Textual relations

Records show Wendt was no victim

Documents that formed the basis for the Fayetteville School Board’s firing of Superintendent Matthew Wendt, beyond their vulgarity and abusive nature, demonstrate at least a couple of things about the man.

He showed incredibly poor judgment. He deserved to be fired solely on the basis of pursuing and engaging in a extramarital sexual relationship with a person on the staff he was hired to lead.

And he couldn’t have possibly maintained the kind of focus on educational excellence the board, students, faculty, staff and the community should be able to expect of the person in charge of the local school district.

The most jaw-dropping information that could be printed in a family newspaper were just in the numbers. According to phone records, Wendt and the employee with whom he engaged in a monthslong affair exchanged nearly 12,500 text messages and 936 cellphone calls between September and March.

For middle schoolers, that may not sound like much. But for a grown man and woman with families and professional responsibilities, it’s astounding. In his first full year as president, Donald Trump tweeted only 2,568 times.

As the reporting on Wendt story has noted, the number of contacts averages out to about 74 text messages a day, six calls and nearly an hour on the phone daily.

The school board, of course, didn’t fire Wendt because of his dexterity and tenacity on a smartphone keyboard. All those text messages fill in the details of a sensational scandal, but the superintendent deserved to be fired the moment he decided to turn toward his staff as an outlet for conduct unbecoming a professional. Even if he’d been the kindest, most compassionate guy in those texts, he should have been fired. And the texts definitely demonstrate that his behaviors reflected neither of those qualities.

This newspaper had to go to court to protect the public’s right to examine the record behind Wendt’s firing. It has long been established in Arkansas law that, in most cases, the public deserves access to records that reflect why a public official or employee was fired. It gives the public a way to evaluate what kind of oversight was involved and whether they believe authorities — in this case, the school board — performed their jobs satisfactorily. It continues to be our perspective the school board could have concluded Wendt’s case far more quickly, but in the end, they reached the right decision.

It’s vital the right of the public to review such scenarios should, in most cases, be protected by government agencies and the courts. There’s already enough effort among government officials to hide information. For example, it’s standard operating procedure in some agencies that public employees or officials are encouraged not to write down information that might be damaging or embarrassing. Once it’s written down, the public can request it.

Obtaining records does not always provide the full story, but it undoubtedly helps those interested evaluate whether what they’ve been told matches up to the documented record. That’s valuable information when it comes to monitoring government action.

But back to Wendt, whose professional life at the helm of Fayetteville Public Schools began to fall apart when the employee with whom he had struck up a romantic relationship filed a sexual harassment complaint in March. The texts show he threatened to call a school board meeting for discussion of how she dressed at work. He offered to use his position to get her a teaching job. He demanded she stay out of his professional life.

Professional? Maybe that’s what’s so frustrating about all this. Wendt appeared to be an outstanding superintendent, a great fit in Fayetteville. But he crossed a professional line that demanded his firing and his personal choices in terms of behaviors raise serious questions about character, too.

Wendt’s lawyer, once the documents were released, said the district did nothing to authenticate a lot of the information. “Dr. Wendt has been victimized by very one-sided releases in this without people stopping to think there is another side of the story.”

The documents show there are plenty of sides to the story, but none of them give Wendt room to play the victim. For whatever damage there is to his professional life, the person responsible is looking back at him in the mirror.

Wendt has sued his former paramour, claiming she’s responsible for the loss of his job and his inability to get a new one. Playing the victim again. Or maybe he’s just wanting to send one final, vindictive message in this ugly episode.

The good news is the school district’s new year has started. The School Board showed wisdom in hiring Dr. John L Colbert, a 43-year veteran of the school district, to replace Wendt. He’s a known commodity who has provided some healing for faculty and staff who themselves felt betrayed by Wendt’s behaviors. The district moves on, focused on its educational mission.

At 64 years old, Colbert probably isn’t a long-term appointment, but hopefully he can be the steadying influence the school district needs and give the school board time to figure out how to find a great superintendent for the future.