The Monroe County Board of Education by a 7-2 vote on Thursday upheld Director of Schools Mike Lowry's decision to affirm Sequoyah Principal Maurice Moser's decision to replace the head of the Science Department.
Teacher Susan Moser filed a grievance soon after the principal named another teacher as head of Sequoyah's Science Department in August.

Susan Moser did not lose her teaching job but only her status as department head.
Susan Moser filed a grievance stating she felt two articles of the teachers' union's contract with the Board of Education had been violated.

According to the teacher, the Fair Treatment Article of the contract was violated and the Non Discrimination Article had been violated as well.
Under the guidelines of the Monroe County Education Association's contract with the Board of Education, the principal who had replaced her first heard Susan Moser's grievance.
Principal Moser upheld his own decision to replace her.

The second step of the grievance process if the person is not satisfied is to present the case to the director of schools. In September, Lowry upheld the principal's decision to replace the department head.

Susan Moser then took her grievance to the School Board, which heard both sides of the argument in a called meeting before Thursday's regular board meeting.
The teacher said the principal told her she was being replaced as head of the department because other teachers within the department complained she was difficult to work with.

Maurice Moser said he never told the teacher there had been complaints against her when he first told her she would be replaced as department head, which means he did not violate the Fair Treatment Article.
The replaced teacher said she was told of complaints early on and the principal still refused to tell her who had complained against her when she appeared before him in the first step of the grievance process.

Susan Moser said Maurice Moser only told her there were complaints that she made people jump through hoops.
"Since I don't know what that means, I can only surmise that it would be the system I put in place to keep up with inventory," the teacher told School Board members.
Susan Moser said the teachers' contract Fair Treatment Article states "Any complaint regarding an employee made to any member of the administration by any parent, student or other person which does or may influence classroom evaluation of the employee shall be made in writing at the level where the problem originated. The teacher shall be given the opportunity to respond and meet with the person making the complaint in order that he/she may rebut the complaint."

But in his response, Lowry said the decision to change the department head has not influenced any evaluations and there is no written evaluation of a department head's performance placed in any personnel record and therefore would not fall under the Fair Treatment Article standards.
Lowry also found there was no instance of discrimination when Susan Moser was relieved of her department head position and that it is the principal's prerogative to name department heads, who get no extra pay for having that responsibility.

The director of schools said Thursday it his job to hire the principals and they in turn decide who runs the departments at their schools.
"I don't care who the department head is," Lowry said.
During the grievance hearing Thursday, Susan Moser said she went to her fellow teachers in the department one by one, and they all either said they had no problem with her and/or had not gone to Maurice Moser with a complaint.
But the principal countered with his side when he appeared before the School Board.
"What about the rights of the principal?" he asked.

Maurice Moser said the School Board would "tie our hands" if they sided with the teacher. He also said the morale in the department was better with Susan Moser no longer in charge.
School Board Chairman Larry Stein said a better definition of "complaint" is needed in the contract and board member Dean Williams questioned if the Fair Treatment Article had been followed during the decision to relieve the teacher of her department head post.

School Board members first took a vote and unanimously decided the school system should abide by the Fair Treatment Article.
But in the end, School Board members Janet Martin, Ron Eydt, Danny Isbill, Jerry Snyder, Lisa McLemore, Dewitt Upton and Stein voted to uphold Lowry's decision.
Williams and Sonya Lynn voted against affirming Lowry's ruling.

Lynn said the School Board had not been given all the information about the grievance until their arrival at the hearing Thursday and that was why she had to vote against Lowry's decision.
She was also angered that Upton had missed most of the hearing but voted anyway.

tommy.millsaps@advocateanddemocrat.com | 337-7101