VB School Board to settle law suit bought by Savage teachers

Sherry Frazier was at Monday’s regular meeting of the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education to ask members if the Civil Rights law suit brought by four Savage Elementary school teachers in May 2016 had been settled yet.
Frazier, who is an elected Van Buren Township trustee, had also been an elected school board trustee until she resigned under pressure over a perceived conflict of interest over the paving of McBride Road. She waited until the very end of Monday’s meeting to ask her question.
“It’s the last meeting before school starts and I hoped for a report on the Savage lawsuit against the district,” she said, adding she was hoping for transparency and the district is going down a path not in the best interests of the students.
“Every dollar counts,” Frazier stated. ‘We’ve wasted a lot of time and money. We paid for deposing new teachers, parents, board members, spouses of teachers.
“Supt. Kudlak drove to Bloomfield Hills to listen to the depositions and when he couldn’t be present, he read the depositions.
“The board has spent numerous hours in executive sessions with attorneys present. It’s unfortunate we had to go there. The public has to rise up and say: no more,” she said.
Frazier said the district has spent in excess of $500,000 on this law suit.
Board President Keith Johnston said Frazier knows they can’t talk publicly about what goes on in closed-door sessions.
But School Supt. Pete Kudlak cut in.
“We have an agreement in concept and they’re working out the paperwork,” Supt. Kudlak said. He told the Independent they hoped the agreement would be on the agenda of the Sept. 11 board meeting.
“I want to get this settled as much as anyone,” stated Johnston, who was not on the board when the law suit was brought.
He said Supt. Kudlak came into this situation that was a mess and spent a lot of time on it. Kudlak was hired after the suit had been filed.
Frazier, who was on the school board at the time but was not named in the suit, had been in many of the closed-door sessions on the issue.
“I tried to get four to settle, but three board members dug in their heels,” Frazier said. “Two are here tonight and one is not here.”
She referred to board members Kelly Owen and Alison Bennett, who were present, and Kevin English, who was absent. They all had been named as defendants in the suit.
“We should not be using the taxpayer money for this. It needs to be used in the classroom,” Frazier said.
On June 3, 2016 an employment discrimination law suit was filed in federal court by four Savage Elementary School teachers against the Van Buren Public School District, the school board (except for Frazier), former School Supt. Michael Van Tassel, former Savage Principal Amy Gee, and Curriculum Director Jeff Moore.
Filing the suit were teachers — Pamela Bradley, Michelle Komaromi, Brent Held, and Rebecca Tennis — who had been walked out of their classrooms in front of their students on charges that amounted to helping students cheat on the M-STEP test.
Parents supported the teachers and students and picketed outside the school. A Savage Strong website was set up to support the teachers and to send out reports to the public on what was going on at the school board meetings. The person who set up Savage Strong website was one of those recently deposed by the district, as was the husband of the former principal.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the board:
• Approved hiring LaGarda Security for a two-year contract for security services for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years. There were ten proposals and LaGarda was recommended by Abdul Madyun, director of human resources. A prior contract with another firm, that expired this summer, paid workers $16 per hour and the new awarded contract will be an hourly rate of $17.15, which is an additional security cost of about $11,200 out of the Buildings and Grounds part of the budget. Chris Brown was present from LaGarda to answer questions and he introduced Andre Guyton who will be operations manager here. There will be one guard each at Owen and McBride and three at the high school. Among other schools serviced by LaGarda are Hamtramck, Chippewa Valley, Grand Blanc, and most recently Jalen Rose Academy in Detroit;
• Watched Director of Curriculum Jeff Moore give a lengthy demonstration of the new district website that was due to go on line Aug. 30. The site by Apptegy, who they paid $18,000, will have a mobile app and translation into Spanish, among many other features and is said to be more user-friendly. The current website is five years old;
• Approved terminations of two teachers, Patricia Spudich, after four years at Owen, for relocation; and Meghann Ginestet, after two years at Owen, for personal reasons;
• Approved hiring Stephanie Duff as a food service worker at Owen starting Sept. 5;
• Approved hiring the following teachers: Alicia Doty-Densemo as behavior interventionist for the district; Lori Diacono as a speech therapist for the district; Vikki Kasperek, teacher at Edgemont; Melissa Jowett and Bernadette Garren-McDonald, teachers at Owen; Antionette Smith, teacher at McBride; and Erica Johnson, teacher at Tyler/Edgemont;
• Approved a second list of new teacher hires, originally slated for the Sept. 11 meeting: Samantha Banas, Quran Jackson, and Kanika Spears at Owen; Heather Palmer at Savage; Lakisha Lacsamana at BHS; Sarah Garvey at Tyler/Haggerty; and Ryan Kasperski at McBride/Owen; and
• Held closed-door sessions on disciplinary subjects before the regular meeting and at the end of the regular meeting, and then voted to reinstate both students.