The Middleton School District Thursday released the resignation letter of former Superintendent Sherawn Reberry after Idaho Education News made multiple requests for the document.
The release came the same day that two Middleton School Board members resigned from their posts, as first reported by the Idaho Press. Briggs Miller and Marianne Blackwell opposed the school district’s choice to temporarily instate human resources director Kristin Beck as the district’s interim superintendent during a public meeting last week, breaking with the rest of the school board.
Miller discussed his resignation on Facebook saying he was resigning in opposition to “ethical, legal and personnel matters.”
“I am appalled by the behavior that continues to fester in this school district and so it is time to step away and not move forward with this toxic environment,” Miller wrote.
Idaho EdNews first obtained Reberry’s resignation letter on Thursday, after weeks of requesting the document from the district.
The letter, dated June 2, says Reberry left the district due to the “working environment and surrounding conditions.”
“There was a professional disagreement that took place and from there the situation turned adverse,” Reberry said.
She wrote that she spent much of her time “navigating outside entities,” and that the staff did not always consider the focus of Reberry’s daily work “in the best interest of the district.”
Reberry informed the Middleton School Board’s lawyer that she intended to resign on June 2, according to a news release from the district. The board approved her resignation the following day.
On June 4, the Middleton School District told EdNews it did not have a copy of Reberry’s resignation letter, in response to a public records request for the document.
Five days later, the district said it couldn’t provide a copy of Reberry’s letter because it was a personnel record exempt from disclosure to the public. EdNews contends that resignation letters, approved in open session by a school board, are public records.
The Middleton School District relented on Thursday, saying Reberry had agreed to release the letter.
