by Dennis Dalman
Just in the nick of time, the Sartell-St. Stephen school board unanimously approved 21 independent, non-union contracts for district employees during a special meeting June 28.
Without board approval, those contracts would have expired by July 1. They are all approved for a two-year period.
Each contract was approved individually by all six board members, one at a time, instead of collectively. However, one position – that of the human resources director – was delayed for final approval until the next meeting.
In the June 29 Minneapolis Star Tribune was the following paragraph in a story about the June 28 meeting:
“(Superintendent) Tim Lee has stated that Larson and Smith approached him with concerns about an employee, and that their recent actions and that of Wenshau seemed to be ‘an effort to get rid of an individual [they] have a vendetta against.’ Lee did not name the employee, but there is widespread speculation in the community that the three are targeting the human resources director.”
At the meeting, board chair Tricia Meling announced the board received at least 100 emails and a petition signed by 800 residents urging the board to approve the 21 contracts. The meeting room was filled with people, and many others were in the hallway. Some attendees carried signs in support of the 21 employees.
The June 28 meeting was the second special meeting to try to resolve those 21 employment contracts. At a previously called meeting, June 25, three of the six board members did not show up – Emily Larson, Jen Smith and Scott Wenshau. At least one of them claimed they had not been given a timely notice of the meeting. But the other board members said they had, in fact, been given a week’s notice. The other three board members are Tricia Meling, Matt Moehrle and Jason Nies.
On that day (June 25), the school board meeting room was jam-packed with people expecting a meeting with all school-board members to be present.
When asked by the Newsleaders about the urgency of the June 25 board meeting, Interim Superintendent Tim Lee emailed this to the Newsleaders:
“If these contracts are not approved, the effect on the district will be enormous. Since we provide the IT (Information Technology) support for the city, it (not approving the employment contracts) would have a significant impact on the city as well since our entire IT Department makes up approximately one-third of these contracts. The effect on these individuals (the 21 employees) will also be enormous if the contracts are not approved.”
The new superintendent, Michael Rivard, began his job July 1.
The many weeks of controversy over the administrative employment contracts culminated in a contentious June 17 school-board meeting. Members Larson, Smith and Wenshau maintained board members have a duty and a right to review every individual administrative labor contract, one at a time, before final approval. The board was divided 3-3 on the employment-contracts issue since February of this year.
The three other board members (Meling, Moehrle and Nies) insisted those employees are reviewed and validated by their administrators and by the superintendent, not by school board members. Doing otherwise would be a bad precedent, Moehrle warned.
Also at the June 17 meeting, Interim Superintendent Lee asserted the three dissenting board members are showing disrespect to the 21 non-union employees.
A vote was then called. The outcome was a tie vote (Larson, Smith, Wenshau voting no), the other three voting yes. That tie vote meant nothing was achieved: no contracts were renewed.
Wenshau, Smith and Larson (sometimes called a “Patriotic Trio,”) were elected to the school board in 2023 after a blitz campaign dubbed “Kids Over Politics.” That group was started because they and other local parents said they believe they are being kept out of the education of children. They believe that deleterious forces have taken over education because of political influences that include “critical race theory” and LGBTQ influences in the classrooms. Much of their rhetoric and beliefs are similar to “Moms for Liberty,” a group that began in Florida and had nationwide influence with more and more conservatives getting elected to school boards to counter what they often term liberal, leftist, Marxist indoctrination. Not long after they were elected, those three board members (the “Trio”) raised vigorous objections to many books available in the schools, claiming they were “pornographic” and totally inappropriate for students.
The administrative non-union employment contracts finally approved June 28 include the following: activities coordinator, director of business services, director of human resources, director of learning and teaching, director of technology, director of nutrition services, director of buildings and grounds, communications specialist, safety and facilities coordinator, business office assistant, human-resources generalist, network administrator, direct assessment coordinator, student data specialist/executive assistant, behavior interventionist, intervener and three technology specialists.
