Public demands apologies from Board Members at recent Glenwood City School Board meeting
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GLENWOOD CITY-About 30 people attended the Glenwood City school board meeting on Monday evening. The board discussed the recently released forensic audit which revealed that former district administrator Tim Johnson stole money from the district.
Six district residents addressed the board during the open forum portion of the meeting, most of them asked the board for an apology.
“I think a huge apology needs to be made by all of you on the board,” said former Glenwood City teacher Barb Standaert.
Standaert told the board that her biggest disappointment with the whole situation is not even what Johnson did. In her opinion it’s the fact that the board did not look into Johnson sooner after allegations of fraud were brought to their attention.
She said that even if the allegations had been wrong, it was the board’s job to look into them.
“It’s your job as the board,” said Standaert.
She said she’s had a lot of anger and sadness in regards to the situation and thinks the board should apologize especially to the people who originally started asking questions about Johnson and to the community as a whole.
Three other district residents spoke to the board and said they agreed with Standaert. They all want an apology and agree that the board should have looked into Johnson sooner.
District resident Amy Dopkins spoke to the board as well. Dopkins, along with former Glenwood City school board member Nicole Miller, were the ones who originally started asking questions about Johnson.
First, Dopkins thanked current district administrator Patrick Olson for being transparent and said transparency is not something the district has had in the past. She then went over two things she wants the board to look into further.
Dopkins told the board that she has been looking over the district’s past legal fees and said that when she and Miller began asking questions about Johnson, the district incurred more legal fees. She’s wondering if Johnson used public money to hire lawyers to threaten to sue her and Miller. If that was the case, she thinks the district should be compensated for those legal fees.
“I hope you look into that,” said Dopkins.
Another thing Dopkins urged the board to do is communicate with the district attorney and try to get the criminal case against Johnson on a fast track. She said having the Glenwood City school board request action with the district attorney would go a long way.
“After all this community has been through, what Nicole and I and our families have been put through, by people on this board and by people in the community because of things that were said. I would hope and expect that the board would want charges filed sooner rather than later,” said Dopkins.
Glenwood City Special Education Teacher Amy Postle also spoke to the board. She said the last few years have been hard for the staff. She thanked Olson for his work in finding the fraud and said she is ready to move on.
“I’m hoping we can move on this year and have a great year,” said Postle.
Work Session
The board covered a lot of material during their work session which was held in the hour prior to the regular board meeting.
At the top of the board work session portion of the meeting Carrie Klatt was sworn in as a school board member. Klatt has been a district resident for 15 years and has two children currently attending GCHS and one that is a 2023 graduate, according to information included in the meeting agenda.
Klatt replaces Chuckie DeSmith who recently resigned from the board due to work schedule conflicts.
Also during the work session part of the meeting Olson updated the board on several items related to Johnson. He spoke about the St. Croix County case Timothy Johnson v. Glenwood City School District, the forensic audit, fraud policy and investigation, other audits and the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 budgets.
The forensic audit was completed by Intellex Forensic on June 4 but has been held up in court by Johnson, who filed an injunction to block the public release of the forensic audit to the public.
“As most of you know, that injunction has been dropped,” said Olson.
Olson said that Johnson’s attorney recently contacted the district and said he would be willing to drop the injunction as long as he could see the audit seven days before it was released to the public. Olson said it was an easy decision for the district to agree to those terms. As a result, the forensic audit report was released last Friday.
The 68 page forensic audit report is available for viewing on the district’s website. Representatives from Intellex Forensic will be presenting the audit report at a school board work session scheduled for Wednesday, September 25 at 6 p.m. The meeting is open to the public and will be held at the school commons. Those attending the meeting will have an opportunity to ask the board questions.
Olson updated the board on a claim that was submitted on July 2 to the insurance company Employers Mutual Casualty. He was optimistic that some of the money that was stolen from the district by Johnson could be replaced by the insurance company. He said the district has a $200,000 policy with a $2,000 deductible.
“We have a very positive chance to recoup some cost,” said Olson.
Olson went on to tell the board that the district has been flagged by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI). He said he was not surprised.
“It’s not something that any school wants to be in,” he said.
One of the bigger reasons the district is being flagged for federal grants has to do with the fact that Johnson gave himself a performance pay stipend for being a special education director. Johnson did not have the credentials to hold that position.
Olson said that when a district is flagged by DPI they have to attend meetings to rectify the situation. He pointed out that the current administration was not involved in the mistakes Johnson made and is taking steps to work through the process with DPI.
“The reason the FBI was involved in the investigation is because it was federal funds,” said Olson of Johnson’s fraudulent special ed stipend.
Olson discussed both the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 budgets. He referred to a condensed document that he put together and is available for public viewing on the district’s website. The 14 page budget summary outlines both budgets and shows when changes and updates were made.
“This is one of the items that is of interest to the public and rightfully so,” he said of the budgets.
He plans to look over and update the current budget every month and speak with the board about it and said that many of the numbers in the budget are preliminary. He also said that District Accountant Deb Newman will be at the annual meeting in September to go over the budget.
“It’s very very rare that a school district is working on two audits at the same time,” said Olson. There were a number of things they had to hold off on due to the Johnson investigation. The 2022/2023 budget, which would have typically been approved by the board in December, was delayed because of the suspicion of fraud.
Because the budget was delayed, the regular audits that are required of school districts were also put on hold.
Legal Fees
According to the budget summary, the district spent $32,000 in legal fees over the past year. Much of that money went toward the Johnson fraud investigation.
Olson said he received a check from Johnson’s attorney for $43,760. If the district does not press charges they can have the money. Olson said the check is still sitting in his office. Recently, Johnson’s attorney contacted the district and said they would pay an additional $31,755 to try and deter criminal prosecution.
“The answer is…no,” said Olson. “The criminal side of things, our investigation here in Glenwood City is done. So we are not entertaining any type of discussion on that amount”.
The district is pursuing criminal restitution from Johnson through St. Croix County. But that has been delayed because the assistant district attorney that was on the case resigned. The case was also delayed because the FBI was looking into it. So currently the case is not being looked at by the county, said Olson.
In other business the Glenwood City School Board:
• Heard an update from Olson about all the summer projects that were completed or are nearing completion.
• Learned from Olson that former district accountant Ron Johnson was overpaid $15,000 and that money has been paid back to the district.
• Heard reports from Director of Student Services, Erin Spaeth, Elementary Principal Jamie Shaffer and MS/HS Principal Marcy Burch about the start of school.
• Had a discussion about Title IX and voted to table their second reading of it.
