CMS policy not in place, hearing indicates

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second of eight articles about the termination hearing and ultimate firing of Jann Gibson, principal of Cutter Morning Star Elementary School. The Cutter Morning Star School District held the hearing from 5 p.m. Friday to almost 1:20 a.m. Saturday. Board members voted at the end of the hearing to fire Gibson.

One of the reasons provided by the Cutter Morning Star School District for the firing of former principal Jann Gibson was a lack of documentation of corporal punishment, but the elementary school where she worked does not have a policy requiring her to do so, nor was she provided with any training on the filing system, according to information provided at Friday's hearing.

The district's administration reportedly discovered a lack of documentation for punishments, including two paddlings for which claims were investigated by the Arkansas Department of Human Services. Gibson was cleared by the DHS of child maltreatment accusations in both cases. Parents were notified of the punishment in both cases and approved the paddlings before they were administered.

Pam Jackson, administrative assistant at the elementary school, manually enters records of punishment into the district's online E-School records system. Attorneys Jay Bequette and Cody Kees, of the Bequette & Billingsley law firm in Little Rock, argued on behalf of the district that Gibson broke policy by not recording the administration of all punishment, but no such policy is in place at Cutter Morning Star Elementary School. Gibson confirmed she did not provide Jackson with discipline referral slips for every punishment she administered or oversaw.

"And that is a violation of policy, correct?" Bequette asked Saturday evening during a termination hearing that lasted more than eight hours.

"If you look at the licensed personnel policy or the elementary handbook that I was given when I got here, there is not a reporting requirement anywhere involved," Gibson said.

"Alright, let's move -- ," Bequette started.

"And I will tell you, as somebody who was literally a new administrator, there is not a single thing that I would have been told and not done," Gibson said. "The last several months of emails (to) Dr. (Nancy) Anderson, every one of them has been, 'Yes, ma'am.'"

Gibson was the final person questioned Friday during a termination hearing she preferred to be open to the public. Anderson confirmed during the meeting Gibson was initially suspended due to the two DHS investigations.

The district's administration prepared a packet for the hearing listing seven reasons to terminate Gibson's employment contract. Board members voted to accept all seven of the administration's reasons.

Board President Mark Rash, Secretary Donna Fincher and board member Sandy Walker voted in favor of all seven allegations. Eddy Slick, vice president, voted in favor of six of the seven allegations.

The Sentinel-Record incorrectly reported board member Jared Hawthorn only voted for one of the reasons. Hawthorn voted in favor of accepting the board's final two allegations, which were each accepted by a 5-0 vote.

The newspaper submitted a request under Arkansas' Freedom of Information Act at 2:16 a.m. Saturday for the packet. The request had not been fulfilled by presstime Sunday night.

Terry Lawler, interim principal of the elementary school, was called by the district to explain the importance of documenting punishments.

"If a teacher sends a student to the office for discipline, then, the procedure is you document that in some form or fashion, so that you can have documentation not only for yourself, but the law requires us to put that in E-School," Lawler said. "We are required to have that in E-School, because the state supervises -- ."

"I have not been given any statute on E-School," said Gibson's attorney, Robert Newcomb, of Little Rock. "I would like to know the basis for making that claim."

"You can do that in cross-examination," asserted attorney Sharon Street, who represented the board and was charged with moderating the meeting.

Lawler said she was relying on what she learned as "standard procedure" in several decades as an educator and administrator. She also confirmed under questioning by Newcomb she has not read the full policy book for the elementary school.

The district said at least 13 other paper referrals were found in student's files, indicating Gibson knew of the filing process. Gibson was in her third year as principal at Cutter Morning Star. She was hired after completing less than one year as a principal at Yellville-Summit the prior year.

Newcomb later questioned Nathan Sullivan, now in his second year as principal of the high school, about his experience with E-School. He said his administrative assistant manually enters almost all information documented into the system.

Sullivan said he also received no training with E-School. He said he does not issue corporal punishment or suspensions without referrals. The high school, unlike the elementary school, does have a policy for reporting corporal punishment.

Anderson said recording punishments with discipline referrals was standard procedure when she worked as an elementary school principal for five years. She said the district provided training for E-School for all administrative assistants and E-School administrators in the district, but could not say if any training was ever provided for Gibson.

Local on 12/18/2017

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