Helena Flats saga may finally be over
The Helena Flats school board voted to pay its superintendent a $10,000 severance package at its regular meeting Monday night.
In exchange for the money, Superintendent Paul Jenkins submitted his letter of resignation Monday and will sign a letter indicating he will not sue the school district.
The board's attorneys will draft that letter over the next several days.
The vote effectively closes a long, bitter chapter in the district's history. It also ensures than an investigative report involving Jenkins likely will remain sealed in District Court.
The report outlines the results of an investigation into alleged "inappropriate behavior" by Jenkins toward sixth-grade students on a field trip. It was sealed last month in District Court, when Judge Stewart Stadler granted Jenkins a preliminary injunction to stop a school board hearing to discuss the results of the investigation.
Some parents, including Joe Krueger, who attended Monday's meeting, have asked to see those results. But according to newly elected board chairman Kevin Fritz, other parents don't mind not seeing the report as long as Jenkins is no longer part of the district.
"Those parents just want Paul Jenkins gone," Fritz told Krueger. "They're willing to let it drop. They're very comfortable with trying to end this."
Trying to open the report would cost the school district more money than Jenkins' severance package, Fritz added. If the district kept Jenkins on the payroll while petitioning the court, it would have to pay his salary at least through July. It also would have to pay attorney fees and almost definitely would have to pay to fight an injunction, Fritz said.
He estimated the fight would cost an additional $3,000 to $5,000 out of the district's general fund budget. Even if the board won the battle - and Fritz said he was confident in a victory - the fight wouldn't be in the district's best interest.
"We are not in the business of litigation but in the business of education," he said. "This gets us back into that."
While trustees agreed that it was time the district moves forward, not everyone supported paying Jenkins' severance package. Fritz, Shawn Boelman and Dave Mattson voted in favor of the severance; trustees Jon Lowry and Denis Johnson opposed it.
"I totally agreed with the point that the school district needed to move on. I was all in favor of that," Johnson said Tuesday. "But I felt that there could have been a different way. …
"To me, that's taxpayer money," he said of the severance package. "That's what I was against."
The majority vote terminated Jenkins' contract as the school's principal. The board voted in January not to renew his superintendent's contract, but as principal, Jenkins had tenure and his contract automatically was renewed each year.
For a few weeks, he had two legal contracts with two school districts. In May, Jenkins accepted a position as superintendent of the Charlo School District.
State law says signing a contract with one district doesn't void a contract with another district. The board had to act to end Jenkins' contract with Helena Flats.
In exchange, however, trustees wanted assurances that Jenkins wouldn't sue the district. Jenkins said Monday he would sign a letter stating as much. He signed and submitted his letter of resignation, effective June 30, at the meeting.
As soon as he signs the claims release letter, the board will give Jenkins his $10,000 severance check. He originally wanted $25,000 to cover his moving expenses and help soften the blow of the lower pay he will receive in Charlo.
Jenkins said Monday that he agreed to the smaller severance check after talking with Fritz.
"Because he was up front … and because of his integrity, I could work with that," Jenkins said. "But it's a hard pill to swallow."
Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at