A Failed Coup d’Etat?
ATTEMPT TO OUST PIERPONT FALLS SHORT
An apparent attempt to dump Deanna
Pierpont as Mercer School Board president fell short by one vote. Two of the five board members voted no to a
motion to reelect the present board, which included Pierpont, who is
Administrator Erik Torkelson’s protector, as president.
While the reelected officers also include
Noel Brandt as vice president, Kelly Kohegyi, Torkelson’s mother-in law, as
clerk, and Micki Pierce-Holmstrom as treasurer, it was clear that the “no” vote
was intended to get rid of Pierpont and possibly even Kohegyi.
Board members Christa Reinert and
Brandt voted no on the motion by board member Pierce- Holmstrom to reelect the
present board. While there appeared to
be an interest in making a change, Pierce-Holmstrom’s motion should probably come
as no surprise because she has been a Pierpont/Kohegyi/Torkelson cohort and has
sat mute when questions of administration improprieties were raised.
Pierpont has come under fire for withholding
information about how Torkelson received a salary of $132,040 ($161,336 with
benefits) when his contract limits his pay to $98,000. She has not helped in making public
information about misspending of Fund 80 money, and has attempted to restrict
the rights of board members to speak at meetings.
When the “50 Shades of Grey” scandal
erupted, Pierpont failed to take a leadership role in disciplining her close friend
Kohegyi and teacher Robyn Schoeneman for renting and showing the sexually
explicit R-rated movie to young school girls.
Instead, Pierpont suggested obtaining a restraining order against
Christa, who had become very vocal about demanding disciplinary action. The restraining order has since expired.
For the benefit of those who may not
be familiar with the “50 Shades” scandal (although we don’t know how that would
be possible because the event received national – even international –
publicity) the page one story from the Milwaukee Journal follows:
'Fifty Shades of Grey'
viewing sparks battle at Northwoods school
A decision by two high school volleyball coaches — one a
teacher, the other a School Board member — to show the sexploitation film
"Fifty Shades of Grey" to a carful of teenage girls has plunged a
tiny town in northern Wisconsin into a contentious and highly personal School
Board race.
Mercer High School parent and School Board candidate
Christa Reinert was slapped with a restraining order last month, accused of
harassing Robyn Schoeneman, the teacher who — along with School Board member
Kelly Kohegyi — allowed members of the girls volleyball team to watch the movie
on a road trip to a tournament.
Schoeneman describes Reinert in court records as a
volatile bully who has waged a seven-month campaign of "harassment,
intimidation and slander" in an effort to get her fired.
Reinert denies the accusations and calls them politically
motivated. She says Schoeneman sought the court's protection only after Reinert
declared her candidacy in January, and that the teacher did so at the urging of
School Board President Deanna Pierpont — one of two candidates up for
re-election Tuesday.
"They're trying to defame me and keep me from being
on the School Board because I don't see eye-to-eye with the administration on
grading and other issues," said Reinert, who runs the Flambeau Flowage
Sports and adjacent Looney Beans Coffee shops on Highway 51, the main drag
through this Iron County town of 1,400.
Reinert insists she holds no animosity toward Schoeneman
— she points to the friendly texts they've exchanged in recent months — but
says the school district mishandled the film incident. And she thinks
Schoeneman is being used in a way that lets Kohegyi off the hook.
"There's more going on here," Reinert said of
her ongoing concerns about the district, which include bullying and a lack of
transparency. "But this (film) was the straw that broke the camel's
back."
Schoeneman, who is considering filing a lawsuit,
according to her petition, declined to comment, referring questions to her
attorney, Daniel Snyder. He did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Pierpont and Kohegyi also did not respond. Mercer Principal and Administrator
Erik Torkelson said he would talk only about Mercer's kudos from the state for its efforts to close achievement gaps and promote effective
teaching, learning and good governance.
Beyond close-knit
Mercer, billed as the "loon capital of the
world," is a small town in southern Iron County whose lakes and forests
draw vacationers and outdoor enthusiasts most of the year. The town is home to
the tiny Mercer School District, which serves about 140 students in
kindergarten through 12th grade in a single school.
Current and former residents describe the town as
close-knit, overly so, where many families are related by blood or by marriage.
Torkelson, for example, is the son-in-law of School Board member and coach
Kohegyi. And Schoeneman, who teaches fourth-through-sixth-grade science and
health, grew up with his wife and was a bridesmaid in their wedding.
Transplants, they say — even those like Reinert, who've
lived there for decades — tend to be eyed with suspicion.
"If you weren't born here, you're an outsider,"
said Dick Kemplin, a retired Chicago executive who has lived in the community
full time for 20 years and has tangled with the School Board over taxes and
transparency.
"When I spoke at a School Board meeting, a guy told
me to 'go back to Arizona where you came from,'" said Kemplin, a Reinert
supporter. "I was only there once, in 1950 on a troop train heading for
the Korean War."
Road trip film
The controversy surrounding the film stems from August
2015 when Schoeneman and Kohegyi drove the girls volleyball team to Oconto
Falls, en route to a tournament in Crivitz.
According to court records, Schoeneman explained that she
drove the freshmen and Kohegyi carted the juniors and seniors.
Schoeneman says the older girls picked out the film at
the local grocery store and that she initially objected. They argued that
everyone in the car was either 17 — the age limit for an R-rated film — or had
already seen it. She agreed to rent it, but said it would be up to Kohegyi
whether they could watch it. They did, she said, with headphones on, in the
back of Kohegyi's Suburban.
The 2015 film was based on the blockbuster erotica
trilogy that featured the sadomasochistic sexual escapades of a young woman and
her psychologically manipulative lover. The books, widely derided as poorly
written "mommy porn," were banned by some libraries and drew protests
from women's organizations that called it misogynistic.
"At no time was any girl in my car subject to the
content of the movie, or discussion about the movie," Schoeneman says in
her petition.
Reinert, whose 14-year-old daughter rode in Schoeneman's
car, disputes that, but says it misses the point.
"There's just no place for it with kids," said
Reinert, who called the movie degrading to women.
"If they told you they smoked a joint and had sex
with their boyfriends, would you let them do it again? It's setting a precedent
for bad behavior... and condoning it," she said.
According to the transcript of the two-hour restraining
order hearing before Iron County Circuit Judge Patrick Madden, the girls who
viewed the video were 16 and 17. Torkelson, the school administrator, testified
that he spoke with the parents of all of those girls and that they "had
zero issue with the incident."
He said Schoeneman and Kohegyi were properly disciplined,
but neither he nor Schoeneman would say what that involved
Kohegyi did not respond to requests for comment and did
not testify at the hearing.
Schoeneman says Reinert has accused her of committing sex
crimes against children by renting the film for them, and insists she is behind
one of the anonymous letters sent to Sheriff Tony Furyk demanding he
investigate.
Torkelson testified during the hearing that the ordeal
has taken a toll on the school and Schoeneman.
"We've had a successful and vibrant staff member who
has become a shell of her former self."
Her issue, she says, is that the school district handled
the matter in secret.
"I told her to read the statute.... I never once
implied that she should be fired or they should be prosecuted," Reinert
said. "My point was that they were pushing it under the rug and acting
like it's no big deal. And it is a big deal."
Reinert, who represented herself at the restraining order
hearing, has since secured an attorney. He filed motions last week asking
Madden to reconsider his decision and schedule a new trial, saying new evidence
has emerged proving Reinert didn't write the anonymous letter to the sheriff: a
signed affidavit from its author.
Even if she had, it would not constitute harassment, said
attorney John Stella, because it's "a legitimate exercise of free speech
by a concerned citizen."
Stella also questions how Torkelson could have
disciplined Kohegyi, his mother-in-law and employer.
"In what fantasy world can a district administrator
discretely discipline his own boss?" he says in one of the filings.
Reinert insists that she and her family are the ones
being harassed. She says her freshman daughter has been needled by the
volleyball captains and singled out for criticism by the coaches since her
mother began speaking up. And in February, Reinert says, she received an
anonymous envelope in the mail. In it were open-enrollment forms — a suggestion
that she move her freshmen twins to another school district.
Two days after the restraining order was issued,
Torkelson called the police on Reinert when she brought her children's lunches
to the school.
Sheriff's investigation
The Iron County Sheriff's Office did investigate the
incident involving the film, though Lt. Paul Samardich said he only interviewed
Torkelson and not the parents of the teen girls. He did not recommend charges,
saying it was a "matter for the school administration to deal with, and it
appears they have done so."
This isn't the first controversy to engulf the Mercer
School District.
The board was admonished last year by Iron County
District Attorney Marty Lipske for violating state open meetings law two years
earlier.
It's also not the first time Reinert has been subject to
a restraining order, or that Schoeneman's judgment has been called into
question.
A county dispatcher obtained a restraining order against
Reinert in 2005 over comments she made after Reinert's husband was injured in a
motorcycle accident.
Schoeneman was fired in 2009 over an incident involving
fellow chaperon and board member Shannon Hiller during a senior trip to
Florida. Schoeneman was rehired, but Hiller lost his seat in a recall.
Schoeneman went on to sue another School Board member and
his wife, a fellow teacher, accusing them of defamation and interfering with
her job for statements they made about the incident. The lawsuit was dismissed
with no financial settlement.
Others interviewed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel say
Reinert can be tough, outspoken, even strident — "She hunts bears with
bows and arrows," said Thiede, a supporter. But they said they also took
issue with the showing of the film, and agreed with Reinert that most people
are afraid to speak up.
"Families in this town are so intertwined — if
you're not happy with something, you're not going to stick your neck out,"
Reinert said. "I did it because I'm tired of it.
About
Annysa Johnson
Annysa
Johnson covers K-12 education in southeastern Wisconsin
