Over 100 residents — Colorado Springs Education Association members, teachers, parents, students, and community members — picketed the Colorado Springs School District 11 Board of Education meeting last night. The event comes after a lawsuit from D11’s ombudsperson, Natasha Bullard Kaonohi, against D11 Deputy Superintendent Brandan Comfort and Superintendent Michael Gaal, alleging that Comfort stole confidential files from her office at Gaal’s direction.
The board issued a statement last week claiming that an independent investigation was unable to substantiate Kaohoni’s claims, but two board members — Charles Johnson and LeAnn Baca Bartlett — issued their own statement, noting that “we were not aware of these serious allegations prior to last week, nor were we informed that any investigation was underway, or that a finding had been made.”
Johnson and Baca Barlett addressed the picketers before entering the D11 administration building for that night’s board meeting. “As the community and taxpayers of this district — what is wrong with the government and transparency doing what’s right?” asked Johnson. “I think that’s all that we’re asking for and nothing less.”
During the board meeting, D11 Board President Thomas Carey addressed the statements from Johnson and Baca Bartlett. “We have had — and I will be extremely blunt — a bit of a media circus in the last 24 hours,” he said. “I have board directors speaking to the media without notifying district communications. I have board directors who are making statements of their own and board directors who are indicating that they still have questions that they did not get answered. And so I have already checked with legal counsel. Legal counsel is standing by and I’m proposing that the board add this to the agenda to give us an opportunity to talk about it again tonight in executive session and get those questions answered.”
Johnson and Baca Bartlett both voted against going into executive session to discuss the lawsuit, but the board went into the scheduled executive session to discuss “the District’s involvement in federal litigation and related legal proceedings; and Employee Dismissal Process.”
During a short rally outside, speakers compared the district’s response to the allegations against Comfort and Gaal to their response to Angelica Givler-Viers, a teacher who was recommended for termination by Gaal last year, citing “insubordination, neglect of duty and/or other good and just cause.”
Amanda Brown, a D11 kindergarten teacher, drew comparisons between the two incidents. “We have heard the allegations against our two high-ranking officials in our district,” she said. “They involve complaints filed confidentially in fear of retaliation from the superintendent. So in the spirit of fairness, accountability, and transparency, my hope is that Gaal and Comfort are held to the same level of accountability as Dr. Givler was: Placed on immediate leave before evidence has been gathered, just like Dr. Givler was. Forced out of their employment before a judge can rule as to the validity of their complaints, just like Dr. Givler was. Made to wait while the district winds down the clock to the last possible moment, just like Dr. Givler was. I can also assume, in the interest of seeking fairness, that the district will do them the same courtesy of walking them out in front of the people who have placed trust in those adults, just like Dr. Givler was. And, I sincerely hope that Gall and Comfort make the argument that it is for the good of our students that they sequester themselves away from all parties who could possibly be affected by these allegations. No contact for them. No contact with parents, students, friends, colleagues, stakeholders, teachers, voters. Just like Dr. Givler was forced to.”
Givler appealed her termination, and last week a judge ruled that D11 did not substantiate evidence of insubordination, neglect of duty, or good and just cause. “I’m still on leave technically,” Givler said. “I’m technically still an employee of District 11. I’m an unpaid employee. So the first of TECDA [Teacher Employment Compensation and Dismissal Act] 100 days you’re paid with benefits and then — in theory — the process should be done by then. But nothing works that fast. So I’m on day 352 since I was removed from my classroom and we still don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Givler’s dismissal came months after she took part in a district-wide strike, following the D11 board’s decision to end its contract with CSEA. Carey clarified that Givler’s dismissal had nothing to do with participation in the strike.
“The findings of fact say that there were 457 of the district’s teachers absent during the teachers strike,” said Carey. “We are here tonight to make a ruling on one and only one TECDA case. So I’m saying this to you media, if you run that this is in response to the strike, you are not telling the truth. Four hundred and fifty-six teachers were absent. We are dealing with one single TECDA case. Teachers have a right to strike, period. Dot. Teachers executed that right to strike and we are not seeing them at the dais tonight. We are only seeing one TECDA case. So I’m just telling you if your story includes anything at all about how this is a dismissal or this is a case because of a teacher’s participation in the strike. You are lying.”
The board voted 4-3 to retain Givler-Viers with a one-year probation, but she does not yet know when she will be back in the classroom.
