Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Decatur School District - Discrimination Lawsuits and (Could It Be?) Stinson Retiring

The MSD Decatur Township School District has been rocked by not one, but two federal lawsuits claiming discrimination. 

The first was filed in June by the Mother of a Decatur Central High School student who suffered racial harassment by fellow students, which it seems, the administration did little to stop.  WRTV's Joanna Massee reported it thusly:
The family of a former Decatur Central High School student has filed suit against the district, which they claim did little to stop repeated racial taunts aimed at the 16-year-old girl.

The sophomore, who is black, said she received an offensive cellphone message during class and had been approached by other students who addressed her using racial slurs, 6News' Joanna Massee reported.

The girl's mother, Chereall DeBoest, played 6News the cellphone message, which includes a picture of a Ku Klux Klan member fishing with fried chicken, as well as audio including defamatory language.
Just last week, a former employee filed an age and disability lawsuit against the District.  Fox 59 reporter, Anne Yeager, described it this way:
A former employee said a Central Indiana school fired him because he was diagnosed with cancer.  
Keith Jones, 61, worked as a police officer for the Decatur Township School District for 14 years. He was stunned to lose his job last summer.

His boss told him he was being laid off due to "fiscal restructuring." Jones' friends and colleagues told him that wasn't the reason at all, though. Co-workers told him the district's insurance carrier had red-flagged Jones, after he was diagnosed with cancer in 2004 and 2005.

Jones admits he needed regular radiation treatments and expensive surgeries. He said he was appalled when he learned that just two months later, the district hired an officer "half his age" to fill the position.
Whether related to the pressures of these lawsuits or the crushing debt he imposed on the District, Superintendent Don Stinson is rumored to be looking to retire.  By the way, Stinson is said to have announced all this to the staff of the Gold Academy on Monday.

The rumors are consistent in that Nan Wiseman, current Principal at the Gold Academy, will move into the Central Office and take Assistant Superintendent Debbie Sullivan's job.  Sullivan would move up to Superintendent. 

Where the rumors diverge is whether Stinson would retire in January, or stay on, ala Wayne Township's Tommy Thompson, hauling down a fit salary for little work.  In this version of the rumor, Stinson would remain on salary as a "mentor" to Sullivan.  As we know, Thompson was turned out of his cush semi-retirement, "Superintendent Emeritus" gig once the public became aware of his scamming the taxpayers.  Stinson may believe he can out Thompson Thompson, given his rubberstamping School Board who questions nothing he does.

We shall see.  The District is in a huge mess and after all, rats will be rats and flee a sinking ship. 

41 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who's the new school nurse at one of the elementry schools? heard it was one of greenwald relitives....

Anonymous said...

I heard the same thing. Does anyone know how many of the School Board members have relatives working in the school? Didn't Ms. Wiseman's husband get a good job recently? It would be interesting to know how many of their relatives are on the payroll.

Anonymous said...

Stinson' daughter has got a nice job with the MSD now. Susan Adams' brother-in-law is working in the school maintenance dept. So is Cathy Wiseman's hubby.

Anonymous said...

Uh-ooooh...I thought Susan Adams was supposed to get Stinson's job when he stuffed his pockets full of our kids' money and headed off to an all you can drink retirement. Whats to become of poor Susan now that her attempt to be Decatur's superintendent has come to an end? It doesn't seem fair. She was always so loyal to Don Stinson and Jeff Baer.

Anonymous said...

I'm not going to miss DUI Don Stinson. Good riddance. The only person who cares about where he goes is his probation officer.

Anonymous said...

Anon 11:23. serious? you listed 3 family members of school board/administrators that are on the payroll! This can't be. Does anyone know if there's MORE on the payroll? Is this legal or ethical?

Anonymous said...

Round Robin, the MSD's "communications specialist" says the school board hasn't been notified about DUI Don's plans to retire. Huh??? How could our hard-drinking $chool $uperintendent start promising Debbie Sullivan and Nan Wiseman their new promotions when the board members don't even know that $tinson is retiring??? Who is Round Robin kidding? Or is our school board so used to rubber-stamping whatever DUI Don says that they are letting him pick his successor? We need a little less boozing and a little more sober thought at our school board meetings. They are making all their decisions at Ike and Jonesy's downtown.

Anonymous said...

As a former teacher, i would have thought that our well paid school admin people would long ago have learned how to deal swiftly with overt racism within our high school. How could dui don let it get so far out of control when the appropriate responses, and federal penalties for inaction, are well known to anyone with an IQ above room temp? Have his alcohol issues progressed to where he is incapable of dealing with the operation of his office, or is he deliberately trying to run this school district into insolvency?

Anonymous said...

Susan Adams is running this school corporation and running it into the ground.How much money is she going to cost us before they get rid of her? When Decaturs' Attorney tells administration and the school board they need to hire that security guard back and give him back pay and she is screaming her answer is NO! So they had a chance to resolve this issue without going to court which will probably cost a lot more money considering it is age discrim. and physical disability. She needs fired for not taking advice of Twp. paid attorney!!!!

Anonymous said...

There is another lawsuit in the works besides the high school girl and the security guard.

Had Enough Indy? said...

More news -- rumor has expanded to include that Nate Davis will replace Nan Wiseman as Principal at the Gold Academy. There is a current posting on the district website for an Assistant Principal at the Middle School. The posting went up on 8/8 (three days ago) and lists a 'date available' of 'TBD'.

Wonder what the box of rocks we call a school board knows of all this?

Had Enough Indy? said...

Sorry, should have noted that Davis currently holds the position of Asst. Prin. at the MS -- just like the one being advertised as open.

Had Enough Indy? said...

I was able to verify that Don Stinson's daughter, Kendra, has indeed been hired by the district. She is a 6th grade teacher at West Newton.

Its all about nepotism at Decatur.

Anonymous said...

Pat, why don't you run for school board? Sounds as if you can get things cleaned up??

Anonymous said...

Rumor also has it that Preda will be coaching varsity basketball with Oberly. And next year becoming the head coach. Must have alot of extra time on his hands....normally being principal is not 7-3:30 job...

Anonymous said...

IMHO, Pat does the Decatur taxpayers far more good right where she's at as a blogger. Until the current crop of party-hearty, spring-break boozing, Boss Hogg bozos are gone off that school board, she'd just be spinning her wheels if she were on the board.

Besides, if Pat stopped blogging, Robin wouldn't have anything to do. :)

Anonymous said...

Wonder if Stinson invited the media to tonight's board meeting so he can announce his retirement? Since Decatur has the same attorney as Wayne Township maybe had before they fired him for the sweet deal that Thompson had may Sinson's deal is sweeter?? Hmhh, hope they are all dressed up tonight!

Anonymous said...

Let's hope Preda is better at coaching basketball than he is at keeping us out of civil rights lawsuits in federal court. Our school board pays little attention to much beyond the athletic programs. Remember the cuts they made in education, and still found a million bucks to blow on astro-turfing the football stadium? All so a board member's grandson would have "the best" for his very first head-coaching job. All on your tax dollar.

Speaking of which, anybody got any idea which board member's relative will be our new baseball coach??? When our previous DCHS head football coach, Mr. Able, was railroaded out the door to make an opening for a board member's grandson, Phil Webster had to know he was next. Nah, nah, nah-nah, hey-heeeeey, good-bye.

Anonymous said...

Let everyone know what the dinner menu was for the board feast tonight. They will need a big meal before they announce the big deal.

Anonymous said...

I think its an outrage that DUI Don allowed Coach Webster to be fired from his coaching job. Coach Webster used to defend Stinson while he was shaking down the MSD for all the money it had. Thats real gratitude on Stinsons part.

RN09 said...

FYI, the school nurses are hired through IU Health. Decatur Township has no input as to which RN's are hired. They have to have at least two years of pediatric nursing experience. But nice try.....

Anonymous said...

Okay....so, is it Greenwald's daughter?

Anonymous said...

is phil webster still trying to get everybody to get behind don stinson and support his vision? lol. haven't heard webster braying about what a great man stinson is for quite a while. lol.

Phil Webster said...

I am still reading your comments. I find it disturbing that you think that what happened to me and coach Able is funny and something to mock. We both worked hard trying to bring success to our players and to be dismissed in such a cavalier way not even being told what we did wrong is not funny. You could at least acknowledge the years of hard work instead of " Nah, nah, nah-nah, hey-heeeeey, good-bye".

Anonymous said...

As for the nurse, who cares if it's Greenwald's daughter/daughter in law...If she is qualified and was not hired by MSD Decatur but rather through IU Health then it should be a non-issue. I would also like to say it's about time the district hires "real nurses" (aka.. RN rather than a medical assistant or parent who is called the "school nurse"). Our kids have more advanced complex medical issues and meds that need to be managed by a licensed RN who has Peds experience and knowledge. I also admit that I agree with Mr. Webster's comment above. He truly is an excellent teacher who cares about the students/atheletes in our township. Give the guy a break.

Anonymous said...

Why does it take the school board so long to post the school board meeting minutes? They have yet to post the meeting minutes from June and July??

Anonymous said...

WOW! I find it unbelievable how fast schoolboard members relatives move up the ladder of success. Cathy Wisemans husband has now went from janitor to new energy cszar. This was a job originally created for Susan Adams. I am sure it pays a lot more than janitor pay. Wonder which classroom they took this money from?

Anonymous said...

Anon 11:23: what does it matter who gets "moved up the ladder" as long as they are qualified? Why are 20 plus people...or one very bitter one...posting negative stuff about nothing? This school board and Administration is the finest in probably the history of our schools. They sacrifice and serve for one thing and one thing only...WHAT IS BEST FOR OUR KIDS! We should appoint this board for life; god help us if we lose any of these members to an unfair election! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK MSD SCHOOL BOARD AND ADMINISTRATORS! And if you dont have anything good to say DONT SAY IT.

Anonymous said...

I have nothing good to say about this schoolboard and I will never stop saying what I know to be the truth!!Wisemans husband was given a job that was re-created.No one had held that job since Susan Adams
which means another unnessary high salary. Basically his job is to police buildings and rat on teachers who might leave a light or computer on. Should you think there is only one person posting on here you are sadly mistaken.This admin. and schoolboard has done nothing but line their pockets with our childrens' money

Anonymous said...

This schoolboard is a bunch of yes people. And, NO. They dont care about the kids. They have kicked safety to the curb. Along with a bunch of good schoolbus drivers. They dont care about safety anymore. And, Old Don needs to retire. No one wants a drunk running our schools.

Anonymous said...

Anon 1:05 wrote:

"Anon 11:23: what does it matter who gets "moved up the ladder" as long as they are qualified?"
_____

Relax Robin. No one's talking about you. Unless there's something you feel like sharing with us.

The point is, we DO care about the rampant nepotism going on at the direction of our school board, drunk driving superintendent and his fat-cat admin cronies. This school district is supposed to be a place for our kids to get an education. Not a gravy train for hard partying board members, DUI Don and the chosen high-dollar passengers allowed aboard.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 1:58 said:
"As for the nurse, who cares if it's Greenwald's daughter/daughter in law...If she is qualified and was not hired by MSD Decatur but rather through IU Health then it should be a non-issue."

Okay. Since it's a non-issue, there's no reason to not tell us if it's Greenwald's daughter/daughter-in-law then, is there. So, is it???

Anonymous said...

Phil Webster said...

"I am still reading your comments. I find it disturbing that you think that what happened to me and coach Able is funny and something to mock."

Well, coach, a lot of us found it disturbing that you hammered repeatedly at us to "get behind" Stinson and help him realize his "vision" for the school district. Which in the end amounted to squeezing every nickel out of our school funding to throw contracts to his cronies, and pad the golden parachute retirements of his admin pals and himself. You were perfectly delighted with that as long as you thought you were going to get invited aboard to ride DUI Don's gravy train over at the admin office. Now that they kicked you off the choo-choo and out of your coaching job, NOW you run around talking about all the under the table stuff going on in the msd that you know about. Pardon me if I'm not impressed with your credibility.

Had Enough Indy? said...

New Rule - lay off Phil. He's retired now, let him enjoy his new life.

If he has something to say, speak to that/those items. If not, let it be.

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

This might be a little off topic....but.....I've heard this a couple of times in the Township now. Seems as if SOMEONE in Administration has told a couple of the larger daycare providers of the township...that there won't be MSD funded busing next school year? The Board had a representitive from the CIESC to a couple of board meetings. CIESC is the group that is doing the Franklin Township thing. From what this person in Administration has told a couple of people, it's a done deal. No word yet on how much it's going to cost families, but if it's like Franklin Township it won't be cheap. Is this School Board like other boards; IE are they elected? How many members are on this board. Most boards are 7 members and all are elected. Is our board elected? If so is there an election soon?

Anonymous said...

Anon, August 17, 2011 1:07 PM, Don Huffman is affiliated with CIESC. What a surprise? Wonder what kind of cut he will get for hooking this up?

Anonymous said...

Anybody got any idea of what Stinson's position will be with the MSD when Debbie Sullivan takes over as superintendent in January? Is he going to be a high-dollar "consultant" like Pat Jones and the Baers, or will he be a "superintendent emeritus" with a thirsty man's monthly expense account like Thompson at Wayne Twp?

Anonymous said...

Is Sullivan the new superintendent in January? Did Stinson retire??????????? Come on.

Anonymous said...

DUI Don is off probation in January, so he'll be free to move out of state then. He'll be moving to Florida then. Sun, surf, and of course a martini.

Anonymous said...

His girl friend may not want to move out of state.

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