Quick view of some issues with the current board of directors
- Christine was terminated for no reason beyond personal problems and prejudices. The board refused to provide any explanation of their actions other than that they blamed her for the school's financial problems and "felt betrayed." Even though Christine had voluntarily forfeited her own pay for months to help the school through it's difficult time. A lawyer's review of Christine's dismissal found that it was absolutely unfounded, and against her employment contract. The board has been notified of this.
- The board has made unfounded reputation damaging statements about Christine; implying hidden wrongdoing that they "can't talk about" or referring to her openly as "the director who almost bankrupted the school." They have no documentation to back up these terribly upsetting and unjust claims.
- When concerned parents called an emergency membership meeting to discuss the shocking termination, Christine and the parents supportive of her were shouted down and silenced; their questions unanswered and their documentation refused. When Christine and other school members requested the meeting minutes (taken by two separate sources), they were ignored.
- In conjunction with the falsehoods about Christine's firing, the board proceeded to lie to the community at large about multiple issues: they first attempted to claim Christine was "stepping down" voluntarily (community email), then they claimed that the school had been operating "in the black" until she arrived (see below). They lied about when they had decided to let her go (her termination letter was dated March 1st - before the recent gala, before her official review, and before the board had actually even voted on her termination). They lied about how much the recent fundraiser had earned, claiming the gross donations as the actual profit and ignoring over $7,000 in expenses. (The largest donation of $5,000 was made by one of Christine's family members, to help cover expenses). They proceeded to pass this false information along to Morgan Graham in an effort to coerce an increased donation from her. They then lied (community email) about having Morgan's support for their efforts - definitely not true.
- The board said they attempted to resolve the perceived personality / work issues directly with Christine, and offer alternate solutions, but the timeline doesn't support this. Christine was told nothing about any behavior or performance problems prior to being asked to resign in January.
- The board has stated they hold Christine responsible for the current financial crisis - they even stated in the emergency membership meeting that the school had been operating "in the black" for years before Christine's directorship. However, a 10 year summary of the school's finances shows the crisis beginning as far back as 2008, with losses of $20,000 to $30,000 every year from 2009-2012. The school had one recovery year in 2013 after the board took drastic action to cut expenses and boost enrollment. Christine was hired in 2014 to help the school repair it's poor reputation and low enrollment. She succeeded. Enrollment and overall tuition increased 30%. With Christine's added salary, the school loss obviously did increase - the main problem being the lack of fundraising, which the board was still actively resisting. However, the loss only was only about 40% of Christine's salary on top of the previous average losses. If the school had continued to boost enrollment, restore some of its needed operating fees, and resume fundraising, the school would have been back in the black.
