MORTON, Ill. – Controversy in the Morton School District, as a Freedom of Information Act request yields copies of e-mails sent to a principal on topics such as Critical Race Theory, sexual education, LGBTQ, and others.
Parents both for and against Grundy Elementary School Principal Michael Saunders, and the Peoria National Organization of Women chapter, flooded a school board meeting Tuesday night – some saying he needs to go, some saying just because he received the e-mails on what could be considered right-wing talking points, doesn’t mean he actually supported or responded to them.
“I am asking Principal Saunders, Superintendent (Dr. Craig) Smock, and board member Diane Krall step down or be removed from their positions within the school district,” said Michelle Gaede, parent, to laughter from others in the crowd Tuesday. It’s not clear why Gaede called out Krall.
Others spoke in support of Saunders.
“We have no control over what emails we get in our publicly facing accounts. We call it spam for a reason,” said Dan Beckler, parent of a former Grundy student. “Never once did I see anything other than complete professionalism [from Saunders].”
Others used the controversy to bring up their own views on the issues, while the district’s superintendent and school board president have openly supported Saunders. Statements from Smock and school board president Tim Braker are below.
Board members, according to 25 News, don’t have to respond to public comments until the end of the next meeting.
Good Evening, Grundy Guardians and Parents,
I want to address an article that you may have seen that attempts to disparage the character of Michael Saunders and contains errors about our district policies and the Freedom of Information Act results of his emails. It is on the Illinois Eagle website. You may have seen quite a bit of talk about this through social media as well.
First of all, I want to make it clear that Michael Saunders’ conduct with students or staff is not an issue in this article because he has had no inappropriate conduct with students or staff. And, if you investigate the author of the article, you will see that she was part of a recent federal lawsuit in which she was made to write a lengthy, detailed, public apology admitting that she made false statements intended to harm people’s reputations. Click this link. (Bonnie Kurowski,) I think that this will answer your question as to why Mr. Saunders was targeted for this attack on his character. It was not based upon any actual violation of school board policy nor any actual violation of ethics or improper conduct with students or staff.
In fact, the truth is that the district does not have a policy that forbids the use of our employees’ district email accounts for personal use. Policy 5:125 was referenced in the article, and Policy 5:125, item #8, actually states, “Use personal technology and social media for personal purposes only during non-work times or hours. Any duty-free use must occur during times and places that the use will not interfere with duties or otherwise be disruptive to the school environment or its operation.” Our employee handbook also indicates that personal messages are allowed. The assertion that this is not allowed was one of several untruths in the article. So, I want to be clear that we actually do allow our employees to receive non-school-related emails, even if they pertain to political or religious topics or organizations. Also, the emails referenced were emails that Mr. Saunders received, and not emails that he wrote.
There is much more that I could say with respect to correcting the errors and misinformation in the article and upholding Mr. Saunders’ outstanding character. However, I will conclude by saying that our faculty and staff respect the religious, or non-religious, beliefs of all students, parents, and staff. Our Board recently approved a policy (6:82) to solidify this fact. We will always respect one another’s beliefs knowing that, although they greatly differ, and we come from many different worldviews, we will remain neutral, and the actions of our faculty and staff will always reflect fair, ethical, equitable, kind, and loving treatment of ALL students.
Thank you for your attention to this email and for any support you could send Mr. Saunders’ way.
Have a nice evening.
Craig Smock, Superintendent
On behalf of the Board, I want to take a moment to address an article that criticized the FOIA’ed contents of Michael Saunders’ email.
First of all, employees are generally allowed to use their school email for some personal use, as long as personal use does not interfere with their work. We have reviewed our policies and employee handbook language, and both make that clear.
The board has addressed the importance of neutrality that we require in our employees in a fairly recent policy that the board passed.
Policy 6:82 states, in part,
MORTON CUSD 709 is committed to promoting and maintaining the utmost respect for all of our students and the various ethnicities and ideologies that those in our community possess.
It also states:
It is a high priority and an important goal of MORTON CUSD 709 to provide our students with the knowledge, tools, and skills needed to successfully navigate our global society as adults, regardless of the worldview they choose to adopt.
So, it is our expectation that everyone in our district treats one another with respect, dignity, and kindness.
Michael Saunders has a longstanding record of being a very effective and fair-minded educator in our district, showing kindness and caring to both his students and his staff. We fully support his leadership of Grundy Elementary School.
–Tim Braker, Morton CUSD 709 President
(25 News contributed to this report.)
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