The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

December 20, 2008

Axed superintendent, board member at odds

Retraction, apology sought over comments

By Brian Ojanpa

JANESVILLE — The superintendent of Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton schools wants a School Board member to publicly retract his statement pertaining to her dismissal, but the board member doesn’t think that’s warranted.

“I don’t believe I’ve crossed any lines,” Board Member Jim Jewison said of his comment following the panel’s September decision not to renew the contract of Tami Sens.

Sens, in her sixth year as superintendent, contends the comment was improper, unethical and harmful to her career.

Sens aired her thoughts at a recent board meeting, and spoke further about it with The Free Press.

“There’s been some damage done,” she said. “The perception is out there, and it’s been in the media.”

After the board’s vote to sever Sens’ contract, Jewison was asked why the board opted for non-renewal.

“So much of that is confidential as far as job performance,” he told the Janesville Argus. He didn’t elaborate further.

Sens contends that Jewison was out of bounds for insinuating that her dismissal was based upon job performance because she never had an official evaluation done by the board.

If the non-renewal was related to job performance, she said the board should state why or, as is typical in personnel matters, not comment at all.

In making his comment, Jewison said he was simply trying to strike a balance between a school district employee’s privacy and the public’s right to know.

“Just to say you have no comment would be taking the employee’s right to privacy to an extreme,” Jewison said.

Sens said a public retraction/apology would serve to counter the already published articles that potential future employers could peruse on the Internet.

Sens also took issue with a published comment made by Board Member Kelly Heitkamp in September, who said in alluding to the contract non-renewal, “I believe that we need to go in a different direction.”

Sens said Heitkamp’s comment was likewise inappropriate, contending that one person shouldn’t be speaking for the entire board.

Why did the board opt for non-renewal?

“I have all kinds of thoughts about that,” Sens said. But none she wanted to share.

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