West Glacier teacher's dismissal draws fire

Parents and community members filled the West Glacier School Board meeting room Tuesday to ask the board to reconsider its decision not to renew one teacher's contract for the next school year.

May 18, the board held a special meeting to deal with personnel issues. At that meeting the board voted 2-1 not to rehire Stephanie Comer to teach kindergarten through second grade. Board chairman Casey Heupel and Vicechair Carla Martin voted against rehire. Trustee Jill Weigand voted in favor of rehire.

"It's a done deal — the papers are signed," Heupel said early during Tuesday's meeting.

Then later, after hearing about an hour of public comment asking the board to at least reconsider the decision, Heupel said he would check into the legality of returning the item to the board's agenda.

"I will check with the (Montana School Boards Association) for possible reconsideration," he said.

The school board did not formally decide to take up the matter again.

Parent Natalie Moore fought back tears as she asked the board to rehire Comer.

"My son is thriving with her," she said. "He needs structure. Keeping Ms. Comer and (Principal) Ms. King for the next two years will give him structure," she said. "You need to let the school grow instead of tearing it down."

Several parents with students or those with children who could be future students said the decision to not rehire Comer may cause them to take their children elsewhere. Currently 25 students attend the school and 31 are expected for enrollment in the fall.

"As a parent I'm excited to send my children here, but because of the decisions you're making I'm not sure about sending my children here," Dawn LaFleur said. "If you loose all these students West Glacier will have to close its doors."

Heupel said it's not his intention to close the school and he would like his daughter to continue attending the school.

"It's not very good to use students as leverage with decisions," he said. "It is a benefit that we can take students to any district."

About 15 people attended Tuesday's meeting after writing letters to the board. Several previously attended the May 18 meeting and another special session on May 25, at which the board said it would not place the item on a future agenda.

"The board last week decided we'd just move forward," Heupel said.

The board cited budgetary reasons for not rehiring Comer, who would have also earned tenure by being rehired for her fourth consecutive year of employment by the district. Principal Cortni King had recommended Comer for rehire.

"I brought up the budget and that is what I based my decision off of," Vicechair Carla Martin said.

Although she voted for rehire, Trustee Jill Weigand said she did not want to reconsider the decision either.

"I was the dissenting vote to keep Ms. Comer, but I support the school board," she said. "We made the decision with the best available information to keep the school district open. I can't base my decision on projected information of people leaving."

Parent Lisa McKeon claimed that there are a couple of years before the school would have financial difficulty in continuing to pay Comer. She suggested raising money for items like textbooks to help make up the shortfall.

"We are begging you," she said. "These are people who are invested in this community."

As part of the administrative report, Principal King told the board Tuesday that eight kindergarten students are expected to attend the school in the fall. This would bring school enrollment to 31 students.

King said the school is applying for additional funding from the state to offset the larger number of kindergarten students.

The state funds schools based on a three-year average of enrollment numbers. The state will give money for sudden increases in enrollment.

"We should know in the next few days whether we qualify," she said.

King said additional help would be needed in the kindergarten through second grade classroom because of the increasing number of kindergartners. She suggested using the additional funds to hire a second teacher's aide to assist about 28 hours per week.

Currently, a lead teacher/principal, two teachers, one aide, a business clerk and one custodian comprise the West Glacier staff.

Pending the funding and added need, the board voted unanimously to post a job notice for the aide position in July.

Also, the board voted to retain King for the 2010-11 school year.