Pocahontas BOE Holds Hearing on Employee Placement on Leave of Absence
At a special meeting of the Pocahontas County BOE on March 24th, the members held an administrative hearing after Math Coach Joanna Burt-Kinderman appealed being placed on paid administrative leave while investigations of an allegation of 8th grade Math transcript and grade tampering and one of financial irregularities regarding Math Field Day were ongoing.
Board President Emery Grimes stated that this hearing, which was requested by Burt-Kinderman, is not a disciplinary hearing but an administrative one, and is narrowly focused on whether Superintendent Dr. Leatha Williams was arbitrary and capricious in her decision to place Bert-Kinderman on the leave of absence. Grimes also said that the burden of proof rests with Bert-Kinderman to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the superintendent wrongfully placed her on the leave of absence.
Burt-Kinderman was represented by Attorney Mike Doss, while Superintendent Williams was represented by attorney Trey Morone of the law firm Bowles Rice, which often represents the schools. Burt-Kinderman, through her attorney, agreed to have this hearing held in an open session rather than in closed executive session.
Doss said he only wanted to call and question one witness -Superintendent Williams, while Morone said he would not call any witnesses, just also question Williams. Doss said that all his client wants is to return to doing what she loves and is good at, being a Math Coach in the classrooms, while the investigation proceeds. When asked why Williams didn’t just leave Burt-Kinderman in the classrooms like has been done in the past with other accused teachers, Williams said WV Code 18-A-8 requires placing a teacher on administrative leave if it is determined that leaving the teacher in the classroom would jeopardize the effectiveness of teaching, and in her opinion these allegations do jeopardize teaching.
Doss asked Williams a number of questions dealing with the nature of the allegations facing Burt-Kinderman, but Morone objected to all questions regarding the basis of the allegations since the investigation is on-going and those questions would be beyond the narrow scope of this hearing which is whether or not Williams acted properly in placing Bert-Kinderman on the leave of absence until the investigation is complete. Doss said he needed to determine the nature of the allegations in order to establish that Williams acted arbitrary and capricious in placing her on administrative leave. All of Morone’s objections were sustained by Grimes, who acted as judge for determining validity of any objections.
When Doss asked if Burt-Kinderman had access to change transcripts, Williams answered that yes, she had the password access to do so – although Burt-Kinderman could be seen shaking her head “no” to that.
When asked about the Math Field Day allegations, Williams answered that she had received an email containing that allegation, and it also is still being investigated. When asked if others were involved in the transcript tampering, Williams said that is still being determined as part of the on-going investigation. Williams, in answer to a question, also said she had the option of making the leave of absence either paid or unpaid, and she chose to make it paid leave.
Eventually the board members went into executive session to discuss their decision. When they returned to open session, the members unanimously voted to uphold Superintendent Williams’ decision to place Burt-Kinderman on paid administrative leave as they found it to be reasonable, not arbitrary and capricious.
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