On January 24th, I recorded a podcast with Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board President Matt Burke and asked about the 5-day suspension handed to Fishers Football Coach Rick Wimmer.  WTHR Investigative Reporter Bob Segall had aired a story about the school board approving the suspension using an employee number, not a name.

Burke told me the policy of using employee numbers for such actions follows a policy HSE Superintendent Allen Bourff had used in his previous stint at the Richmond, Indiana schools.  This was the first time a staff member had been suspended since the policy was adopted when Bourff was hired to run the HSE Schools about two years ago, according to Burke.

The school corporation pointed to a general policy in the employee handbook to describe why Wimmer was disciplined, G02.06, which you can read at this link .  A statement by the school system provided to WTHR said Wimmer’s suspension was “due to not implementing instructions for classroom management strategies.”

In my podcast interview, Burke said, “It’s a personnel matter, those are private issues. Recognize the public will never know all the details and they don’t need to know all the details, as to the things that happened.”  Burke added that the school corporation followed its written policies in that process.

Although all the details may never be known, The State of Indiana’s Public Access Counselor Luke Britt says HSE Schools must reveal actual facts about what caused the Wimmer suspension to be handed down.  In an Advisory Opinion (which can be read in its entirety at this link), Britt wrestles with the push and pull of balancing employee privacy with the public’s right to know under Indiana law.

Britt’s opinion appears to argue that HSE Schools must present at least one fact related to the board’s decision to suspend Rick Wimmer.  A general reference to a policy statement is not sufficient, in Britt’s view.

It should be noted that the Public Counselor’s Office is not issuing a legal order here.  It is advisory only.  As of this writing, HSE has not responded to the opinion as requested by WTHR.

It is clear that the investigative reporting team at WTHR is pursuing this issue aggressively. I will be watching this situation as it moves forward.

You can read the latest Bob Segall story on this from the WTHR Web site at this link.