Stillwater Area School District finance director Kristen Hoheisel has sued the school district and the chairwoman of the school board for allegedly violating the state’s open-meeting laws, the whistleblower statute and the data practices act.
Hoheisel, who has been on administrative leave since March 30, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Washington County District Court in Stillwater.
Hoheisel alleges Stillwater school officials and Board Chairwoman Sarah Stivland violated the state’s open-meeting laws by failing to close a meeting that included preliminary consideration of allegations against her.
“No closed meeting was held in advance of Hoheisel being put on administrative leave,” the lawsuit states. “Before closing such a meeting, the school board must make a statement on the record that provides the specific grounds permitting the meeting to be closed and describes the subject to be discussed. No such statement was made as required by law.”
State law also requires that a meeting must be open at the request of the individual being discussed. According to the lawsuit, “Hoheisel was deprived of that right and opportunity to request the meeting be open.”
Stivland, a member of the board since 2017, was told of the violation both by email prior to and in person during the meeting, according to the lawsuit.
District officials said Thursday that they could not comment on the lawsuit.
Stivland said, “The claims in this case are completely and utterly without merit. We have submitted this to the school district’s insurance company, who will cover the legal defense, and we will proceed accordingly.”
HOSTILE WORKPLACE COMPLAINT
Hoheisel, who lives in Lake Elmo, has been executive director of finance and operations for the school district since 2015.
In 2017, Hoheisel filed a hostile work environment complaint alleging gender discrimination and harassment on the part of Stivland and another board member, according to the lawsuit. Her complaint was investigated by an independent, third-party investigator appointed by the school board who found her complaint had merit, but “there was no action taken by the school board to punish the wrongdoing found in the investigative report,” the lawsuit states. “Since then, the harassment continued.”
Hoheisel filed another complaint in February in which she documented conversations she had with Superintendent Denise Pontrelli about her hostile work environment and asked that measures be taken to stop it, according to the lawsuit.
Less than a month later, the school board voted to place Hoheisel on administrative leave.
“Stivland was aware of and had seen Hoheisel’s … complaint before the March 19, 2020 school board meeting,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges the school district and Stivland violated the state’s whistleblower statute when they “penalized, threatened and disciplined (her) because she had, in good faith, reported violations or suspected violations of federal, state, common law or rule adopted pursuant to law to her employer.”
LAWSUIT: IDENTITY WAS LEAKED
The school district and Stivland also violated the state’s data practices act by being “woefully careless, haphazard, and, at times, entirely intentional with identifying Hoheisel as Employee A in the ongoing school board investigations,” the lawsuit states.
The consent agenda for the open portion of the April 9 school board meeting included an item about “Hiring of Interim Executive Director of Finance & Operations,” and the lawsuit says, “There is no reason to do that unless your current Executive Director is absent or on leave.”
On April 9, KSTP-TV showed Hoheisel’s photo and name on screen during a news segment reporting that the Stillwater school board “voted to place a top administrator on paid leave in March, but didn’t publicly disclose who the employee was, citing private personnel laws,” the lawsuit states, quoting from the report. “However, multiple sources told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that Hoheisel, the district’s top financier, is the employee on paid leave.”
According to the lawsuit, the “‘multiple sources’ … can only have been members of the school board, or persons who learned about Hoheisel’s identity through members of the school board.”
The lawsuit says the actions were “willful and intentional and intended to damage Hoheisel in the eyes of the community and in the eyes of her profession.”
Among the items she is seeking: damages in excess of $50,000, expungement of any record of her being placed on administrative leave and an immediate return to work.