The Woodward-Granger Community School District Board of Directors held a special meeting Wednesday afternoon in order to consider accepting or rejecting the resignation of W-G Middle School English teacher Mandy Gleason.
The board voted four to one to accept the resignation. School Board President Dr. Derek Petry, Vice President Troy Janssen and Directors Jennifer Benbow and Ashley Brandt voted to accept the resignation. Director Dave Elliott opposed the motion.
“I’ve worked with this candidate and respect her teaching ability very much,” Elliott said after the meeting. “I’m not always satisfied when we reach separation agreements that are negotiated. I think they’re overused sometimes. Separation agreements mean that there was a failure in the system, and I would prefer to have us reach a place where those failures don’t happen.”
Superintendent Brad Anderson said he could not divulge the cause of Gleason’s resignation or the circumstances leading up to it, nor would he confirm whether she was suspended or placed on administrative leave prior to her departure.
“A lot of these things are between district personnel and the teacher,” Anderson said. “That is called their personnel file, and confidentiality is the law in terms of that whole thing.”
About a dozen parents and students attended the 5 p.m. meeting at the school district’s administrative office in Granger.
“We know there’s going to be fallout regarding this,” Anderson told the attendees after the board adjourned. “We know there’s going to be some mistrust moving forward with this thing. It’s a matter of trying to rebuild the trust and move forward with it.”
One concerned parent was vocal in her doubts about the administrations’ proper management of the personnel matter.
“Many things were mishandled,” the concerned parent said, “and a lot of things were blown out of proportion, and the gun was jumped, but we’re here now. My concern is I don’t think we have room to lose any more good teachers. I’m concerned for the working environment, and I’d like to know that it’s going to be looked into.”
Some Woodward-Granger High School and Middle School students expressed their upset over Gleason’s situation by protesting Tuesday outside the schoolhouse, claiming the popular middle school English teacher was a victim of “harassment” by the administration. Some comments on Facebook claimed Gleason was “railroaded” out of her job for the kind of minor infraction that in the cases of other teachers was overlooked or made the object of a reprimand.
“I felt with this particular teacher, her hands had been tied, and she felt exhausted,” the concerned parent told Anderson and the board members. “That’s when I felt I had to speak up. My particular experience with her, having her instruction and guidance, was completely different. It was so incredibly positive that I really wanted that to be weighed in. I wanted those parents to speak up who had a very positive experience in her years with us and her expertise, her education.”
The Woodward-Granger Community School District was represented in the negotiated separation agreement by the law firm of Ahlers and Cooney. Gleason was represented by legal counsel from the Iowa State Education Association.
“The teacher had representation through this entire process,” Anderson said. “This was not a teacher on an island by herself. An ISEA representative was there. This was a conversation.”
Another parent said she was more troubled by the administration’s poor communication about the Gleason affair with parents.
“She was an amazing teacher. We don’t deny that,” said the parent. “My concern is the lack of communication. I feel that watching Facebook, being part of Facebook — huge problem. That’s where a lot of this problem came from with our kids walking out. It wasn’t so much just what was taking place inside the school, but all the stir and the lack of communication.”
Anderson agreed that communication was poorly managed, but “I will never be able to govern our Facebook,” he said. “That kind of stuff bothers me intensely, but I can’t control it. That’s social media for you.”
A high school student said misunderstanding among students was also caused by apparently deliberate misstatements.
“Ms. Gleason always had this plant on her desk,” the student said, “and she told her students, ‘If that plant is gone, that means I’m gone.’ So they knew she was gone because she told them. That’s what happened. Then Ms. Bidwell came out and said, ‘She’s not fired. She’s coming back Thursday.’ And then the whole school thought that was true, and it made us look foolish.”
School Board Director Ashley Brandt said accurate communication was challenging because the board was subject to the uncertainties of a rapidly changing state of affairs.
“I think I need to speak up and just say, I think you all understand this is a very fluid situation,” Brandt said. “We have all been in constant communication for the past couple of days. Things have literally changed minute by minute.”
The concerned parent repeated her desire for more parent input.
“I want our voices heard. I’m afraid we’re going to lose more,” the concerned parent said. “She’s been a good-quality teacher I hate to lose. I hate for our community to lose her. Going forth, I want to know how do we keep it from happening again.”
