Olathe School Board responds to Rep. Schwab email

Please read this response to Rep. Schwab’s email (which we posted earlier today) from the Olathe School Board. We are sharing the following which was posted on the Amy Martin for Olathe School Board Facebook page.

I have the honor of serving with some very fine people on the Olathe Board of Education. Superintendent Marlin Berry is an honorable person with more integrity in his pinkie finger than some, even in the face of a mean-spirited and disgraceful attack on his character. I was proud to add my name to this letter today:

The Olathe USD233 Board of Education feels it is appropriate to respond to a letter many staff members recently received from one of our local state legislators. We find it unfortunate that an elected leader chose to interrupt your workday and misuse the taxpayer funded email system the district provides for you to communicate with parents and peers. We are instructing our attorney to investigate if any laws have been broken and we are looking at measures to prevent similar intrusions on your valued time in the future.

It is important to note that this email contained inaccurate information regarding block grant funding and the impact of those reductions on our district, the maximization of our LOB, and our ability to use capital outlay money to fund teacher salaries due to the timing in which those funds are received from the county. It also fails to address the responsibility the Board of Education has to be sensitive to the level of taxation in our community.

We feel compelled to defend the integrity of our Superintendent and express our appreciation to Dr. Berry for his tireless dedication to his job and the professional way he conducts himself as he works to further the goals of our school district. We would also like to affirm our commitment to recruiting and retaining a high quality staff while remaining sensitive to the impact of our decisions on our patrons and taxpayers.

President Rick Schier
Vice President Brent McCune
Joe Beveridge
LeEtta Felter
Amy Martin
Mike Poland
Shannon Wickliffe

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