Ousted State Schools Official’s Credentials Being Investigated
The state Department of Education’s Professional Standards Commission has opened an investigation into the status of ousted Chief Deputy Superintendent Terry Haws’ teaching certificate.
Haws was fired from the state agency Jan. 27, just before a report that he had been accused of soliciting sex from a minor in exchange for drugs in the early 1980s when he was teaching in Alaska.
Sixteen days earlier, he pleaded guilty to inattentive driving after Boise prosecutors agreed to drop drunken-driving charges.
Commission Director Jim Smith said he began his review last week after a signed formal complaint was submitted to his office.
He would not identify the complainant but said the request was filed in light of the charges lodged in Alaska.
Haws eventually pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and was fined $350, sentenced to 60 days in jail, all suspended, and put on probation for three years.
He holds a valid Idaho teaching certificate and was living in the Boise area when he became Anne Fox’s campaign manager last year. He was named her chief deputy when she took office as state schools superintendent.
According to state law, teaching certificates can be reviewed any time new evidence of ethical misconduct is revealed.
“The goal at this point is to have the investigation done by March 17 so it can be submitted to the Executive Committee of the PSC,” Smith said.
That committee would decide whether to pursue a hearing to revoke Haws’ certificate.
Haws could opt to relinquish his certificate to avoid the possibility of his case being turned over to a hearing panel.
Haws has been an adjunct professor at Gonzaga University in Spokane and was principal of the Alternative High School in Nampa, Idaho, an assistant principal in Denver, a music teacher at an Alaska community college and a principal in Western Washington.
Records show he also still holds a valid teaching certificate in Washington state.