WBSD #7 Special Board Meeting Exposes a House Divided; Community Left with More Questions Than Answers

Williston, ND (KEYZ) A special meeting of the Williston Basin School District 7 board Friday to explore negotiations with Superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Thake exposes a house divided and leaves the community with more questions than answers.

Questions regarding the financial solvency of the new district have continued to spiral following an October 7th board meeting during which the district’s business manager Sherri Heser told the board she sees a $2 to $4 million discrepancy in the reconciliation of accounts held by District 1 and transferred to District 7.

The lingering questions appear to have been the catalyst for a one-on-one conversation between board member John Kasmer and Thake, sometime after which Thake is reported to have packed up his office belongings and left. Other board members heard of this development through the rumor mill, something that was addressed, vehemently, by one board member in particular.

"I didn't know Dr. Thake had packed his office. I didn't know John had had a meeting with Dr. Thake. And to me, Mr. Simon [media outlet] feels like my eighth board member right now. I feel like there's a leak on this board," said board member Sarah Williams.

News Radio did reach out to Superintendent Thake for comment, but he was unavailable at the time of reporting.

When pressed during discussion before heading into executive session Friday, board member John Kasmer did admit to speaking with Thake but denied that he had told the Superintendent his job was in jeopardy.

"I told him, in light of the financial information that we had gotten, that it’s going to be a very tough road for him. That’s what I told him. I did not tell him that with a guarantee that he was going to get non-renewed or anything like that,” said Kasmer.

Kasmer also drilled down on his belief that the financial information detailing discrepancies should be something of which any superintendent is aware.

Board member Thomas Kalil took issue with Kasmer's approach as there had already been a board-approved plan to involve a third-party auditor to review the records to find answers to the discrepancies.

"And so it wasn’t appropriate to wait for the report that this board said we’d go and get before having that conversation with him?” Kalil asked.

“Well, I mean, it looked awful bad no matter what,” Kasmer replied. “You may have believed that it was maybe appropriate to wait farther down the road. I thought I didn’t see any way that this looks good. At any rate, it was all up to him. I didn’t tell him he was going to get non-renewed for sure or he was going to get anything for sure. I told him what I thought.”

News Radio also learned that Dr. Thake had approached board president Chris Jundt earler in the week with some questions, necessitating the meeting on Friday, October 22. Thake's concerns were explored in executive session Friday with the school district attorney.

Before dismissing members of the public and heading into executive session, Jundt made it clear that any discussion of a resignation from Thake was not on the agenda.

"He has not submitted any sort of resignation letter to me," said Jundt.

What may have come as a surprise to those in attendance is that the superintendent does have feelers out for other employment and has asked to be waived from the upcoming evaluation cycle in November, according to Jundt.

"He values his career. “He did inform me that he has applied elsewhere and may be a finalist for some of those openings already.”

The evaluation is ordinarily due November 15.

“He does not want that to have a detrimental impact on potentially his ability to secure employment with other districts,” Jundt said.

The board took no action upon returning from executive session. In a prepared statement to media, Jundt said discussion was limited to those items raised by Dr. Thake that needed to be discussed with council and direction from the school district attorney. Jundt did not entertain additional questions from the media nor did he provide the details of Thake's prior communication with him.

The next regularly scheduled board meeting for District 7 is Monday, November 8, 2021 at which time the District 1 audit, recently completed for the year ending June 30, 2020, will be communicated to the school board.