Tuesday: Pleas aside, Prior Lake superintendent still resigning

One by one, they filed past his desk at the Prior Lake-Savage school board meeting Tuesday night, and each left a note. By the time the 200 to 300 people had walked by, Superintendent Tom Westerhaus had a bucketful of teardrop-shaped notes.

All were some version of a thank-you to Westerhaus, who submitted his resignation last week after a district employee fired on his recommendation was elected to the school board.

Westerhaus' supporters wore green Tuesday -- a nod to the superintendent's Irish heritage -- and used on him the same note-in-a-bucket gambit he used to show appreciation to district employees.

"You've always been the first one to recognize when someone's bucket is empty, and the first to fill it," said fifth-grade teacher Patti Rauhauser, who asked him to reconsider.

"It's a shame we didn't recognize that your bucket was empty," she said. "We're all here to refill it."

In the end, though, while he teared up at the show of support and said he was touched, his resignation stands.

Westerhaus stunned the community last week when he sent a letter to employees saying he plans to step down at the end of the school year because of the election of Chris Lind.

In his letter, Westerhaus said he "can no longer work in this district. The election to the board of a former employee, whom I had progressively disciplined and ultimately recommended for final dismissal ... confirmed for me that it was time to move on. The community has spoken through this election."

On Tuesday, Westerhaus said, "I absolutely wish [Lind] no harm, but I just can't have been the person five months ago that said 'You can't work here,' then to say, 'Sir, you're my boss.' I can't do that; I just cannot look in the mirror with that. I wish it could be different. I am hurting as much or more than all of you."

The firing

In June, with Westerhaus' recommendation, the Prior Lake-Savage school board fired Lind, who worked as a campus supervisor at Prior Lake High School. Lind, a devout Christian, had been at the high school for four years. In that time, he had developed a reputation among students as an adult willing to befriend them and mentor them in their faith.

The district said it fired Lind for "job performance and insubordination" after receiving complaints about his talking to students on campus about their sexual orientation and telling a student that the day was "National Pick On Lesbians Day." The district also warned him about maintaining appropriate boundaries with students and the need to separate the role of supervisor of students from the role of friend.

Lind and supporters had argued before the board in June that his First Amendment and religious rights were violated when the district told him he couldn't talk to students off-campus about religion. He said he couldn't morally agree to that demand and threatened to sue.

No lawsuit has been filed, but Lind says it is still not out of the question.

When Lind heard of Westerhaus' decision, he said he was surprised and saddened, and that he thought Westerhaus was a good superintendent for the district.

"I was very open in the belief that I was wrongfully terminated," he said. "But I didn't run on a platform of getting rid of him. I think he's been very effective and very good."

The number of supporters at last night's meeting dwarfed the number who showed up for Lind in June. Before the meeting started, supporters in the parking lot of the District Service Center called Westerhaus, president of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators, a visionary and man of integrity.

Prior Lake Mayor Jack Haugen said during the meeting that he has forged a strong relationship between the school district and city.

"You have created a different future for our school district and a different future for our community because of what you have done," Haugen said.

A lifelong educator

Westerhaus has been a superintendent for almost 20 years and an educator for more than 35. He graduated from Eden Prairie High School in 1969 and studied education at St. John's University. He received his doctorate in education while working as superintendent of the Rocori School District near St. Cloud.

Tuesday night, he said Lind's election sent a message from voters that "it's OK to have behaviors that are not appropriate in the schools, and it's OK to stare down the superintendent and the school board and say, 'This isn't bad; I did nothing wrong.'"

Emily Johns • 612-673-7460

Emily Johns • ejohns@startribune.com