Lakeland school board under fire for dismissing superintendent; critics say trustees should resign

RATHDRUM – Dozens of community members crowded a Lakeland School District meeting Wednesday night and asked trustees to either reverse their decision putting Superintendent Rusty Taylor on leave, or resign from the school board.

An open letter signed by 84 people, including former employees, called the trustees’ recent decision to place Taylor on leave and pay him more than $200,000 to complete his contract last month “vindictive.”

“Unfortunately, the Board’s recent actions have brought shame and humiliation upon the great institution for which we once worked, love and pay taxes to support,” the letter reads. “Students, staff and patrons do not deserve the ridicule the Lakeland community is now enduring at the hands of the Board’s ineptitude.”

Those who signed the letter included Bob Jones, a former superintendent and trustee who did not run for re-election to the board last November; Lisa Arnold, who retired early as superintendent last year; Chuck Kinsey, who retired as superintendent in 2008; and Ron Schmidt, a former assistant superintendent who retired in 2012.

Arnold recently called the district’s work environment “toxic” due to the board’s actions.

Taylor’s departure, after less than a year on the job, is the latest in a series of high-profile exits from the school district that enrolls students from Rathdrum, Spirit Lake, Hauser Lake, Twin Lakes and other areas north of Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene.

The district has had four superintendents in the last four years and trustees have also cycled through at least seven board clerks in six years, according to meeting minutes.

Trustees ousted Taylor with little public explanation.

School board chair Michelle Thompson told Idaho Education News that Taylor was “not a good fit.” He was not investigated for any kind of wrongdoing.

Idaho Education News filed public records requests to shed light on Taylor’s departure. The school district is demanding more than $1,000 to release the records and has heavily redacted other documents.

Thompson read a statement from the trustees acknowledging the community’s questions about the unanimous vote.

“As much as we would like to answer your question, state law prevents us from sharing information about the performance of a public employee,” Thompson read. “It is our duty to act within the best interests of the district, even if our legal limitations make more questions than answers. Providing answers to questions regarding the performance of any district employee could open the door for legal action and additional costs that would not be in the best interest of the district.”

The board did not respond to the open letter read by former teacher Allison Knoll.

“Board members could help restore trust and repair some of the damage by rescinding their action and restoring” Taylor to his rightful position, Knoll read from the letter. Otherwise, trustees should “resign their position immediately.”

The letter said people are starting to call Lakeland “NIC 2.0” referring to the accreditation struggles North Idaho College went through in recent years. Other people who signed the letter included Mary and Will Havercroft, who both previously worked in the district. Mary Havercroft is a current NIC trustee.

Judy Fujimoto thanked trustees for their leadership and said she personally had experiences with Taylor she “found unpleasant.”

“I trust that your decision was made in good faith,” she said.

Aaron Gaskill said the board’s letter notifying the community of Taylor’s departure was “anything but transparent.” He added that Lakeland’s redactions and fees charged for public records are a bad look.

Trustee Dave Quimby has said he’s frustrated that he can’t share publicly why the board put Taylor on leave.

“I’m trying not to talk about it, I want to so bad,” Quimby said. “It’s frustrating.”

He said he’s supportive of releasing any records that could shed light on the board’s decision without causing legal issues.

“Well, I think we should waive it,” Quimby said of the fee the district intends to charge for public records.

Thompson said she was “at a loss on that” in regard to the records request expense when asked before the meeting on Wednesday, despite being included on emails regarding the public records request.

Lisa Arnold, who was a career educator at Lakeland and hired as superintendent in 2022 after the board didn’t renew former superintendent Becky Meyers’ contract, tried to work with the board.

Her first year leading the district went well and she said she considered her relationship with board chair Thompson as amicable.

Then in 2023, trustees voted not to renew an agreement with Heritage Health to provide mental health services to students on campus. Following community backlash at the next board meeting, trustee Quimby changed his vote to allow services to continue.

The day of that second board meeting, Arnold said Thompson “reamed” her over the phone, accusing the superintendent of organizing the community against the board.

“I kept telling her I didn’t do that,” Arnold said.

Thompson seemed unconvinced, Arnold said. “From that point forward, the whole relationship changed.”

The district’s supplemental levy also failed twice during Arnold’s leadership, sparking millions of dollars in budget cuts. The board micromanaged the cuts at a series of public meetings, Arnold said, rather than allowing district leaders to bring proposed options.

“They’re so in the weeds and wanting to be the ones to make all the decisions because their interpretation of adopting a budget is making all the budgetary decisions, which is not how it’s supposed to be,” Arnold said.

Lakeland is the only large school district in the state that is not a member of the Idaho School Boards Association, which provides legal support and model board policies to districts.

“The Board’s excuse has always been ‘we can’t afford the membership fee,’ ” the open letter reads. “Yet now, we as taxpayers are expected to foot the bill for a contract payoff approaching $200,000. Maybe a few dollars spent on professional training would have helped prevent such poor decision-making.”