Swan River resolves dispute over maternity leave

Facing one of its largest audiences ever, the Swan River school board came out of closed session Monday evening to narrowly approve an unpaid year's leave of absence for one of its teachers.

Deanna Horsens, a middle school math, world history and computer teacher who has taught three years at Swan River, asked for the leave to stay home with her first child, a son born on July 5.

Board chairman Becky Hughes voted against the leave. Trustees Mark Tudahl, Tamus Gannon and Bob Young supported it, and trustee Lynn Taylor abstained.

All but one of the school's 14 teachers, and a couple of aides, showed up in support of Horsens.

Horsens herself was not at the meeting, after scheduling a trip to Missoula when it appeared she need not attend, but her husband, Cory, was called in on her behalf.

The request for a year's leave came two months after Principal Peter Loyda recommended on June 6 that the board deny her initial request to take one academic quarter. That request was pulled off the May 10 board agenda to give Loyda time to research the matter.

Horsens' initial leave proposal would have begun with the new school year, and continued for the nine weeks of the quarter.

Loyda, after checking with legal counsel, had recommended following the letter of the Swan River Teachers Association master contract and grant six weeks from the date of the baby's birth.

That six-week maternity leave expired before the start of the new teaching year, leaving Horsens legally bound by her signed contract to show up Monday for the first day of the 2005-06 contract year.

The first day of class is today.

Loyda received Horsens' second request, for a year's leave, on Aug. 12, when the baby was five weeks old.

After informally canvassing the board for unofficial consent, and lining up a potential one-year replacement, Loyda worked with the board to schedule an Aug. 24 special meeting to act on the request.

Only three members could attend - the minimum needed for the request to be approved.

But Loyda said the issue was too important to be decided by so few, so the agenda item was moved to a special session on Monday.

Although the matter was resolved and Paul Lovett, a well-qualified fifth/sixth grade teacher at Creston was hired to step into Horsens' duties for the next year, uncomfortable feelings remain on all sides.

The situation brewed against a backdrop of commonly accepted but undocumented past practice, a school board that expanded from three to five trustees in the May election, a principal in his second year with the school who is trying to forge good working relationships and sound employee practices, and what teachers characterize as contentious contract negotiations last spring.

Teachers gathered in the hallway during Monday's brief closed session pointed out that eight-, 10- and 12-week maternity leaves had been granted in the past, even with the six-week clause in their contract. Some claimed that Horsens was targeted because of a personality conflict with trustees.

Hughes and Taylor, on the other hand, suggested Horsens could have acted more professionally by giving more notice of her year's leave request.

Loyda said he wanted to allow as much maternity leave as possible - and had counseled Horsens in April to consider a year's leave to care for the family's first child - but needed to honor a trustee desire to establish clean precedent supportable by the master contract.

Cory Horsens, for his part, is concerned about his wife returning to teach at the school next year under a school board which may not support her. He also wanted faster responses to his wife's leave requests.

"I'm happy with the decision," he said immediately after the meeting Monday, "but not with the process."

Loyda said he believes family should come first. He talked with Deanna Horsens and other teachers and researched the master contract and the federal Family Medical Leave Act to try to support a longer leave. In the end, he said legal advice convinced him to stick with the contract and grant just six weeks from birth of the child.

"It didn't fly well off the bat," Loyda said, "because it didn't look like family came first."

He was satisfied with the board's action.

"This decision tonight was one I advised Deanna to make in April," Loyda said.

He said he's also happy with Lovett being on his staff for the year.

"If I hadn't been able to find a replacement, it would have been a different outcome," Loyda said. "I needed to find someone qualified for that position," which he did with Lovett, who lost his Creston position when the school's declining enrollment forced officials to cut staff this year.

"I'm sure everything will be real smooth," Loyda said. "It won't be the same without her here. But with her being out, it's going to be as good as it could be until her return."

Taylor explained her abstention from voting was based on a need for more direct input from Horsens in order to make a sound decision.

"It was best for the school" to abstain, Taylor said.

"I was hoping that she would come to the meeting so I could hear directly from her."

Loyda explained that, after unofficial conversations with individual trustees last week led him to believe they would support the year's leave, he had let Horsens know she probably would not need to attend Monday's meeting.

But he said the trustees' tone shifted as he talked with them Monday and, combined with the potential that not all supporters might be able to attend, he started making calls in an effort to reach Horsens. His attempts were unsuccessful, however.

Hughes cited a quote from Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf in explaining her "no" vote.

"The truth of the matter is," Hughes said, "you always know the right decision. The tough part is doing it."

She said she does not relish the hard feelings, but admitted that she did not run for the board to make friends.

"I had to vote," Hughes said of her dissension, "because of the contract that was signed, and the fact we were just two weeks before school" when Horsen's request arrived on Loyda's desk.

"We tell our kids to do the right thing, and what kind of example are we setting? Mrs. Horsens didn't do the right thing the right way," Hughes said, "and I decided was going to do the right thing the right way."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com