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A Daily News analysis of attorneys’ invoices since Jan. 1, 2006, shows the district paid $133,070 to various legal firms, primarily to the Minneapolis-based Ratwik, Roszak and Maloney. The invoices showed the district spent close to $70,000 on either grievance-related issues or legal counsel for contract negotiations and an additional $30,000 on investigations into allegations made against its employees.
The majority of WAPS board members defended the expenditures, saying it was money well spent.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that under the circumstances we had to deal with, that money was spent necessarily,” board member Fred Petersen said.
However, at least one WAPS board member considers much of it to be a waste of public money, brought on by a fractured relationship between the district and the teachers’ union.
“I personally feel that if we had a better relationship, we would have been able to have worked out things without going to this level,” board member Stacey Mounce-Arnold said.
The numbers
When analyzing district legal expenditures, the Daily News broke down invoices into six categories:
According to Winona School Board chairman Brian Neil, the board received legal counsel on how it could legally respond in public and private to the WEA vote. Those responses included a statement of support for Durand and the district, and a point-by-point response to union concerns e-mailed to the media.
In the two-year period, the district also paid $24,505 in fees that legal invoices only classify as “miscellaneous” or “miscellaneous matters,” which Seeley said fall under an attorney-client privilege.
Other districts
By comparison, other area schools and similarly sized districts varied greatly in the amount they spent on legal counsel over the same time period. Albert Lea School District, with a 2007 student population of 3,508, according to the Minnesota Department of Education, was billed $19,294 by law firms.
St. Charles School District, which had an enrollment of 1,082 in 2007 — more than a third less than WAPS’ 3,692 students — budgeted only $2,300 for legal invoices over the same time period. Lewiston-Altura, even smaller at 745 students, spent $8,800.
St. Charles Superintendent Tom Ames qualified his district’s expenditures for that time period.
“Those are unusually low for us,” Ames said.
Austin Public Schools, larger than Winona at 4,213 students, spent less than WAPS, with only about $80,000 in legal costs.
Two other districts, one much larger than WAPS and one only slightly larger, spent more on law firms than Winona. Rochester Public School District, over four times the size of the Winona district with an enrollment of more than 16,000, spent $280,000.
Faribault, at 3,935 students, also spent more than Winona, budgeting about $140,000 for legal costs.
Legal invoice amounts varied, and so did the causes for the expenditures from district to district. Faribault, which went through multiple superintendents and finance directors during that time period, along with several terminations of administrators, needed legal advice for contract negotiations and settlements.
Rochester spent more than $20,000 in legal advice when it purchased a new building and hired a new superintendent.
The cause
Most Winona School Board members didn’t attribute the legal fees to any one issue, but the board seems split on what the numbers indicate.
Several members spoke of the need to create a better relationship with the teachers’ union to deal with problems before they reach grievance levels. Others strongly defended the district’s actions.
“When we’re spending money on things you can control, like employee relations, we have to sit down and have an honest talk about what is at the heart of the matter,” board member John Goplen said. “We obviously have got some issues, and I don’t think they’ve been addressed yet.”
Many of the grievances filed this year have already been settled, or are close to being so. Three were filed after teachers received “letters of direction” by the district after chaperoning a choir trip to Poland.
Durand told the Daily News earlier this year that those letters were not disciplinary in nature but were meant to clarify expectations for teachers. Those letters were later removed from files after a board grievance hearing.
A grievance over pay for teachers involved in the DREAMS/SMART has gone through arbitration, which should be resolved by Thursday. Two other grievances over letters of direction were settled by a compromise and later pulled from a teacher’s file.
A grievance by teachers over staff development is close to being resolved, Jeff Hyma, a field advisor for Education Minnesota, said, allowing the district to avoid arbitration. The only grievances not settled involve discipline for a teacher over the Poland trip.
The ability of the board to avoid arbitration, in what one board member called a unified process, was proof to her that the district is doing the right thing.
“For the ones I’ve been involved in, the grievance committee has been pretty much unanimous in our recommendations to the larger board with regard to these grievances,” board member Vicki Englich said.
Neil said the district’s expenses were appropriate.
“I don’t see this as anyone’s fault, it’s a necessity to do business,” Neil said.
Neil, a teacher at Holmen High School, questioned the intent of the WEA on some of the grievances. He said he’s seen them used as a tool to harass district officials in Holmen. He also questioned whether the WEA was ignoring the advice of Education Minnesota, the state-level union.
“I don’t think a grievance is ever unwarranted, but the resolution can depend on the willingness to resolve a grievance. All I can say is that I have gotten information to suggest that the overarching authority doesn’t necessarily always agree with how the (WEA) handles the grievances,” Neil said.
Hyma, who advises the WEA along with about 20 other schools about legal and other issues, denied there was a disconnect with the WEA. He noted that Education Minnesota is not an “overarching authority,” only an advisory body.
“It’s odd that it’s being painted that way,” Hyma said, “I would characterize (our relationship) as a strong relationship.”
But Hyma also highlighted the unusual nature of his recent dealings with WAPS. While he used to work directly with human resources director Pat Blaisdell, he no longer is in contact with anyone from the district. The district’s exclusive representative in the interactions has been Patricia Maloney, from Ratwik, Roszak and Maloney, the law firm that received the bulk of district’s legal expenditures.
“There is no direct communication between the local and the leadership of the district; all the communication at the district’s request goes between Pat Maloney and me, and that’s unique,” Hyma said. “I never talk to Durand; that’s an oddity.”
Contact reporter Nolan Rosenkrans at (507) 453-3519 or nolan.rosenkrans@lee.net.
observer wrote on Jul 7, 2008 6:03 AM: