School's decision on Peck mystifying
The Bigfork School District's decision to abruptly part ways with Bigfork High School Principal Thom Peck the Friday before the first day of school makes little sense, not least because of the district's insistence on keeping mum over the circumstances.
Only time will tell whether ousting Peck will help or hurt BHS, but the nearly clandestine process that brought the situation to Friday's special board meeting demands a closer look.
As today's story concerning the situation explains, because the school board aired its concerns with Peck in executive session, the public — and press — will never be privy to the district's side of the story. Though we can take Peck's word, the district will never be able to explain concerns and issues that led to Peck being forced out.
The Bigfork School Board uses this loophole in Montana's otherwise excellent open meeting laws often, which allows the doors to be closed for matters concerning personal privacy or litigation strategy. The most common use for this statute concerns personnel issues.
The overarching consideration in executive session is whether an individual's right to privacy outweighs the merits of public disclosure. On that consideration alone, it would seem in cases involving the heads of institutions that nearly any piece of information's value to the public would outweigh privacy concerns. That seems to be even more important in cases where the individual in question works directly in supervising minors.
The Montana Supreme Court has tackled a similar issue before, ruling in 1984 that employment evaluations of university presidents did qualify for an executive session (Missoulian vs. Board of Regents).
It is unclear whether a formal employment evaluation of Peck took place in that meeting, though Peck's claims that he was not evaluated this year make that seem unlikely.
To this newspaper, it seems the justification for holding the proceeding in executive session falls into a gray area.
What is not gray at all, however, is that it was a poor decision to call a special meeting of the board the Friday before school started to finalize the separation agreement. The board issued minimal public notice on a night when the Vikings football team — and accompanying parents — were en route to Hamilton for a game and two soccer matches were in progress. While not illegal, the 11th hour meeting does nothing for relations with the community.
In an interview with the Eagle, Peck stated that in hindsight he should have probably waived his right to a closed meeting in July so that Bigfork could at least know why a seemingly well-liked principal is no longer employed.
The bigger issue, however, is that high school principals are public figures and their performance shouldn't be cloaked in mystery.
If Bigfork is expected to support the schools, the town should at least get to know why those in charge are removed.
—Alex Strickland