It's difficult to watch new school board members combine forces with previously elected members to circle the wagons of the Iowa City Community School District and conceal damaging evidence.
Apparently, He Who Must Not Be Named continues as before. When Phil Hemingway, who ran, nearly successfully, for the school board brought up specific instances of physical plant director Paul Schultz's wasteful, unnecessary spending, carrying firearms onto school district property, and a sexist email of a large-busted woman at the physical plant, board member Sarah Swisher was quick to rebuke Phil for his "inappropriate . . . personal attack" on Paul Schultz.
Let's take a long look at how much has not changed at the physical plant and what needs to change. No-bid contracts are still in force, wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars the district can't afford to waste. Paul Schultz, who carried at least one gun onto school district property where a Home Building Program for high school students was based at the time, has not been fired. Nor has he been fired for creating a hostile work environment for women. He hasn't been fired for harassing any employees, male or female, even when the district settled out of court with at least one physical plant employee who sued Paul Schultz for harassment after the employee fell and hurt his back. When the employee came back to work, Schultz assigned him jobs beyond the scope of his physician-ordered work limitations. Then Schultz tried to fire him because he wasn’t qualified to do his job.
Absolutely nothing has changed. Maybe Paul Schultz has stopped bringing weapons onto school district property, a practice which is particularly troubling when you consider the fact that he supervises a hostile work environment. Maybe he has stopped posting sexist emails or directing other employees to post sexist emails.
However, Schultz is still wasting money. Schultz pays more than he needs to for motor oil. He pays more than he should for a lot of things. For example, he doesn't collect late fines when contractors have late fines guaranteed in their contracts if they fail to do construction work on time at City High. You're six months late finishing a job and you owe the district $9,700? Not a problem. The district will gladly absorb the delay and collect no fines.
Should we continue to sweep He Who Must Not Be Named's offenses under the rug when he's still unwilling to spare the school district unnecessary expense? Should Garner Elementary School’s $100,000 parking lot be done over again at district expense because the ground at Garner Elementary School wasn't properly prepared prior to paving it? Bob Porter, the district's former safety coordinator, personally explained to me how the ground should have been prepared for paving to stabilize the land prior to paving it so it wouldn’t have to be done over again.
Why pay the same dollar twice? Why fire staff who know what they’re doing and could have saved the district unnecessary expense?
Do you know that Paul Schultz verbally attacks local vendors when they do something that displeases him? Two vendors, both women, told me personally how Paul Schultz treated them. He swore at them, called them demeaning, sexist names, and generally behaved in a way that one businesswoman said she hadn't heard but two or three times in 30 years of doing business. Both vendors were at first willing to go public, but one later changed her mind, possibly because of her husband’s reaction to Schultz after Schultz verbally abused his wife.
Michele Freeman Crow of Freeman's Locks & Alarms is still willing to go public about how Paul Schultz treated her. She and her business currently do work for the Clear Creek/Amana school district. She reports a pleasant, no-hassle relationship with Clear Creek/Amana without the verbal abuse she experienced while dealing with Schultz.
So does feminist, Johnson County Democratic Party member Sarah Swisher not object to women being treated as objects instead of people? Does she not object to a supervisor creating a hostile work environment for women and men alike? That's an odd stance for her to take, especially if she still works for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a union that purports to protect workers from this kind of abuse.
Maria Houser Conzemius
POSTSCRIPT
Patrick Riepe, the Iowa City Press-Citizen’s online editor, removed the above blog post from the Press-Citizen’s website after it had been posted for several days and had received 23 recommendations. This is Maria’s first blog post to be removed since Jeff Charis-Carlson, the opinion page editor, fired her from the Press-Citizen’s Writers’ Group for refusing to accept his editing of her article, “Safety Violations and Firearms in the ICCSD” on the April 2011 section of this website.
Jeff deleted all references to ICCSD physical plant director Paul Schultz by name, and deleted a reference to Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness’ refusal to prosecute Schultz for carrying one or more firearms onto school district property, which is a Class D felony. Lyness’ specious reasoning rationalizing her decision at the time was that the district’s physical plant was not a “school” although a Home Building Program for students was located at the physical plant at the time. Students had access to home-building materials and bathrooms at the plant. If a student carried firearms into a school, he or she would be expelled.
Charis-Carlson also strongly implied in his edited version of Maria’s piece that Dave Gurwell, retired assistant physical plant director, was responsible for serious safety violations that occurred in Iowa City schools after Bob Porter, the former safety coordinator, had his position eliminated for doing his job too well. Maria refused to accept Jeff’s editing, which compromised the piece enough to say something she didn’t say and knew was not factually true. Gurwell told Schultz that he wasn’t qualified to take the job that was foisted on him to no avail. Schultz added Bob Porter’s safety coordinator position to Gurwell’s already significant responsibilities as assistant director. Gurwell soon took early retirement, as have other physical plant employees.
After arguing with Jeff about the inaccuracy of his excessive editing, Maria was then fired from the Writers’ Group in March 2011, but allowed to keep her blog and invited to write an occasional guest opinion.
We all got additional clues as to what the Press-Citizen wants in the way of news and opinion about the school district in senior day editor Tricia Brown’s 12/3/11 editorial, “Changes in the Press-Citizen’s coverage of school.”
“Our goal is to continue to provide Press-Citizen readers with good news about our schools and our students, while showcasing the talents of the young journalists . . . . We look forward to this new partnership with our high local schools [sic] and to continuing to provide quality coverage of K-12 education, including positive news about your schools and your students.”
Is it a newspaper’s job to publish nothing but good news about a school district with serious flaws? Is it a newspaper’s job to suppress criticism of the school district, including its Occupational and Safety Health Act violations and fines; Department of Natural Resources violations and fines; Internal Revenue Service violation and fine; a district supervisor carrying firearms onto school district property; the physical plant’s hostile, sexist work environment; mismanagement of funds; expensive legal fees to reduce fines and settle lawsuits by harassed and injured employees out of court, and the superintendent’s refusal to fire administrators who waste funds on no-bid contracts with their cronies in private business?
It would seem that that despite the fact that criticism brings serious problems to light so that they can be fixed, the Press-Citizen is unwilling to publish hard news and op-eds that are critical of the school district. Why is our local newspaper serving as a public relations arm of the school district and the current, completely unacceptable status quo? If the Press-Citizen is willing to fill that role, why is the district paying a public relations executive to elevate the district’s image?
