CMS board unanimous on scheduling concerns

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the seventh of eight articles about the termination hearing and ultimate firing of Jann Gibson, principal of Cutter Morning Star Elementary School. The Cutter Morning Star School District held the hearing from 5 p.m. Dec. 15 to almost 1:20 a.m. Dec. 16. Board members voted at the end of the hearing to fire Gibson.

Two concerns about scheduling improprieties listed by the Cutter Morning Star School District for the firing of former elementary school principal Jann Gibson were the only two reasons to be unanimously accepted by the school board following almost seven hours of testimony on Dec. 15.

Gibson’s termination hearing was held from 5 p.m. to almost 1:20 a.m. a week ago. The five board members exited the board room at about 11:50 p.m. to enter executive session for about an hour and 15 minutes.

Most of the more than 70 observers

stayed for the entirety of the hearing. The Sentinel- Record submitted a request under Arkansas’ Freedom of Information Act at 2:16 a.m. on Dec. 16 for the packet developed by the administration for the hearing.

The request had not been fulfilled by presstime Friday night. The board’s motions and votes were provided to the newspaper on Tuesday by Cody Kees, of the district’s law firm, Bequette & Billingsley in Little Rock. The motions and votes do not detail the reasons for Gibson’s firing.

The newspaper received on Thursday the letter from Anderson detailing the reasons Anderson recommended the termination of Gibson’s employment contract with the district. The letter includes the seven reasons listed by the district for her termination.

The first reason pertained to Gibson’s lack of documentation of corporal punishment she observed and directed by coach Kent Wasson of a male elementary school students. The letter alleges registering the punishment in the district’s eSchool online filing system is the principal’s responsibility.

“This is despite other corporal punishments being registered into the system, indicating you were fully aware of your obligation to document the punishment, for which you did not,” Anderson wrote. “This violation of eSchool policy and procedure only came to my attention this school year.”

Cutter Morning Star Elementary School does not have a policy for the filing of corporal punishment into eSchool.

The reason was accepted as “true” Saturday morning by board President Mark Rash, Vice President Eddy Slick, Secretary Donna Fincher and board member Sandy Walker. Board member Jared Hawthorn voted against it.

The board was represented in the meeting by attorney Sharon Street, who was charged with moderating the meeting. Street helped prepare formal motion documents in which the words “reason” and “fact” were used interchangeably.

The motion document for each reason is headed by, “Finding of Fact No. 1,” “Finding of Fact No. 2” and so forth. The body of the paragraph of the formal motion labels the district’s arguments as “Reason No. 1,” “Reason No. 2” and so forth.

The second reason listed by the district said Gibson “unprofessionally failed to inform” Anderson of a report filed by the parent of the male student paddled in August against Wasson. Anderson said she did not learn of the report until August.

“You are aware of your responsibility to keep me informed of matters involving an investigation into one of your teachers but failed to inform me of the investigation,” Anderson wrote.

According to statements made during last week’s hearing, the district does not have a policy for the reporting of DHS investigations. Rash, Slick, Fincher and Walker voted to accept the reason as true. Hawthorn voted against it.

The third reason said Gibson “unprofessionally failed” to make a report to DHS after the parent showed her pictures of bruising on the child after being paddled by Wasson. Anderson also included the parent’s claim Gibson attempted to dissuade her from filing a report with DHS.

The Sentinel-Record follows The Associated Press privacy guidelines and does not identify possible juvenile victims of abuse, or the names of their parents, which could potentially identify them.

Garland County sheriff ’ s Deputy Mark Kizer testified the student did not have red marks or bruising several hours after the paddling. Gibson’s attorney, Robert Newcomb, of Little Rock, argued based on Kizer’s testimony and the fact Wasson was cleared by DHS several weeks after the report was filed that no abused was committed, therefore she had nothing to report.

Slick and Hawthorn voted against accepting the district’s third reason as true. Rash, Fincher and Walker voted to accept it.

The fourth reason detailed by Anderson included accusations by a parent that Gibson threatened a student paddled by Wasson with more paddlings, causing the student to have “extreme anxiety.” Anderson said the corporal punishment caused bruising and was not registered in eSchool, but the reason does not indicate a policy. She insisted Gibson was “fully aware” of her “obligation to document the punishment.”

The newspaper previously incorrectly reported one of the DHS reports filed against Gibson on Oct. 6 was made by the same parent from the incident in April.

Anderson said under questioning by Newcomb that no medical professional said Gibson was the cause of the student’s anxiety. Administrative assistant Pam Jackson, who has been with the district for 28 years, and school nurse Katee Fendley testified the student has never behaved as if he was scared of Gibson. They were not questioned by the administration prior to the hearing.

The fifth reason dealt with a second report filed against Gibson on Oct. 6 for a paddling she carried out herself this school year with a female student. Gibson said she learned of the DHS investigation on Oct. 9 when an agency official interviewed her at the school.

“I learned on October 7, 2017, that you paddled Student (name redacted) to the point it caused severe bruising,” Anderson wrote. “Due to photographic evidence of the harm you caused to the student, a DHS child maltreatment report was filed by the Student’s mother.”

The parent, as with other paddlings, approved the corporal punishment and was also present in another room outside of Gibson’s office. Jackson, Fendley and first-grade teacher Haley Thornton, who served as a witness to the paddling, disputed the claims made the parent that Gibson was agitated or used excessive force.

Gibson was notified on Nov. 27 DHS ruled “the allegations were not supported by a preponderance of evidence” and were determined “unsubstantiated” in both cases. Gibson and Wasson were both suspended indefinitely on Oct. 11.

Wasson returned to work in early November. Anderson’s termination letter was provided to Gibson on Nov. 2.

Anderson said in her sixth reason Gibson did not provide teachers with 40-minute conference periods and 30-minute duty-free lunches as required by state law in the 2016-17 school year nor during the first two months of the 2017-18 school year. Heather Hughes, library media specialist, and Gibson explained the schedule included 55 minutes for teachers to eat lunch with students their students and have prep time afterward, as well as 15-20 minutes without students during a morning recess.

Facilitator Beth McKinney said students developed a presentation last school year detailing the schedule for teachers eating with their students. The presentation was given at two meetings with area administrators in which Anderson was present. Newcomb argued Anderson was aware of the schedule details before Terry Lawler, interim principal, began at the school in October.

Anderson said the school schedule is the responsibility of the principal with no oversight from the superintendent. Nathan Sullivan, principal of the high school, said Anderson requested he submit his schedules in each of his two years with the district.

Gibson said Tom Bennett, performance coach with the Arkansas Leadership Academy visited the school during the summer and observed the schedule. Gibson and Sullivan are enrolled in the Academy’s Master Principal Program, which is meant to “provide training programs and opportunities to expand the knowledge base and leadership skills of public school principals.”

Hawthorn voted with Rash, Slick, Fincher and Walker to accept the sixth reason as true.

Anderson’s seventh reason to request Gibson’s termination was a lack of 40 minutes of visual art instruction and 40 minutes of music instruction per week as required by state law. The elementary school shared music instructors with the high school, but did not replace an art teacher who left after last school year.

“So, you are going to lose a teacher and have to, what, cobble something together to get that 40 minutes?” Newcomb said.

“That is what I attempted to do,” Gibson said.

Gibson said she felt grades K-2 and 5- 6 received the required times of visual art and music education, but grades 3-4 missed some weeks because a specialist was needed in other capacities besides art.

“You expect them to do the same thing with less people and then you punish them for trying to do it, to cobble something together,” Newcomb said in his closing argument.

Hawthorn voted with Rash, Slick, Fincher and Walker to accept the seventh reason as true.

“Is it your belief that this recommendation is because you are an inexperienced administrator?” asked Jay Bequette, of Bequette & Billingsley.

“No, sir, but I believe that an experienced administrator, who is a 24-year educator, especially somebody new to the district under the circumstances that I actually came under, I — I — would do everything I could to support, encourage, make sure things were done properly,” Gibson said. “Ms. Lawler, a veteran educator, I would have loved to have sat down with her and showed her my schedule.”