Trustees in the Marsh Valley School District approved buying out the contract of former superintendent Marvin Hansen after he threatened to sue the district, school board chair Kevin Fonnesbeck told Idaho Education News on Wednesday.
Fonnesbeck said in an email that trustees approved spending $27,500 to buy out roughly four months of Hansen’s employee contract in response to a $500,000 tort claim Hansen filed last month.
Neither Fonnesbeck nor the board have made the tort claim or buyout agreement available to the public. EdNews sent a public records request to the district for those documents Wednesday but has not received a response. EdNews obtained a copy of the tort claim from a patron.
Draft minutes from a Monday board meeting show trustees unanimously approved buying out the contract of “employee A” without saying who the money was for, or how much the district agreed to pay.
EdNews has asked Bannock County Prosecuting Attorney Stephen F. Herzog to consider if the Marsh Valley School Board violated Idaho’s open meeting laws.
Idaho law exempts school districts from publicly disclosing some information, including personnel records and personal information. Yet “gross salary and salary history, including bonuses, severance packages (and) other compensation” are not included in that exemption.
Fonnesbeck said that trustees “dispute the merits” of Hansen’s tort claim but that the board agreed to buy out his existing contract to “avoid further legal and other costs to the district.”
Hansen was embroiled in a sexual harassment complaint filed by a district employee last year while he served as superintendent. Trustees hired an independent investigator to probe the complaint. The investigator concluded Hansen’s relationship with the former employee “did not amount to sexual harassment under District policy” but that a “sexual relationship existed” between the two.
Following the investigation, Hansen admitted to misusing a district car and cell phone. The board then demoted Hansen for ethical violations and gave him a new contract with reduced pay.
Hansen’s tort claim alleges that trustees forced him out on sick leave after his demotion. Hansen claims that Rep. Randy Armstrong, R-Inkom, and his wife Paige Armstrong, a Marsh Valley trustee, helped fuel allegations that Hansen was not abiding by the district’s fiscal policies as superintendent.
The tort claim also states that Paige Armstrong shared with “third parties” personal information about Hansen, including allegations that he sexually harassed a former employee.
Paige Armstrong’s “false claims and disclosure of confidential information” damaged Hansen’s “character” and “ability to adequately perform at his job,” the claim says.
Paige Armstrong declined to comment on those allegations but echoed Fonnesbeck’s statement that she disagrees with the merits outlined in the tort claim.
The tort claim asks for $300,000 in “special damages” and $200,000 in “general damages” for Hansen.
Fonnesbeck did not respond to questions about the status of Hansen’s tort claim, or whether the former superintendent will pursue a lawsuit.
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Board minutes include no mention of who received the money or for how much.
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Tort claim prompted Marsh Valley trustees to pay off former superintendent - Idaho EdNews
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