The Past Repeats itself

The era of Superintendent Ken Burnley was not an era that was remembered fondly by most employees and residents of D11. This was an era of chronyism, nepotism, low standards, and much secrecy on the part of the administration. Some of the Board members who were in office during his tenor included Lyman Kaiser, Bruce Doyle, Mary Wierman, Karen Teja, and Lynn Peterson. It was a well known fact that each of these Board members believed that they worked for the Superintendent. They were totally unaware that it was the job of the Board to represent the interests of the public and to supervise the Superintendent. Needless to say, things were not well in D11 during this time period.

Those who remember the Burnley years were somewhat stunned, then, to learn that someone from the Burnley era was to be brought back to D11 as the new Superintendent beginning in July 2005. As news spread that Sharon Thomas was to be the new D11 CEO, flashbacks to an unhappy time began to flood the District. No one honestly believed that Thomas was the leader that D11 needed to move the District to a new level of performance. In fact, employees saw this as a huge step backwards. Why Thomas, and why now?

The above article was published in a Minnesota newspaper after Thomas left Little Falls to take the reigns of D11. Thomas was given free rent at a beautiful old home in Little Falls. As the article points out, this high paid Superintendent showed no respect whatsoever for the property. She allowed her dogs to soil the carpet and she made no effort to either clean the house or to have the house cleaned prior to her departure. She informed staff that she was expecting her husband Ben Gliden to take care of hiring someone to clean the house. Gliden, of course, lived in Colorado Springs while Thomas worked in Minnesota. This is the woman who was expected to care about the 30,000 students of D11.

Thomas brought back to Colorado Springs a seedy reputation among those employees who remember her from her days as principal at Rogers Elementary. She was known to bring alcohol into the elementary school for parties after the students departed for the day. Staff members also claim that she brought a male stripper to the school for a staff member's party. This was not exactly what many D11 staff were looking for in a leader for their District, but this is the person being brought in by Karen Teja, Mary Wierman, and Dave Linebaugh. Teja assured Sandy Shakes that Thomas was a competent administrator who knew the District and could "hit the ground running." Thomas was hired on a 4-3 vote of the Board.

Not only had Thomas been an employee of D11, but she had also been the District's lead counsel as an employee of Holmes, Robert, and Owens (HRO). HRO is currently the District's lead attorney. While counsel for HRO, Thomas had many dealings with ex-board members. Mary Ellen McNally and Lynn Peterson were key in having the $750,000 Golden Parachute attached to Thomas' contract. Peterson bragged that she was involved in placing the same type of rider onto the contract of Ken Burnley. Coincidently, Thomas was the HRO attorney who helped the D11 Board place this parachute onto Burnley's contract. Wierman had begged Thomas not to demand a $170,000 base salary, but Thomas would not budge, nor would she budge on her Golden Parachute. Wierman, of course, did not have the courage to do the right thing, and under threat from her handlers (McNally and Peterson), she buckled and voted to take almost $1 million out of the classroom to hand to Thomas.

According to Teja, Thomas was not hired to improve D11. In fact, she was hired to take the fall should anyone but union purchased candidates be elected in November 2005. The plan was for Thomas to fight the Board at every turn and to literally do nothing that the Board asked of her. The plan was simply for Thomas to get herself fired so that she would be able to walk away with $750,000 and so that the community would forever be angry at "conservative" Board members. The goal, of course, was to keep the public from realizing that the $750,000 was removed from the general fund as soon as Thomas was hired, and her contract was designed to automatically renew each year, keeping the money away from the classroom. Fortunately, the Board was able to remove $330,000 from the contract before Thomas took the remainder of her unearned winnings away from the D11 taxpayers.

Many people, including myself, had serious reservations about allowing HRO to negotiate on behalf of the District while the Thomas contract was being put together. Since Thomas was an ex-HRO employee and since she was a colleague of those attorneys who were supposedly looking after the best interests of the District, this was a very questionable situation. To make matters worse, Board members Karen Teja and Dave Linebaugh were selected to be the 2 Board members who would protect D11 during these contract negotiations. Anyone who knows Linebaugh, of course, knows that he would never stand up for anyone or anything. As expected, he allowed Teja to work directly with Thomas to add the outrageous Golden Parachute onto the contract. Linebaugh obeyed his orders to keep this secret between himself, Teja, Thomas, and HRO.

Those of us on the Board had a reasonable expectation that our attorney would keep us apprised of any major points of the contract. HRO chose not to highlight the $750,000 figure and to gloss over the fact that the contract renewed itself each year. In a brief titled "Highlights of Superintendent's Contract for Sharon Thomas," HRO did not even list the terms of the contract until point number 5 of 7 points. They explained it as follows:

The initial contract term is a three year term expiring June 30, 2008. The contract contains a mechanism for automatic extension of the contract each year. The contract may be earlier terminated unilaterally by the Superintendent (with 60 days notice required to avoid a penalty), due to death or disability, upon mutual agreement, or unilaterally by the District with cause (as expressly defined in the agreement), or unilaterally by the District with cause (as expressly defined in the agreement) or without cause. In the case of a unilateral termination without cause, the Superintendent is entitled to receive a payout of the base salary and certain benefits, including the base benefits and the retirement incentive compensation, for the balance of the remainder of the contract term. The contract requires that the District establish a reserve to fund such payments.

When most of us read this explanation, we assumed that the first 2 sentences went together. It appeared to me that the contract lasted until 2008 because it automatically extended each year. This explanation does not clearly explain that the contract ADDS a 3rd year after the completion of each school year, meaning that, unless the Board took action to stop the addition of the 3rd year, the contract would go on forever. HRO also allowed the contract to be written in such a manner that it would be impossible to show "cause." Merely not doing her job and not showing up for work would not be enough to fire Thomas for cause. The contract was written so that Thomas could litigate any attempt by the Board to fire her for cause, no matter how egregious the cause. In other words, the contract was written to cost D11 a lot of public money, period.

For those employees who did not know Thomas, their first impression of her was not particularly positive. At an all-staff meeting at Doherty High School in August 2005, Thomas stated to the entire staff that the meeting was "more fun than a 4-eyed titty banger." This is not what one would call a particularly classy start.

So what did Thomas actually accomplish in her one year back in D11, or better yet, what damage did she cause?