More than 20 Cardinal Schools employees and district residents attended the board of education meeting Feb. 9 and many implored the board to table agenda item number VI – to no avail.
More than 20 Cardinal Schools employees and district residents attended the board of education meeting Feb. 9 and many implored the board to table agenda item number VI – to no avail.
The board accepted the resignation of Superintendent Bill Kermavner in a 3-2 vote.
Voting in favor of accepting his letter of resignation were board members Barb Rayburn, Linda Smallwood and Kristen Klepper. Board members Wendy Anderson and Katie Thomas loudly voted “No.”
That vote came after Anderson moved to table the item until after the board’s executive session, which failed, 3-2.
After many in the audience spoke in support of Kermavner, who has been superintendent for more than three years and, before that, principal for one year, he responded.
“I would relish the opportunity to speak to the board over some of the things you have asked. I have not been given that opportunity,” he said.
His resignation is set for the end of June 2022, when his four-year contract is up.
The visitors at the meeting demanded to be told why Kermavner would tender his letter.
“We want answers,” said Vanessa Tucholski, a bus driver, adding she believes the superintendent took the action because he was told the board planned not to renew his contract.
“The only reason he resigned was so he would not have a big X on his next job application,” she said.
Smallwood denied having told Kermavner the board planned to fire him.
“He was never told we were not going to renew his contract,” she said.
Tucholski asked how Smallwood knew that, and Rayburn responded.
“I did not tell him,” Rayburn said, adding she is the board president and it would have been her job to do so.
The board and superintendent would not discuss the reasons why Kermavner was resigning, but Smallwood said it was not because of the situation where then-head football coach George Gresko was fired in July for tampering with students’ grades.
“This has nothing to do with Gresko. That was never discussed in relation to Bill,” Smallwood said.
Anderson said Kermavner has guided the district through the pandemic and the substitute shortage caused by it, among other things.
“Bill saved Cardinal from consolidation,” she said, adding he limited remote learning to one semester during COVID-19 and has increased the district’s general fund carryover to more than $1.4 million.
Early in the meeting, Paula Callison testified she has worked for the district for seven years and has three children in Cardinal Schools.
Kermavner is the first superintendent who hasn’t treated those in the transportation department as underdogs, she said.
Callison also credited Kermavner with heading up the transportation department and making the district more fiscally viable.
“He spent three years making decision other superintendents didn’t have the balls to make,” she said, adding Kermavner shares his cell phone number with employees and always answers when they call.
Tucholski said the superintendent knows all the transportation employees by name. She also credited him for helping dig the district out from under the $500,000 debt incurred before he was hired in renovating Cardinal Intermediate School, for improving the district’s financial credit and dealing with the pandemic as it affected students and staff.
“Please reconsider (your decision) because it will affect a number of people in many ways,” said Petra Springer, a bus driver for 15 years.
District resident Mary Foster said some members of the board appear to have a vendetta against Kermavner.
“He does what is right for the school district,” she said.
Kim Martin also used the term “vendetta’ and asked, “Is this what we are teaching our kids?”
Mike Ripley, business owner and father of three boys who attend Cardinal, spoke directly to Kermavner.
“Thank you for everything you have done for our school,” he said, adding to the board, “He’s doing a lot of good here.”
