School board members held a special meeting on Thursday, March 16, for an employee termination hearing.
The hearing was held at the request of former employee Robin Shrimpton, who asked the board to reconsider Superintendent Ken Ramey's recommendation that her employment be terminated. On Thursday, Shrimpton was listed as a middle school secretary on the district's website.
After the meeting was called to order, Shrimpton formally requested that her hearing be closed to the public. Springdale attorney Charles Harwell presided over the hearing, which was attended by the school's attorney Dave Matthews. The hearing lasted for approximately three hours, during which time an unknown number of witnesses were interviewed.
School board members Chuck Hyde, Audra Ferrell and Brian Lamb deliberated in executive session for another 45 minutes, before voting to uphold Ramey's recommendation. Board members Brent Butler and Roger Holroyd were not present.
Arkansas' Public School Employee Fair Hearing Act allows school superintendents to recommend that an employee be terminated. According to the law the employee has 25 days from the time they are notified of their termination to request a hearing. The law allows the employee to choose whether the hearing will be open to the public or held in private. School board members are then allowed up to 10 days to make final decision.
Ramey said that employee termination hearings were extremely rare in the district.
General News on 03/22/2017