Black Wednesday

The Eagle Ridge Academy Board of Directors memo issued today regarding their actions against Mrs. Ingison was carefully crafted to make it look as though they had reasons to terminate her contract.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Dear Eagle Ridge Community:

Last night in open session the board of directors met and discussed the renewal of staff members, including the current director of Eagle Ridge Academy, Judi Ingison. While they appreciate the work she has put in during her tenure at the school as well as her invaluable experience in many areas, and while the independent investigation found that the majority of the allegations against Mrs. Ingison were unsubstantiated, there were at least two allegations that were substantiated. These adverse findings raise significant concerns. The board provided Mrs. Ingison with an opportunity to make a statement to the Board. After extensive deliberation, the Board passed a motion to non-renew Mrs. Ingison's contract for the ‘08-09 school year.

The Board will quickly act to begin the search for a new director.

Eagle Ridge Academy
Board of Directors

The two substantiated allegations noted to her were "communications" and "accepting blame". Mrs. Ingison asked for disclosure of the information that was used to form the basis of their decision and for a discussion of the "evidence" with her. The board refused to even verbally disclose to her support for these claims or to explain their exact concerns in these areas.

Mrs. Ingison continues to profess having done no wrong and is willing for the documents to be shared publicly however the board quickly classsified the documents at last night's meeting preventing a review by her and the public.

As far an anyone knows, including Mrs.Ingison, the communication issue relates to the speed of web site development (Why didn't anyone complain about the website in the past three years when Mrs. Cindy Ripple was in charge of it?), not having a voice mailbox and not being accessible to parents and teachers when she was busy closing out the federal grant in the fall.

Not accepting blame most likely relates to her holding Mrs. Lisa Johnson accountable for her son's actions within the school in regards to the mercury spill (as most likely will the insurance company) and not accepting fault for the accidental deletion of NWEA scores by another employee.

There's obviously more behind the board's decision to than anyone knows, including Mrs. Ingison. The investigation was supposed to be one factor in consideration but at last night's board meeting it was clear that board members were confused about what they were using as a basis for their decision. Why were Mr. John Neve and Mr. Len Twetan forcing a vote and refusing to allow more time for reflection and discussion? Their statements clearly indicated that they were concerned that a new vote or delay in vote might cause board members to come to a new conclusion, and they certainly didn't want that as indicated by their comments. Is this truly a PUBLIC school?

Without doubt the actions of parents during the entire school year leads one to truly question their motives. Cindy Ripple, a former chair/employee/parent, sent out a mass email last fall asking parents to meet at her house to discuss, "the truth about what is really happening at Eagle Ridge Academy". These "secret" meetings continued throughout the year and were only known to us parents " in the loop" even though I didn't buy into what they were doing.

Then the plot is hatched with Reid's resignation followed closely by parents trying to prevent the Minnesota Board of Teaching from issuing licenses to Mr. Niemann and Dr. Rockcastle. The Board of Teaching noted that they had never in their history had parents try to prevent the licensing of an individual. The "secret meeting" parents might have been successful with their plan had school officials and other parents not heard about what they were doing.

Without doubt part of the goal was to take these teachers off the school board because after the state gave them licenses the "secret meeting" parents contacted MDE to have them evaluate whether or not the Community Expert Licenses the two teachers possessed qualified them to occupy the spots on the board, as required by statute, to maintain a teacher majority. MDE concluded that the teaching licenses didn't meet the statutory requirement but that was only after consulting with several different departments. At no time in the history of charter schools in MN have parents challenged the type of licensing a teacher must possess in order to be classified as holding a "teacher spot" on the school board.

On top of all this you have the very suspicious actions of a couple of board members.

If you smell a skunk there's probably one (or a board of them) nearby.