Ex-Falls teacher convicted
She admits having sex in classroom
WAUKESHA - A former Menomonee Falls teacher who developed a sexual relationship with her 16-year-old student was convicted Monday of three felonies.
April M. Novak, 32, was charged in 2015 with 12 counts of sexual assault of a student by school staff and pleaded no contest Monday to three of the counts. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed the remaining counts, though they will be read in at sentencing in June.
Each count of sexual assault by school staff carries a maximum prison term of three years, plus three years of extended supervision. The state will recommend an unspecified prison term.
Novak’s voice broke briefly as she acknowledged the factual basis for the pleas to Waukesha County Circuit Judge Ralph Ramirez.
Novak, now living in Fond du Lac, had been a reading teacher and literacy coach at Menomonee Falls High School. She told investigators she and the boy “had very strong feelings for each other,” that led to sexual encounters several times in her classroom starting in October 2015 until December that year, when another teacher reported seeing the two kissing.
The boy told investigators that the two had agreed not to tell anyone about their sexual relationship.
According to a statement Novak gave to an officer right after resigning Dec. 12, 2015, she was helping the boy, a junior, and their relationship quickly became closer until they were regularly having sex, while clothed, on a couch in her classroom during fourth and eighth hours. She was on birth control and the boy used a condom that he would discard in a styrofoam coffee cup.
She said her husband knew that she was helping the boy with rides and food, and became suspicious more was involved. The couple have since divorced.
Novak told the detective she thought of taking her life by driving into a railroad bridge with her two young sons in the car, and still had strong feelings for the boy but was “willing to get help and get my life straightened out.” After about four hours of interrogation, Novak was committed for a mental review.
According to court records, Novak began seeing a psychiatrist in January 2016. In an August letter to her attorney, Michael F. Hart, the doctor, Jeffrey Taxman, said Novak had progressed extremely well and had gained tremendous insight. Taxman said he considered Novak an excellent mother and that she had become stable, employed and able to enjoy healthy relationships.
A Menomonee Falls district spokeswoman said she had been employed there since August 2013 and had worked previously in the Brown Deer School District.
Novak has degrees from Marian University and Concordia University in Mequon, according to the biography.