Past Newfound school board member defends allegation of improper behavior

BRISTOL — A group of citizens asked the Newfound Area School Board to take action against a former school board member for questioning the need for the district to pay for one-on-one nursing care. They claimed by raising the issue, Francine Wendelboe had exposed the identity of the student. But in making the complaint, they revealed who that student is.

During the school board’s April 13 meeting, one of the complainants said they reached out to the family to get their permission to submit their complaint. The child's mother, Elsie Myers, asked they include her letter with the public letter.

“Every parent worries about their child being bullied, and they worry even more so when they have a child with special needs. However, it should never be a worry that a school board member, one who is a former state legislator as well, is the person to be concerned about,” Myers wrote.

Wendelboe posted on social media she learned a student in the district has a one-on-one nurse who spends the entire day with them, at taxpayer expense.

A "school — even with another full time nurse on the premises, have [sic] to provide a nurse,” Wendelboe wrote. “While i sympathize with this child, someone needs to define something that is just outside the scope of education costs.”

When others complained about her comment, Wendelboe responded, “I think special ed costs are out of control.”

The discussion occurred while the school board was considering the elimination of all extra-curricular activities, including school sports, to meet budget constraints. Wendelboe suggested instead the school board work to reduce special education costs, and said voters could reject the new teachers’ contract she had helped negotiate, or vote down special warrant articles in order to save athletics.

“Have we tried to put pressure on the state and feds to fund THEIR onerous mandates? no. have we been open to consolidate our aging tiny schools into more efficient ones? no,” she wrote.

In her letter to Superintendent Paul Hoiriis, which was read into the public record, Myers wrote, “Ms. Wendelboe has taken it upon herself to publicly discuss identifiable details about my son on social media. Having a child with complex medical needs stands out in a small community, and it does not take much to identify when someone is describing anything about him as a student. The fact that she chose to direct blame for the budgeting issues towards his needs, is already greatly unprofessional, but also a direct violation of privacy, and from my understanding is also incorrect.

“I will say that it is overwhelmingly heartwarming to see the number of community members who stood up in order to speak out and voice their justifiable outrage of Ms. Wendelboe’s behavior.

“I hope that the school district takes this as seriously as I do, in addition to everyone I have been in contact with so far.”

Wendelboe asked to respond to the complaint, handing out copies of the complaint letter, her social media posts, and the applicable state statute. She noted she redacted the parent’s name and the gender of the child to protect their privacy, “even though the parent willingly provided those, since this has been scheduled at a public meeting.”

She continued, “to my knowledge, the board never discussed the child or the situation in non-public. I violated no non-public information, nor information I privately received in my role as a board member. I did ask a question at a public school board meeting when we were discussing the policy of a one-on-one nurse. I asked if this was just verbiage, in case we ever had that situation. I was informed at that public meeting that we had one already, for a year and a half, door-to-door. I asked no name, no gender, no age, no school, nothing specific to the student. Until the mother sent her complaint, her information as to name and gender was totally unknown to me.”

Wendelboe clarified she had not blamed the budget shortfall on special education services.

I "commented, 'Some students do need special education,' and sympathized with their needs, but said these costs were exceeding education in scope, and suggested, if the state or federal mandated it, they should have to pay the full cost. And that schools should specifically lobby for that. Teacher, health care costs, and closing Danbury were other suggestions I made, while providing a private-duty nurse was used as an example of a medical, not educational cost.

“These accusations of me identifying personal information are baseless and an attempt to besmirch my reputation.

"If she or the board wants to continue this nonsense, I request a full public hearing. Since I did not run for re-election, I am no longer a school board member, and a private citizen with rights against defamation.”

The school district attorney already affirmed the school board had no standing in the matter, and the board voted it “does not endorse, condone, or support in any way, any of the statements that were made prior to the complaint, and to include the complaint, or the responses made because of the complaint.”

Board member Dennis Fitton, of Alexandria, who made the motion, added, “In no way do I downplay any of this. It’s very serious. We have a responsibility as elected officials, leading up to it, during it, and even following it. Sometimes opinions are best kept to yourselves.”