De Soto departures bring calls for action

A packed house of De Soto school patrons on Monday night mourned the resignation of two popular administrators and blamed a board of education member for their departure.

One speaker was applauded when she suggested the board member in question should step down.

At times the crowd at De Soto High School loudly applauded its agreement as speakers stepped up to blame one school board member for the resignation of Superintendent Doug Sumner, who will leave for a job in the Shawnee Mission School District in July. The speakers attributed the resignation of Sumner and Jessica Dain to rudeness from board member Scott Hancock, although rules of the meeting prohibited his name from being mentioned. At one point speaker Anh Nguyen of Shawnee gave Hancock an ultimatum: Resign by Friday or face a recall election.

As the meeting concluded, school board president Angela Handy read a statement calling for a renewed commitment to civility and a review of the way board meetings are to be conducted. The board then went into executive session, after which it immediately adjourned without further comment.

Aside from Handy’s statement, none of the school board members discussed the complaints after the speakers’ time was up. Hancock did not respond directly to some allegations that his behavior toward the administrators amounted to “bullying” and a “pattern of harassment.” After the meeting was over, he did urge more people to attend school board meetings.

“It would be nice if we had these people at the meetings so they could find out firsthand the issues of the district,” he said, declining further comment. Several of the speakers acknowledged they did not attend meetings frequently.

Seats were filled and people stood at the back of the 350-seat auditorium, where the meeting was moved to handle the expected crowd. After a presentation on the robotics team, most of the board meeting was given over to the public comments.

Several speakers lauded the dedication and kindness of Sumner and Dain, who is director of teaching and learning for the district. Dain will leave this summer to take a job with the Olathe School District.

Anger has been simmering among school patrons since mid-February, when they learned that Sumner would be moving to a spot as assistant superintendent of human resources in the Shawnee Mission School District. He’d been in the De Soto district since 2010. Shortly after his resignation was announced, Nguyen posted an open letter on her blog blaming Hancock and asking for his resignation.

Karen Wall, a retired De Soto teacher from Olathe, also took up the cause. She, too, wrote to the school board, calling Hancock out by name and saying his demeanor displays an attitude of “bullying, denigration, demoralization, humiliation and defamation.”

Neither Nguyen nor Wall said they had witnessed such behavior firsthand, however. They said their information came from reports by numerous others.

At the meeting, Wall and her husband circulated a list of some of these charges against Hancock, but without specifics or names of the witnesses.

“Names cannot be given or used because of fear of retribution and retaliation. The people interviewed are highly respected educators and members of our community,” was the explanation at the top of the sheet entitled, “Data in reference to actions of Scott Hancock, USD 232 Board of Education member.”

Among the accusations: Hancock addressed female administrators as “little girl” or “missy;” his body language, such as eye rolling, and the tone of his questions indicated disrespect to speakers; he criticized the performance of employees in open meetings, rather than executive session.

The sheet also said Hancock has made a habit of frequent phone calls to administrators, using too much of their time, and “intimidating” unannounced visits to classrooms.

Wall also referenced contentious school boards in the Gardner-Edgerton and Kansas City, Mo., school districts, and the damage it does to the districts’ image.

“These are behaviors that cannot be tolerated in a school setting with codes of civility,” she said during the meeting. She went on to call such behavior “repugnant.”

“There is no doubt that if changes are not made, Dr. Dain and Dr. Sumner will be only the first two to leave,” Wall said.

Another speaker, Holly Schreiber of Shawnee, said the resignations, “hit this district like a bombshell.”

“I have witnessed behaviors at board meetings that are not only unprofessional but do not follow the guidelines in the civility clause in our own policy handbook,” said Schreiber, who identified herself as a teacher. “The repetitive uncivil behavior is not a mistake. It is an intentional choice,” she said.

No one pinpointed what exactly started the controversy.

Board president Handy called the tone and spirit of some past board meetings “suspect” in her prepared remarks at the meeting. “We owe it to our patrons to always reflect a professional, encouraging, appreciative and cooperative environment to work within,” she said. “This does not mean we cannot disagree. But we should be respectful.”

Handy said afterward her comments were prompted by “tons and tons” of emails. She said the board received more than 30 emails on the subject.

Handy hopes to have a special board planning session in the near future to hash over the issues brought up at the meeting.

Sumner has not commented on his treatment by the board or his reasons for leaving. In a press release announcing his resignation, he is quoted as saying, “It is important to me that my colleagues and our communities understand how much I have loved serving beside them.”

Sumner will not comment further on his departure, said district spokesman Alvie Cater.

This story was originally published March 10, 2015 at 6:11 PM with the headline "De Soto departures bring calls for action."