MVCS superintendent to retire in June

During Monday’s meeting, the Mount Vernon Board of Education approved the retirement of Steve Short, superintendent of schools, effective June 30, 2013.

In a Jan. 11 letter to the board, Short cited changes in the state retirement system as influencing his decision to retire this year:

Dear Members of the Board of Education,

This is a community that is special to me. We have great staffs, students and administrators. It has been a pleasure to work in this District for 29 of my 31 years in education. 

The change of the State Teachers’ Retirement System benefit packages have impacted my decision on when to retire. I will be retiring effective at the end of the day on June 30, 2013. 

Thank you for your support and encouragement. 

Respectfully, 

Stephen J. Short

According to a Mount Vernon News article, Short’s current salary is $122,000 per year. His retirement will come a year before his contract was set to expire.

Short became superintendent in January 2008. Prior to that, he served a brief period as interim superintendent. He also served in other positions with the district.

The board’s 2009, 2010 and 2011 written evaluations of Short’s performance as superintendent show mostly positive remarks and ratings.

A notable exception had to do with personnel management. In the 2010 performance review, four out of five board members rated Short as needing improvement in the category of maintaining “high, clear and fair standards of performance for all personnel.” 

One board member commented in the review: “I believe Steve, as a person, wants to be fair and consistent. However, the system for which he is responsible lacks consistency, thoroughness, and timeliness.”

The review cited the “handling of John Freshwater and recent administrators’ performance” as “evidence of weakness in this area.”

Short’s retirement was first announced by the district in a Dec. 20 press release. Both the News and KnoxPages.com ran the press release as a news story that same day.

In the press release, Dr. Margie Bennett, president of the board, expressed her appreciation for Short’s years of service with the district:

“We are deeply saddened by Mr. Short’s decision to retire. He has always been a strong proponent of this community and deeply cares about our students and employees. I have the greatest respect for Mr. Short; his decisions evidence wisdom and compassion. He will be sorely missed.”

Additional information:

Press release: Mount Vernon City Schools Superintendent Steve Short to Retire (PDF)

Jan. 11, 2013 letter from Short to board (PDF)

2009 performance evaluation of Short (PDF)

2010 performance evaluation of Short (PDF)

2011 performance evaluation of Short (PDF)

Ohio Supreme Court denies school board motion

The Mount Vernon Board of Education lost a last-ditch effort to keep significant portions of John Freshwater’s appeal from being heard by the Ohio Supreme Court.

The court on Wednesday denied the board’s “motion to strike propositions of law 1 & 2, appendix pages 49 & 55-56, and supplement pages 103-116 from [Freshwater’s] merit brief.”

The decision by the court means that all of the issues presented in the merit brief will be considered, the text of the First Amendment will remain in the merit brief and the newly introduced evidence, discrediting a board witness, will be considered.

Additional information

John Freshwater v. Mount Vernon City School District Board of Education, case information and documents, Supreme Court of Ohio

“Freshwater responds to school board’s arguments”

“Document dump: School board and cohorts file briefs in Freshwater case”

“Freshwater files brief with Ohio Supreme Court”

“EXCLUSIVE: Witness impeached by school records”

Freshwater responds to school board’s arguments

John Freshwater, through his attorney R. Kelly Hamilton, filed his reply brief with the Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday. The brief is the final step before oral arguments are presented in February 2013 regarding Freshwater’s claim that he was wrongfully terminated from his job teaching at Mount Vernon City Schools.

(See here for a copy of the brief.)

The Mount Vernon Board of Education fired Freshwater in January 2011 from his position teaching eighth-grade science. He had been employed by the school since 1987.

The board’s resolution firing Freshwater provided two categories of reasons for the firing: The first involved Freshwater’s teaching methodology which the board characterized as religious. The second was about “religious articles” in his classroom.

Freshwater’s brief takes the position that this “is a case of first impression, and no known precedent provides a useful framework for its analysis.”

The key aspects distinguishing this case from others are that Freshwater’s actual teaching methods were within the scope approved by the board’s own policies and administrative guidelines, and the items in Freshwater’s classroom were permitted elsewhere in the school.

“Freshwater has never, at any time,” the brief says, “refused to comply with any clear directive of the Board or administrators as to how he should teach his class, what topics could be discussed in the classroom, or what items could be displayed, and he has not challenged the Board's authority to give these orders. This fact, and the correspondingly limited, defensive First Amendment protection Freshwater claims, distinguishes this case from the host of ‘teacher speech’ cases cited by the Board.”

Although the board attempted to support its censorship of Freshwater’s classroom based upon the argument that it had the authority to control Freshwater’s speech, the brief says the censorship the school engaged in was ad hoc and circumvented the board’s own polices:

“Freshwater does not now dispute nor has he ever denied the Board's authority to control its curriculum and classroom decor through duly-enacted policies, even-handedly applied. However, Freshwater asserts that the weight of First Amendment jurisprudence forbids the school's ad hoc departure from governing policies and guidelines where it is undertaken to eliminate discussion of viewpoints it disfavors or to sterilize the school of words, pictures, or ideas that have a tangential association to religion.”

The brief also says,“[T]he Board's position ignores entirely what was, perhaps, the most specific directive provided to guide Freshwater's teaching methodology: the Academic Content Standards for Eighth Grade Science. As Freshwater has consistently maintained, his teaching methodology was purposefully and properly designed to fulfill his Board-given mandate to enable students to ‘Explain why it is important to examine data objectively and not let bias affect observations.’  In fact, school officials admitted that materials used by Freshwater were properly tailored to this standard.”

The brief concludes with the following statement:

“In terminating Freshwater, the Board has gone far astray from foundational First Amendment principles. Freshwater does not claim a general First Amendment right to determine school curriculum, to discuss whatever he likes in the classroom setting, or even to decorate his classroom free from Board directives. Rather, Freshwater asks this Court to rule that a public school teacher retains at least this modicum of academic freedom and protection from religious hostility: that school officials may not terminate him for using teaching methods and materials or for possessing items that comply with school policies and practices but are censored due to their particular viewpoint on an otherwise approved topic, or due to their consistency with the presumed religious beliefs of the teacher in question.”

Freshwater is seeking monetary damages and reinstatement to his position teaching eighth-grade science.

Note: Internal citations were omitted from the quotes from the brief.

Additional information:

John Freshwater v. Mount Vernon City School District Board of Education, case information and documents, Supreme Court of Ohio

“Press release: Rutherford attorneys file final brief with the Ohio Supreme Court in case of teacher fired for urging students to think critically about evolution”

“Document dump: School board and cohorts file briefs in Freshwater case”

“Freshwater files brief with Ohio Supreme Court”

See the articles in the archive for additional coverage of the Freshwater controversy.