Slater's contract to expire in 2021

BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - After three closed sessions over the past five weeks, including an hour-long session Monday night, the Fort Madison school board has taken no action on Superintendent Dr. Erin Slater's contract.

Board President Dr. Tim Wondra said after the meeting their will be no action taken on the contract, but the contract was not extended beyond the expiration of the contract on June 30, 2021.

Wondra said the review was actually an annual scheduled review that got delayed due to personnel changes on the board. He said with the new board members coming on in the special election, the regular evaluation kind of got pushed back.

"It was my fault it got pushed back. We had it planned to do it, but then it got expanded with all this and it went from one to possibly two sessions to these extended sessions," Wondra said.

He said no action on the contract was put on the agenda because no action was required.

"The only reason to have a contract on the agenda would be if we were either going to change it or increase pay and since we're not doing either of those, there wasn't anything to act on," he said.

He said to buy out Slater's contract would have been too heavy a burden on the district.

"Part of our job is to be financially responsible. For the taxpayers' money if you have someone that has a multi-year contract to get out of, they have no incentive without getting a whole chunk of money," Wondra said.

"To be financially responsible we can't buy out contracts. When you're looking at a $180,000 contract, to buy that out and to pay somebody else at the same time, that's significant to the district."

The regular review was extended due to allegations that Slater had demanded additional playing time for her son at a meeting with Fort Madison Head Basketball Coach Ryan Wilson at her office.

Wilson went public with the allegations last month, two days after Slater's husband Scott confronted him at a basketball camp in Quincy. The confrontation was caught on tape and was posted locally on social media.

Slater also communicated with the board via email that she was concerned with shared programs, specifically the baseball program, hurting Fort Madison High School athletes who were losing playing time to Holy Trinity Catholic players. Slater scheduled a meeting with Wondra and Fort Madison Athletic Director Jeremy Swink to discuss the issue, but that meeting was canceled and never rescheduled.

Holy Trinity Catholic had five players on a squad of 30 for this summer's Bloodhound baseball team.

On June 16, the board received a letter that was also sent to area news outlets from a Slater personal email account indicating the superintendent would not be signing an extension to her contract. The emailed letter was sent from the initials S.S.