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Spangler target of election complaint

November 01, 2008|Katheran Wasson

Clark County resident Shelly Haggard has filed a complaint against Board of Education District 2 representative Minnie Spangler, alleging that local teachers broke state law by helping with her re-election campaign.

Spangler said Friday she didn't want to respond to the complaint.

Bryan Jones, division manager of investigations for the Office of Education Accountability, said he can't confirm or deny if he has received a complaint or if an investigation is under way.

Haggard is a member of local nonprofit group Clark County Citizens for Quality Education, which has expressed vocal disapproval of the district facilities plan approved by the Board of Education last year. Her husband, Scott Haggard, is listed on the Secretary of State's Web site as one of the group's three directors.

But Haggard emphasized that she filed the complaint on her own - not as an action of the group.

"The organization had nothing to do with what I did. I'm doing this as a private citizen who's just disgusted," she said. "No one else in the group is aware that I was going to do this."

Haggard said she attended an Oct. 21 meeting of the Clark County Board of Education, in which Clark County resident Leonard Shortridge questioned the Board about the legality of teachers campaigning for school board candidates.

Superintendent Ed Musgrove told Shortridge that teachers cannot chair a board member's campaign, but said he didn't know if they could go door to door.

In an audio recording of the meeting, multiple voices are heard replying "yes, they can" in response to Shortridge's question about door-to-door campaigning. The individuals could not be indentified from the recording.

"I had a friend of mine who was a teacher in Frankfort," she said. "I recalled her saying, â??We can't get involved in any school board issues.'"

Haggard said she researched the issue online, including the Kentucky Revised Statutes.

According to KRS 161.164, "no employee of the local school district shall take part in the management or activities of any political campaign for school board" and no candidates for the office "shall solicit or accept any political assessment, subscription, contribution, or service of any employee of the school district."

The Kentucky Department of Education could not be reached as of press time to comment on the law.

"I thought it's very plain that they can't do that," she said. "I decided I would file a complaint because I just feel that it's wrong. â?¦ They know they're not supposed to do that, and just sat there and glossed over that."

Haggard said she provided the OEA with names of the teachers who she believes are involved, but hopes they don't lose their jobs over it.

"I pray that nothing happens to the teachers because I feel that they probably are innocent in this," she said.

Haggard said she filed the complaint so the public would know about the issue.

"To me it's the fact that it's against the law," she said. "They feel that they can read into the law what they want to, and they don't feel like they're beholden to us or anyone else."

Contact reporter Katheran Wasson at kwasson@winchestersun.com.

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