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Why will WCSD not answer Fact Finder Team questions?

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Published: 3/16 1:18 pm

Updated: 3/18 10:04 am

RENO, Nev. (KRNV & MyNews4.com) - The News 4 Fact Finder Team is still trying to get you answers on why Lemmon Valley Elementary School Principal Kara White was removed from her job and placed on administrative leave. It's a mystery. The school district is hiding why she was replaced.

Chief General Counsel for the Washoe County School District Randy Drake, through a district spokeswoman, denied News 4's request for answers.

Drake only pointed out the names of two court cases as the reason why they want to hide this information. No specific justification from the rulings in the court cases, just their names: “Donrey of Nevada, Inc v Bradshaw, 106 Nev. 630 (1990) and DR Partners v Board of County Com’rs of Clark County, 116 Nev. 616 (2000)”. In both cases sited by Drake, the governmental bodies lost in the Nevada Supreme Court and were ordered to turnover the requested public information.

When the Fact Finder Team pressed for clarification on Drake’s rationale, Drake issued a statement “Case law is very specific. Employee information is confidential, and it is a legal requirement that we cannot disclose employee information. This is the way we interpret this case law.”

News 4 believes this amount of silence from the Washoe County School District is illegal. In late 2011 the Nevada Supreme Court ordered text messages of Governor Jim Gibbons be released to the public. In that decision the unanimous court also said a state entity must cite their "interest in nondisclosure" and "legal authority that justifies nondisclosure" when keeping documents secret.

The Washoe County School District has not done this even though the Fact Finder Team has asked multiple times why the secrecy is occurring.

One e-mail into the Fact Finder Team stated, "there have been many rumors circulating about [Kara White’s] leave." The reason for these rumors is the silence of the Washoe County School District.

So again we are asking what is the Washoe County School District covering-up and why do they think they have the legal right to do so? Both questions have been unanswered.

If you have any information for us about this story, or another investigation idea, e-mail us at FactFinder@MyNews4.com.

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tonysam - 3/22/2013 9:10 AM

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goodrich is correct on the level of corruption in public school districts. That doesn't mean privatizing public education would be better; in fact, it would be a million times worse. What is desperately needed is closer oversight on principals and more appropriate punishment and not slaps on the wrist when they commit clear misconduct. Principals are not really supervised at all, and that's why there are continual problems with them such as Kara White's situation, my last principal's mentioned below, and with the former Sparks Middle School principal. Teachers have utterly no rights or power. ONLY when a teacher has an attorney on hand, like the teacher who filed the below-mentioned lawsuit had, will the school district actually do anything in a teacher's favor. My mistake was not having an attorney ready to sue the district's rear end and not knowing about EEOC, which was WEA's misconduct and sold me down the river. Even if this teacher who sued White was reinstated, however, she will likely have a target on her back for the remainder of her career, if she lasts long enough to retire.

tonysam - 3/21/2013 9:04 PM

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WCSD is highly corrupt, but it is unclear whether Kara White is on leave pending an investigation, or, most likely, she has been suspended from her job because of alleged misconduct like what I mentioned in my previous post. Principals are rarely if ever fired outright even when they so richly deserve it. She will never return to her job at Lemmon Valley, but she will likely have a make-work desk job in the central office waiting for her. She most likely abused her power as a principal and won't be doing it again. People need to check the employment listings at WCSD--a lot of information can be gleaned from them.

tonysam - 3/21/2013 8:45 PM

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I will tell you what likely happened with Kara White. She was named in a 2011 suit, which you can find in the US Courts website in a case called Kerr v. WCSD, wherein a teacher was accused of allegedly committing testing irregularities which were in all likelihood made up, and White proceeded to violate this teacher's due process rights, including replacing this teacher with a permanent teacher, which is a constructive discharge. The allegations are very serious, but in all honesty, Kara White's likely violations were no worse than what two administrators did to me in 2008 in order to cover up their screw-ups over an FMLA-related leave I took, and they completely manipulated my due process rights after my last principal illegally fired me. This included getting WEA to collude with them by the union not telling me my rights to file an EEOC claim, and with the then-executive director "coincidentally" taking a job working in HR under the very person who put my principal up to doing his dirty work for him. Both of these administrators got moved around, with the former HR chief officer being demoted by Heath Morrison for reasons unclear, and with my principal, an incompetent, moved to another school and eventually became TIF grant coordinator in the central office. Both should have been fired by former sup Paul Dugan, but he never did his job and merely slapped my principal on the wrist. As egregious as what they did is how Morrison did not fire the former principal of Sparks Middle School when it was alleged he had been sleeping with subordinates; instead, he was merely demoted to teacher. He not only should have been fired, but he should have had sanctions on his teaching license, as is done in other states. There is definitely a double standard at work here; it all depends on the tolerance of administrator misconduct by the superintendent. BTW, the White case can be found here: http://dockets.justia.com/docket/nevada/nvdce/3:2011cv00723/83792/

Paladin - 3/18/2013 10:54 AM

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WOW! Comparing Christopher Dorner (its Dorner not Donner) to a possible whisteblower. This WCSD situation has all the makings of a whistleblower and a coverup. Dorner was a homicidal maniac who went on a killing spree and murdered 4 innocent people. Whatever happened to Dorner, it does NOT justify what he did. I am glad he took himself out so we don't have to look at him in the news or pay for his sorry ass in prison for the next 20 years. He just needed to place the suicide ahead of the multiple homicides on his "to do list".

DaveAsh - 3/17/2013 7:48 PM

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kdavis52 - 3/17/2013 10:28 AM

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Sorry, spelling. *Not* being able to be in Education anymore.

kdavis52 - 3/17/2013 10:26 AM

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Do ya think maybe she spoke out about something going on and is being hushed? Partly of what "goodrich" said? Is she going to be another Christopher Donner? He spoke out and look what happened to him. He turned Postal because of the corruption of the LAPD because he spoke out about their corruption. She's probably going to be blacklisted now. No being able to be in Education anymore.

goodrich - 3/16/2013 8:33 PM

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Washoe County School District is hopelessly corrupt. Just like all other public education intstitutions in nearly every state. There is too much upper level (administration) payroll. Classroom teachers are being attacked for the institutional shortcomings on a daily basis. There is too much money going to admin. and "consultants". Most consultants are either retired former employees (administration) or are married to a currently working staff person.

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