School board president censured

CLINTONVILLE – Glen Drew Lundt, president of the Clintonville Board of Education, has been censured by the Clintonville Board of Education after an investigation into a complaint filed against Lundt by a private citizen.
The censure of Lundt came at the Dec. 8 board meeting after almost two hours of discussion in closed session by the board. Lundt did not participate in the closed session discussion. The censure was approved by a 4-2-1 vote. Board Vice President Kris Strauman and board member Mark Zachow voted against the censure. Lundt abstained from the vote.

Strauman statement
Prior to reading a statement from the independent counsel, Strauman shared her feelings about the investigation. In her statement, Strauman stated Lundt participated in an open forum on Nov. 3, 2025, in which he presented himself as president of the Clintonville School Board. The forum has been publicly posted on YouTube. In this forum, the moderator asked participants about complaints they have received.
“Drew responded with, ‘I guess someone in our community sent a complaint to our vice president’ and I quote, ‘she took it upon herself to take it to a lawyer,’” Strauman said. “The record needs to be set straight. A community member filed a formal complaint. As the complaint involved the board president, pursuant to Board Policy 0144.5 it becomes the responsibility as vice president to oversee the investigation.”

Strauman said she needed to contact the  independent counsel per board policy.
“The investigation was completed by an independent investigator, and the findings have been presented to all board members,” Strauman said. “The decision as to what to do with the investigation results is a decision to be made by the entire board. All approved board policies pertaining to this process have been followed to the letter.”

Attorney statement
Strauman read to the board, a statement from the district’s legal counsel: “The independent investigator retained to investigate a citizen compliant pursuant to Board Policy 0144.5 concluded that the president’s conduct was sometimes, overbearing, crude, and demeaning to other board members and the public, but did not recommend the removal from the office of president or other specific discipline. However, the independent investigator who concluded that Mr. Lundt was responsible for interfering with the investigation and attempting to influence its outcome by way of an anonymous letter with attachments sent to board members and some members of the public. The independent investigator concluded that such conduct was, absolutely incompatible with the role of board president.”
It would be up to the board to decide if it should take any action against Lundt, Strauman said.

Actions could include removing Lundt from the role of board president; censure, which would be a public reprimand; or closure of the investigation with no further action.

Open records request
The Clintonville Tribune-Gazette did file an open records request with the Clintonville School District for a copy of the completed investigation report against Lundt. Regarding that open records request, Clintonville Superintendent Troy Kuhn responded via email, “The investigation report is attorney-client privilege. The only way it can become an open records request is if a board member requests that it become an open record. It would then be redacted and a vote would need to take place.”

Police report
After the board voted to censure Lundt, Lundt told the board he had given each board member a copy of a police report from the Clintonville Police Department, dated April 7, 2025, that pertained to an investigation about Lundt.

The Clintonville Tribune-Gazette did obtain a copy of this police report via an open records request through the Clintonville Police Department. Since the school board’s investigation report against Lundt was not released to the public, it is uncertain if the police report Lundt referred to is related to the board’s investigation of Lundt.
The official complainant of the police report was Terry Lorge, who is a previous police chief for the Clintonville Police Department. According to the report, Lorge stated “he had received some information about some possible threats made to Lora Ferg.” After Captain Dennis Schroeder investigated the matter, Ferg stated she didn’t want it “followed up any further.” This closed the investigation.
Also, while the investigation into Lundt was discussed in closed session over the period of several board meetings, Lundt presented the police report and made accusations against a fellow board member in open session.
Regarding the police report, according to Lundt, “I’ve been accused of some really bad things.”
He claimed that the police report “basically shows there’s certain people in the community, one of them is here, that have lied, coerced other people to lie.”
Lundt claimed Zachow talked to another person in the community to start a complaint against Lundt. Zachow’s name was mentioned on page seven of the police report.
Lundt asked Zachow why he didn’t bring his concerns to the school board.
“Because I used to work for the Clintonville Police Department and I talked to somebody that I trusted who was on the Police and Fire Commission,” Zachow said.
“It just seems weird that you’d do that anonymously,” Lundt said. “Since you worked for the police department, why not just go there yourself? It’s all that kind of stuff that creates this tension.”
Zachow responded, “I honestly feel that if I would have made the report, it wouldn’t have been investigated.”
Board member Chistopher Hoffmann raised a point of order, and asked what Lundt was looking to accomplish with the current discussion.
“I just feel if we are going to hold everybody to a standard, then we all should be held to the same standard and nitpicking little technicalities isn’t helping pull the board together,” Lundt said. “…I agree with you (Kris) Strauman that it’s our policy. We should adhere to it. But that doesn’t mean we get to pick and choose who we force to adhere to it. All of us need to play by the same rules and have open discussions, and come together so we can start moving forward.”
Hoffmann said it was his feeling that the board was going to find a way to move forward.
“Let bygones be bygones from the past and move forward,” Hoffmann said. “…I think for the sake of our children, let’s all act like adults and move forward and not allow these things to happen in the future.”