seded the statute with her personal opinion." In addition, according to Phillips, Blake acknowl- edged that she did not eval- uate her other four admin- istrators as she evaluated Fears. Phillips wrote that while Blake initially alleged that Fears did not follow the RISE Program require- ments "as she interpreted them," she acknowledged that the RISE Program re- quires five evaluations — two long and three short — but does not break down when the evaluations must be done. "Blake further acknowl- edged that the deadline for completing evaluations was the end of the school year," Phillips wrote. "Howev- er, she began the process of terminating Fears' con- tract well before the end of the school year." Phillips also took issue with PCSC's argument that no breach of contract oc- curred as Fears' contract was "lawfully terminated." "PCSC failed to comply with (state law) which pro- vides that Fears is entitled to a reasonable opportuni- ty to challenge the school, and that his cancellation is supported by a preponder- ance of the evidence," Phil- lips wrote. "That did not oc- cur in this case." Phillips said the PC- SC attorney had advised the hearing officer that it would take approximately two hours to present its ev- idence during the adminis- trative hearing. "Approximately three hours into the hearing, Fears' counsel raised the is- sue of time and his concern with regard to the presen- tation of evidence," Phillips wrote. "Mr. Cummings indi- cated that he did not believe he had used his two hours, and he continued with the presentation of evidence." Approximately 30 min- utes later, Cummings an- nounced that he had two more relatively short wit- nesses, and then would call Blake. "Fears' counsel again raised his concerns regard- ing the time and the pre- sentation of evidence, stat- ing that one of his witness- es had a two-hour drive to return home yet that night," Phillips wrote. "On each of these occasions, counsel for Fears objected to the late- ness of the proceedings, but was overruled." Phillips wrote that, ap- proximately five hours in- to the hearing, he offered to waive the statutory time limits for the purpose of continuing the hearing. However, his request for a continuance was denied a third time. "By the time PCSC had completed its presenta- tion, the hour was too late for continuation," Phillips wrote. "Believing that PC- SC had failed in its burden of proof, counsel for Fears rested." In a response filed Fri- day, June 6, Hoffman point- ed out that a transcript of the hearing shows that nei- ther Fears or his attorney requested a continuance or objected to the ongoing con- duct of the hearing. "In fact, counsel for Mr. Fears offered to present one of his witnesses out of order so that the witness could testify before the hour be- came too late," Hoffman wrote. "The fact that coun- sel for Mr. Fears chose not to present any witnesses on Mr. Fears' behalf, request a continuance, or present any objection to moving for- ward with the proceedings speaks to a decision not to take advantage of the op- portunity to present wit- nesses and evidence; it does not suggest any absence of opportunity to do so." Phillips argued that the board's findings-of-fact and conclusions of law were not supported by "sufficient" evidence and that the ev- idence contained in the memorandum support- ing its motion for summa- ry judgment was not repre- sentative of the record "as a whole." "Numerous witness- es testified as to matters in direct contradiction to the evidence presented to the school board, but PC- SC omitted this testimony in its recitation of the pro- ceedings," Phillips wrote. Phillips described the al- legation that Fears asked school secretary Nelda Gar- land to falsify attendance records as an example of a "misrepresentation." "This statement is erro- neous and inapplicable to the proceedings for two reasons: 1) the act com- plained of allegedly oc- curred in 2010, more than two years before Superin- tendent Blake's decision to terminate Fears' contract; and, 2) the secretary in question, Nelda Garland, testified that she could not remember if the students were absent or not." ("Mr. Fears complains that Nelda Garland's testi- mony that she could not re- member whether the stu- dents were present or ab- sent and that Mr. Fears' falsification of attendance records took place in 2010 is somehow relevant," Hoff- man wrote in his response. "The very fact that Mr. Fears asked a subordinate to falsify attendance re- cords is a dishonest act, no matter when it took place. One must wonder what is acceptable for a school prin- cipal if falsifying records is not an offense that justifies contract termination.) Phillips also claimed that the board's conclusion that Fears neglected and ig- nored his duty under the RISE Program to observe and evaluate teachers as a misrepresentation. "This Conclusion is er- roneous for the simple rea- son that Superintendent Blake testified, on cross- examination, that Fears followed the statutory pro- cedures for evaluation, and basically followed the RISE requirements even though SHE interpreted those re- quirements differently." Phillips noted that PCSC failed to address the issue of employment discrimina- tion in its motion for sum- mary judgment, and that it should not be before the court on summary judg- ment. "However, for the record in this case, Superinten- dent Blake acknowledged from her own mouth that she treated Fears differ- ently from the other ad- ministrators in the school district, but Blake did not pursue contract termina- tion for the other admin- istrators," Phillips wrote. "Her focus was on Fears' contract." Fears, Phillips argues, received "disparate treat- ment." "The facts clearly dem- onstrate that Superinten- dent Blake treated Fears differently from her other principals," Phillips wrote. "Witnesses called by PCSC testified that they never felt under duress in their inter- actions with Fears. Any du- ress that was felt was cre- ated by Superintendent Blake. Another teacher-wit- ness testified that she was concerned about the reper- cussions from her testimo- ny before the school board, and that this was a concern that was universally shared by the other teachers." "There is no reasonable explanation for this type of conduct unless Superinten- dent Blake had an unspo- ken, undisclosed agenda for Fears' termination, and the reasons she placed be- fore the board were pretex- tual," Phillips added. ("Even if that allegation were true, Mr. Fears has not articulated any basis for discrimination," Hoff- man wrote in his response. "He has not pointed to a sin- gle similarly situated per- son outside any protected class who was treated dif- ferently. The undisputed evidence instead demon- strates that Ms. Blake eval- uated all of her administra- tors the same way.") Blake, Phillips noted, had occupied her position for 13 months, while Fears had occupied his position for 17 years. "In her testimony, Su- perintendent Blake made it clear that she resented him, and that she did not appreciate discussions re- garding her decisions," Phillips wrote. "Blake ac- tively pursued informa- tion that she might be able to turn into grievances against Fears." Phillips noted that when Fears emailed Blake sev- eral times regarding a de- cision to cancel a "highly successful" preschool pro- gram at Otwell, Blake char- acterized his emails as "in- subordination." "When asked to point to a specific instance of insub- ordination, she simply tes- tified that she felt his at- tempts to keep up an on-go- ing discussion after the de- cision had been made was 'challenging and argumen- tative,'" Phillips wrote. Blake, according to Phil- lips, went on toe refer to an occasion when Fears re- leased iRead 3 program results without proper au- thority and that he was in violation of the rules by do- ing so. "She did not include Fears' explanation for what occurred in any in- formation provided to the school board, and when questioned as to the rea- son she chose not to do so, she would not respond," Phillips wrote. "Blake al- so admitted that, even though she told the school board that Fears released the iRead 3 scores to the newspaper, she was aware that no scores had been re- leased." Phillips also noted that while Blake testified that Otwell was the only Four Star School, as well as the only Blue Ribbon School, in the corporation, she re- fused to attribute any cred- it for its success to Fears. "Even after the results of the Climate Audit came in with an extremely fa- vorable finding for Otwell, Blake decided that the re- sults were skewed, and set about attempting to prove it," Phillips wrote. "She was not able to elic- it any evidence to support her belief that the results were skewed even though she contacted numerous persons." Phillips also noted that Blake had accused Fears of not responding to an email she had sent him request- ing verification of the Cli- mate Audit results. "When shown a copy of Fears' response at the hearing before the school board, she challenged its authenticity," Phillips wrote. "Blake's entire de- meanor and her testimo- ny was clearly acrimoni- ous and biased as it relat- ed to Fears." ("While Mr. Fears be- lieves that Ms. Blake's 'en- tire demeanor and her tes- timony was clearly acri- monious and biased as it relates to Fears,' person- al animus, even if proven, does not state a claim for employment discrimina- tion," Hoffman wrote in his response. "Mr. Fears' claims fail for that rea- son.") In conclusion, Phillips wrote that PCSC did not establish, by a preponder- ance of the evidence, a suf- ficient basis for terminat- ing his contract, and that there is sufficient evidence in the record to establish that Fears was the victim of employment discrimi- nation. A settlement conference is scheduled for Wednes- day, June 25, at 1 p.m., cen- tral time, before U.S. Mag- istrate Judge William G. Hussman, Jr. Previously, Hussman had scheduled Fears' law- suit for a jury trial begin- ning Monday, Aug. 3, 2015. Hussman allotted three days for the trial, which will be presided over by U.S. District Judge Rich- ard L. Young. 1 Mile South of Winslow off Highway 61 (812)789-5428 Sunday: 7am to 2pm Monday: Closed Tuesday: 7am to 2pm Wednesday: 7am to 2pm Thursday: 7am to 2pm Friday: 7am to 8pm Saturday: 7am to 2pm EXPANDED FlEA MArkEt Booths & table Space Available CALL TODAY! Ask for Tom The TRADING POST RESTAURANT • flea markeT ConsignmenT CenTer Serving Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Polish Sausage and BBQ Pork MuSIc FROM 6-8 P.M. (NO cOveR) Musicians welcome olD tiME couNtry jAMBorEE AND PicNic SAturDAy, juNE 21 Fears rebutting School Corporation's request for dismissal A-4 Wednesday, June 18, 2014 The Press-Dispatch