Arlee superintendent, elementary principal resign
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ARLEE — A large crowd gathered in the Arlee School district office March 15 for the monthly school board meeting and also to address several issues that have arisen over the past few months. To accommodate the larger-than-usual audience, the meeting was moved to the high school library.
There were two major issues on the meeting agenda: one was the announcement that Arlee Elementary Principal Lisa Morger-Miller and her husband, Superintendent John Jay Miller, have resigned amid a harassment claim filed by district clerk Lonnie Morin against the superintendent and a human rights violation filed by the Millers against Arlee School Board Chair Amy Burland.
The other concerned a grievance that was anonymously leaked to the media and was called a “sideshow” by trustee Troy Felsman, who thought it took attention away from more important issues in the district.
Head basketball coach Dustin Keltner filed the grievance on Feb. 21 against school board member Shelley Fyant. The Lake County Leader ran an article March 12 about the grievance before even some board members were aware of the incident.
According to the complaint, on Saturday, Feb. 18, Fyant approached Keltner at the conclusion of the boys’ basketball tournament in Ronan and used profanity.
At the meeting, Fyant waived her right to privacy and read from a prepared statement.
“I apologize to the community for the choice of words,” Fyant said, explaining that she approached the coach not as a school board member, but as a parent. “I feel disrespected and sad beyond words that my boy has to be the fall guy for a ‘good ol’ boys’ club. I just wanted to know why my senior son didn’t get to play in the last game of his senior season.”
According to Burland, the grievance should have been confidential until received by the board. Some audience members asked how the letter got in the paper and who sent the letter written by athletic director and principal James Taylor and addressed to Burland.
“I didn’t find out until three days later … once it hit the press I thought, ‘Oh, no,’” trustee Troy Felsman said. “As a parent, we need to keep the level of behavior at a respectable level. I get where Shelley’s coming from; it happened out of character. We have a policy lined up to deal with this to make sure it didn’t happen again.”
Felsman was referring to an incident that occurred when parent Francis Pierre assaulted former Arlee basketball coach Brandon Hobbs. Though Pierre was found not guilty of assaulting Hobbs on March 6, 2008, by a trial jury in Libby District Court, he was permanently banned from Arlee school property by the Arlee School Board.
Following the assault incident, the board initiated policies such as allowing 24 hours to pass before a parent can confront or question coaches.
Keltner told the board that he was concerned because Fyant is a board member and that it would lead to an unbiased vote against him. Though the hiring of winter coaches was on the agenda, the board chose only to vote on spring coaches and tabled the hiring of winter coaches until they had their tight budget finalized.
“This district faces some tough choices in the next year,” Burland said, noting that this includes figuring out how to pay for winter sports coaches.
“This is my livelihood, and this is Mr. Stockton’s livelihood,” Keltner said, referring to assistant coach Bill Stockton. “I didn’t want this to blow up. I don’t know how it got to this point right now.”
“I requested a meeting several times (with Keltner),” Fyant said, adding that she would still like to meet with the coach.
After much discussion, which was heated at times, trustees decided to ban Fyant as a parent from the rest of athletic events this year with the exception of the basketball banquet.
The board, with Fyant abstaining, hired Keltner as the junior high head track coach. Fyant abstained of her own account, because according to Burland, board members do not have control over the voting rights of other members. Trustees also do not have the power to dismiss each other from the board.
“We need some recognition that this happened so we can move on, because I don’t count this as super important,” Felsman said. “Not to belittle what happened to you, but this is a sideshow that didn’t need to happen.”
The next major agenda item concerned the resignation of the district’s superintendent and elementary principal.
On Dec. 14, 2011, Morger-Miller and her husband Miller filed a Montana Human Rights violation with the State of Montana’s Department of Labor and Industry against Burland.
The Millers’ complaint alleges that the Arlee School Board in violation of the Montana Human Rights Act.
“Beginning in or about April 2008, the school board through its member, Amy Burland, began subjecting me to harassment based upon my marital status. Burland has continually attacked both John Miller’s and my performance based upon our marital status,” the complaint reads.
This complaint was filed after a harassment claim filed by District Clerk Lonnie Morin to the Arlee School Board on Oct. 25, 2011, against the Millers.
After Morin’s harassment claim was filed, school trustees decided at a special meeting Nov. 1 to have an investigation of the allegations by a third party.
In her complaint, Morin alleges Superintendent Miller is negligent in performing his job duties and has harassed, intimidated and retaliated against her.
The harassment investigation was conducted and completed Dec. 28 by Kerri Langoni, Montana School Board Association field services specialist, under the supervision of MTSBA attorney Tony Koenig for the Arlee School Board.
On Jan. 23, trustees held a special board meeting to review and discuss the results of the investigation. Because no action was taken, no comments were allowed at the public meeting.
A public disciplinary hearing was scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13, to decide if any discipline or corrective action should be taken based on the investigation reports. But that hearing was postponed until the district was able to address the complaint of discrimination filed by Morger-Miller.
The Arlee School District denies that it has engaged in any form of discrimination and decided to address the claims using mediation between the two parties. However, during last week’s meeting, it was announced the Millers resigned effective March 13 pending board approval, which was unanimously agreed upon by the trustees.
“It is with a heavy heart that I write this formal letter of resignation as superintendent for the Arlee School District,” Miller wrote. “I will miss the wonderful students, families and supportive staff. I will always treasure the rewarding experience I had here the past five years, and I wish you the best in the future.”
After the vote, trustees unanimously decided to put together a consultant contract to hire Dr. George Linthicum as an emergency superintendent hire. Burland said Linthicum was highly recommended by his references at Target Range School District in Missoula.
