New London School Board approves termination of school employee

By MEGAN COOPER

Mt. Pleasant News

NEW LONDON ? Emotions ran high during the New London School Board meeting Monday night, as the board listened to a daughter fight for her mother?s job.

Christine Olsen, part-time secretary and bus driver for the New London Community School district, was terminated from both positions Monday night after a board vote due to circumstances that arose concerning her job. Those circumstances surrounding the termination were not disclosed by school officials due to it being a ?personnel matter,? which means it cannot be discussed publicly.

Before the board voted on the termination, Christine Olsen?s daughter, Murphye Olsen, approached the board and shared a letter she wrote on behalf of her mother.

?I want to thank the board for allowing me to speak on behalf of my mother,? began Murphye Olsen. ?My mother has been working for the district for 18 years and has never had a single write-up. I know because I obtained her personnel files from the board secretary. I feel that her suspension/termination letter came from her receiving information about a loan that was discussed in point five of her letter.?

According to Murphye Olsen, her mother was concerned about a voicemail she received from an unknown loan company requesting employment verification about the superintendent.

?She then forwarded the voicemail to the board secretary?s voicemail,? said Murphye Olsen. ?At this point, my mother was very worried about the personal information of the superintendent. My mother then researched the company online to make sure it wasn?t a scam. When she did the research, she found that the company was odd or sketchy, and so she contacted the board secretary and let her know that the company was calling and requesting information about the superintendent.?

Murphye Olsen feels strongly this was the reason for her mother?s suspension/termination. She felt that her mother was put in a situation where she was able to receive personal information that the superintendent clearly did not want her to know.

?The superintendent questioning her integrity on this matter is completely unjust,? said Murphye Olsen. ?My mother has never spoken about anything confidential to anyone. Her integrity is undeniable. I don?t wish to discuss the other points listed in her letter as I feel some of them are concerning her performing her job and the other one is for something she was reprimanded for nine months ago. The facts are clear; my mother has never been written-up.

?There is nothing negative in her personnel file and her report from Mr. (Steve) McAllister was satisfactory and outstanding on every single point. I ask you (the board) to consider this information when you decide on whether to terminate my mother. This is the only job I can remember my mother having. She has been through five superintendents and multiple high-school and elementary-school principals. She loves her job, the teachers, the students and the history of the school. She?s a rule follower and goes by the book,? said Murphye Olsen.

Murphye Olsen also stated that she hoped the board would be moved by the letters from the parents of the students that Christine Olsen transports to school every day.

?She?s passionate and does her job well. She?s the hardest working person I know and has the school?s best interest at heart,? said Murphye Olsen. ?She follows the rules whether people like it or not. I would like to know the parameters of terminating an employee with no marks against her and for performing her job with the utmost integrity.?

Following her daughter, Christine Olsen approached the board and said, ?I know I already stated this in my letter, but if this is strictly a personality conflict, at least allow me to retain my bus driver position.?

Following the emotional public forum, the board continued with the evening?s agenda. Superintendent Steve McAllister discussed summer updates that would be taking following the end of the school year.

?The summer projects should be starting on time,? said McAllister. ?The construction crews will be in and will start packing and moving the consumer science room. They want to hit the ground running and they will start emptying cabinets this Friday. We will also be working on the grounds this summer and will be working on removing the yellow building by the elementary school.

?We have network upgrades coming as well and we may start replacing some of the high school lockers, a few at a time. We also want to update the high school girls? bathroom, but we aren?t sure if that will be possible this summer with everything going on,? said McAllister.

Technology Coordinator for New London Community School District Jon Munford stated during the meeting regarding the network upgrade, that the district will be adding an additional 100 megabits of Internet to the network this summer through Mediacom.

?We are switching our phone lines from Windstream to Mediacom this summer and they are giving us the phone lines and Internet for the same price Windstream gave us the phone lines,? said Munford. ?We need more Internet because we were finding ourselves without it at some points during the day with the 1:1 laptop initiative. This way, if our ICN Internet runs out, it will automatically switch to Mediacom and we will always have Internet.?

Munford also mentioned that in the commons area there is a live twitter feed on the TV and it shows updates from community members, teachers and students throughout the day.

?It?s was a trial,? said Munford. ?We really had to trust people and so far, it?s phenomenal. There is hardly anything negative on it. Basically, it?s positive things about the students, like sports and what not. We also added a QR code in the commons, so students can scan it with their smart phones and get the day?s daily announcements and weather. I feel like we are always one step behind and it?s not fast enough.?

McAllister discussed with the board that the On the Right Track Fund had a little over $124,000 in the fund and that the district will now be looking at what to do for an all-weather track.

?We will have a work session at our June meeting and we have agreed to work on the process of getting an all-weather track,? said McAllister. ?We will be talking with some representatives who know about that and I feel it?s the best route to take.?

In personnel matters, the board also approved: the following resignations ? Jennifer Greiwe, kindergarten teacher; and Tgammy Olson, fall play director and speech coach.

Contracts were approved for the following ? Betsabe Carstensen as Spanish teacher; Dianna Herzinger, K-12 guidance counselor; Bridget Swailes, .5 FTE elementary special education teacher and .5 FTE middle school special education teacher; Shane Barron, speech coach; Arnie Anderson, fall play director; Damon Loyd, middle-school baseball coach; Dennis Carter, volunteer middle school baseball coach; Mark McSorley, volunteer middle-school baseball coach; Brad Helmerson, head high-school football coach; Jon Brown, assistant high-school football coach; Aaron Brown, assistant high-school football coach; Brian Swafford, head middle-school football coach; Mike McSorley, assisgtant middle-school footb all coach; Maureen Heath, head high-school volleyball coach; Karen Stewart, assistant high-school volleyball coach; David Streeter, middle-school volleyball coach; Brian Swafford, assistant high-school wrestling coach; Jess Swanson, co-middle-school boys? basketball coach.

The board tabled the following until the next meeting:

Brian Swafford as co-middle school wrestling coach.

Bryant Porter as head high school boys? basketball coach.

Austin Burns as co-assistant high school boys? basketball coach.

Curt Watson as co-assistant high school boys? basketball coach.

The New London School Board will meet again in regular session on Monday, June 16, at 7 p.m. in the North Campus board room.