Whatever is going on over at the administration building of Lyons-Brookfield School District 103 – so far officials have been mum – it sure is not something normal. In late August, the business manager who had just been elevated from interim to permanent status in March was walked out the door and placed on paid administrative leave.
The school district’s law firm, which has been very busy since it was hired a little more than a year ago, conducted some sort of investigation that has now led the school board to direct the superintendent to issue a very ominous-sounding “notice of charges for dismissal” against her.
This employee being the business manager, the mind reels. What could she have done that so swiftly and confidently has led the administration to seek her immediate termination?
The superintendent has said she doesn’t believe that the school board will be asking that criminal charges be filed. That’s at least some comfort, but if the matter isn’t criminal, the action of the board and administration is extraordinary.
Also, in talking to the superintendent we got the impression that the business manager has hired a lawyer, so the good folks of District 103 are likely in for a bit of a wait in terms of seeing this matter settled.
In the meantime, the taxpayers will continue to pay the business manager’s salary while she remains on paid leave, they’ll pay up to $60,000 for a part-time business consultant to come in and keep the finance office running until a replacement can be hired and, of course, they’ll keep paying those invoices from the law firm representing the school district.
Hopefully, they won’t have to pay to fight a lawsuit filed by the school district’s business manager.
