Change in superintendent evaluation process

CLINTONVILLE – Due to the Clintonville Board of Education disagreeing about which two board members would conduct a preliminary meeting regarding the evaluation of Clintonville Superintendent Troy Kuhn, his entire evaluation will be conducted by all seven members of the board in closed session.
The board agreed to that process when it met Feb. 24. The evaluation in closed session will have a one-hour time limit.
At the Feb. 24 board meeting, Board President Glen Drew Lundt said, “I was out of town and I come back to a hornet’s nest of, I don’t honestly know what happened or what the confusion is.”
He added that at the Feb. 9 board meeting, Board Vice President Kris Strauman had volunteered to be one of the two board members to meet with Kuhn regarding his job evaluation. Board member Christopher Hoffmann was absent from that meeting, but Lundt said he appointed Hoffmann to be the board’s other representative.
“Everyone was OK with that, and then towards the end of that conversation, (board member) Mark (Zachow) said if he (Hoffmann) can’t make it because he’s out of town and however that comment went, Mark would do it,” Lundt said.

Lundt said when he returned, he asked Strauman in an email, “What’s going on?” and that he still did not have a response to that email.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” Lundt said. “I thought the process was the exact same thing as before. The exception, Mr. Hoffmann was being added because he’s never been part of the process before.”
To rectify the issue, Lundt said maybe the board needs to eliminate the preliminary meeting with the superintendent and just have a closed session with all board members present to discuss the superintendent evaluation.
Strauman responded to Lundt and said she sent him an email in which she said Hoffmann told her the preliminary meeting had to be at 3:30 p.m. because Kuhn has a district to run.
“First of all, this is part of his job, is an evaluation, so to expect him to stay after hours on another day is wrong,” Strauman said. “This is part of his job. Secondly, if you want to change the process, as I said in my email, I’m done. I don’t need to be part of it.”
Later in the discussion, Hoffmann clarified that he suggested the preliminary meeting be held at 3:30 p.m., but it was not a demand.
Strauman also said, “If you think it is a trust issue, which has been brought up by, if you think it’s a trust issue, I don’t want any kind of a witch hunt. I don’t want any part of that.”
Lundt said he did not understand why people think the process was being changed.
“It’s a witch hunt,” Strauman said. “And I think we should do it just like you said. Run a closed session.”
Lundt asked Strauman how the process would be changing.
Strauman said Zachow had volunteered to be part of the preliminary meeting, and his schedule coincides with her schedule.
Kuhn said there have been comments made throughout the community that insinuated that some board members would hold him more accountable than other board members.
“I made it very clear to Drew, and I’ll make it very clear to all the other board members, I can have a conversation with Ben (Huber) as well, all of you hold me accountable in different ways because you all have different expertise,” Kuhn said.
Kuhn added that he does not care if there is a preliminary meeting for his evaluation, but added that a preliminary meeting does “streamline the process.”
“However, when push comes to shove, all of you are ultimately responsible for me,” Kuhn said. “So, maybe it is best we change the process and we just have a closed session and not do the preliminary meeting.”
The board was also informed by Kuhn that the district does not have an official job description for the superintendent position.
“Just so you guys are aware of that,” Kuhn said.
Because of that he presented the board with a generic superintendent job description, as well as a list of the duties he currently does.