Raymond School Board meeting; parents push for shakeup
RAYMOND, Wis. - The Raymond School District is under scrutiny after a principal was placed on administrative leave and the superintendent resigned.
At a meeting on Monday, Dec. 18, Racine County parents took the next step in ousting school board members.
It was the first board meeting since Sept. 18 that the community was able to share their thoughts. Only one person spoke.
This meeting came after several months of turnover and what parents say is a lack of transparency.
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Back in September, Raymond School Principal Jeff Peterson was placed on administrative leave. Superintendent Michael Garvey alleged he engaged in misconduct. Peterson then alleged he was being discriminated against because he is gay.
The school later denied that.
Raymond principal on administrative leave; district investigating conduct
Raymond's school superintendent placed its principal on administrative leave, as it investigates his conduct, just hours after the school board issued a preliminary notice it would possibly not renew Principal Jeff Peterson's contract. His attorney has threatened to sue, alleging the board is discriminating against Peterson because he is gay.
Then in October, some Racine County voters responded by submitting paperwork to start a recall campaign looking to remove two school board members: Gwen Keller and Janell Wise. That group of voters delivered the signatures to the board Monday night.
Lastly, in November, Garvey resigned.
"There’s a lot of money going out the door this fall that just isn’t acceptable for a small district and I also feel like the kids are missing stable leadership because we currently don’t have that," parent Jaime Dechamps said.
After the meeting, board president Audrey Kostuch said she is disappointed that the community is divided. She said their office has been bombarded with open records requests and felt that there was a lot of hate in the audience at the meeting.
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"Never saw them at our school board meeting but here they are pounding their fists and I think [...] just misinformed, so it’s very sad," she said.
As for the next steps, the clerk now has 31 days to confirm there are enough signatures. If there are, there will be a recall election for the two challenged board members.