BOONEVILLE : Principal to remain after board vote fails
Posted on Friday, August 29, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/235673/
BOONEVILLE — Booneville High School Principal Steve Halter will keep his job after a School Board vote to fire him early Thursday failed.
Three board members — Sam Tabler, Todd Preston and Bill Oliver — voted to fire Halter during a hearing that began at 6 p. m. Wednesday and ended after midnight, said Halter’s attorney, Thomas Thrash of Little Rock.
He said board President Glynda McConnell and member Clay Wiggins voted not to fire Halter, and Vice President Beth Bryant abstained. Thrash said the abstention counted as a vote not to fire Halter and that the motion failed to pass for lack of a majority.
Board member Patricia Pace was absent from Wednesday’s hearing.
Thrash said Halter was told to return to work as high school principal Tuesday.
Halter had asked for the hearing after Superintendent John Parrish suspended him July 25 with the recommendation he be fired. Parrish said Halter made misrepresentations to the Arkansas Department of Education over the teaching license of Spanish teacher Carlos Rivera.
Parrish, Halter and McConnell could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Parrish accused Halter of sending a letter to the Education Department earlier this year that included fraudulent information and that he represented the letter as having come from then-Superintendent Bobby Ashley.
Halter claimed he sent the letter on Ashley’s instructions and with his consent, according to a lawsuit Halter filed this month against Parrish and Pace in Logan County Circuit Court. The lawsuit accuses the two of slander and of interfering with his employment.
In the suit, Halter said he believed Rivera’s license was valid through 2008 but, unknown to Halter or Rivera, it had been revoked because Rivera had failed to meet a requirement. The suit said Rivera did not receive notification of the revocation but school officials learned of the revocation in February.
Parrish, the new superintendent, also accused Halter of not informing Rivera’s students last spring that Rivera did not have a license to teach Spanish.
Halter said in the suit that the Education Department instructed him on how to handle the Rivera situation and that high school counselor Ginger Ulmer was present and heard the Education Department give Halter the instructions.
Thrash said Ulmer testified at Wednesday’s hearing along with Halter and Parrish.
In his lawsuit, Halter claims that Pace, the School Board member, and Parrish circulated false information and rumors about him that damaged his reputation.
The suit also states Pace and Parrish took steps to get Halter fired and that Pace, a retired teacher at Booneville High, had a vendetta against him because she disagreed with many of the policies he enacted.
Pace retired from teaching in 2006 and was elected to the School Board. During her campaign, Pace circulated a letter in which she promised to fire Halter and Booneville Athletic Director Kenneth Rippy.
Also, the suit claims Pace asked Parrish before he was hired as superintendent to fire Halter and Rippy if he got the job. After Parrish got the position but before he arrived in town, the suit said, he told people that he was going to Booneville to fire two people.
Thrash said Thursday he introduced affidavits from people who said they heard Pace and Parrish make the statements.
Thrash said Parrish denied making the remarks.
Thrash said Thursday that Halter intends to continue with the lawsuit, which asks for compensatory and punitive damages.