Grand Forks School Board votes not to renew Ben Franklin principal's contract
Apr. 29—GRAND FORKS — In a brief special meeting, Grand Forks School Board members ruled in a split vote Monday not to renew the contract of Ben Franklin Elementary School's principal.
The board voted 5-4 against renewing Joshua Mailhot's contract for next year at the recommendation of Superintendent Terry Brenner.
Brenner cited a half-dozen performance issues in making his recommendation, including "inability to follow directives from his supervisor," "inability to maintain trust with those he supervises," "inability to understand and implement adequate safety procedures and protocols," and "inability to provide a clear vision and model of instruction."
Board members Amber Flynn, Dave Berger, Joel Larson, Josh Anderson and Eric Lunn voted to end Mailhot's contract, with Monte Gaukler, Jeff Manley, Cynthia Shabb and Bill Palmiscno opposed.
The entire meeting took a little over seven minutes. Since he has been employed in the district for less than two years, Mailhot did not have the opportunity to ask for a hearing to argue against the nonrenewal proceedings.
Board members were provided with Mailhot's evaluation forms, an April 10 letter of reprimand from Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education Matt Bakke, and Brenner's recommendation for nonrenewal. For legal reasons, they were discouraged from discussing the substance of the evaluations.
Gaukler was the only board member to ask a question during the proceedings, asking Bakke — Mailhot's supervisor — about the absence of a formal improvement plan for Mailhot between his first evaluation in December and a second evaluation in April.
Bakke said he and Mailhot had "ongoing conversations about areas of improvement" about the latter's performance during the intervening months.
"Do you feel like that qualifies as an improvement plan or indication that this could potentially occur?" Gaukler said, apparently referring to the nonrenewal proceedings.
"If you're asking me if there was a formal improvement plan, no there wasn't," Bakke replied.
According to his personnel records, obtained by the Herald via open records request, Mailhot was first hired to the district in July 2022 in his current role.
He received generally high marks from his supervisor, former Assistant Superintendent Brenda Lewis, in his first year. His evaluations cooled under her successor, Bakke.
Bakke's evaluations and additional input were the driving factor in the nonrenewal proceedings, Brenner told board members.
In his second and final evaluation of Mailhot, Bakke expressed "major concerns" regarding Mailhot's leadership and rated his performance as "unsatisfactory."
Bakke also alluded to at least one listening session with Ben Franklin staff during which Mailhot's subordinates expressed concern about his conduct, including comments made in the school's staff lounge, though details of these meetings were not included in the evaluations provided in the School Board's agenda packet nor in Mailhot's personnel file.
Mailhot, in turn, disputed many of Bakke's claims in his written response to his final evaluation, suggesting his actions had been misrepresented by Bakke and alluding to a "lack of trust between (Bakke) and (Mailhot)."
Bakke issued a letter of reprimand dated April 10 to Mailhot, the first recorded disciplinary action in the latter's file, and told Mailhot he could either resign by April 17 or face a nonrenewal vote.
The Herald approached Gaukler and Manley to ask about their votes shortly after the meeting concluded, but Board President Flynn interceded, citing the board's policy of speaking in one voice on votes.
"Its a simple majority, and we're a board together, so that's the way the board voted," Flynn said.
Mailhot attended the meeting, and was accompanied by his wife, daughter, father-in-law and a staff member from Ben Franklin. He declined to comment on the vote when asked by the Herald.
