Two Tecumseh Public Schools directors fired without forewarning, little explanation

TECUMSEH — Tecumseh Public Schools Technology Director Deven Knight and Facilities Director Tom Hawkins recently were fired without forewarning and little explanation.

Both non-union employees, Knight and Hawkins were separately handed one-page memos by Superintendent Rick Hilderley Thursday, Aug. 17, with bullet point lists detailing reasons for their firings pointing to problems with time management and communications. In Knight's instance, he was citied for a "Fixation on 'safety issues' which delay or deny access to simple items." Both former employees report that they were short-staffed with just two support staff members each and working far more than a 40-hour work week.

Knight and Hawkins each report that since they were hired in 2019, they had never received performance evaluations until June 8 of this year. Hilderley signed the evaluations June 7. Knight said that he had no interaction with Hilderley on the evaluation and was simply asked to sign the evaluation, which he did.

Hawkins said that Hilderley had put him on a performance improvement plan (PIP) in March after issues came up in Hilderley’s evaluation with the Tecumseh Public Schools Board of Education, which cited issues with Hilderley’s supervison of Hawkins.

Hilderley’s evaluation was held in closed session at his request which is allowable under the Michigan Open Meetings Act. After the evaluation, Hilderley boasted of an “effective” rating, the second highest rating, and only pointed to issues with student achievement.

"The overall rating came back as 'effective,' which I'm perfectly happy with. We’ll work toward 'highly effective,' but the superintendent’s evaluation include 40% student achievement and in my opinion as long as the student achievement scores are in the effective range, then that’s where I should be," Hilderley said at the time.

Shortly after Hilderley's evaluation, all communications were turned over to Tecumseh Public Schools Communications Director Victor Pratt. Where Hilderley and staff members had been responding to media inquiries on their own, everything was funneled through Pratt.

Hilderley announced his retirement Aug. 21, two days before the school year started.

Hawkins said he was never presented with a formal PIP and had just one interaction with Hilderley on the plan.

Hawkins said he was essentially left to his own with little feedback or input from Hilderley throughout his tenure with the district since his hiring in September 2019. With just two support staff members, Hawkins was expected to respond to all maintenance issues at each of the district’s six buildings on a moment’s notice and for “emergencies” at odd times like 5:30 a.m. with a toilet issue and over the weekend with issues regarding furniture.

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Job responsibilities

Part of Hawkins’ job was bid solicitation and management, something he was often asked to do on the fly by board members after discussion regarding a facilities committee meeting report during a regular board meeting and then making a motion to put the bid solicitation on the agenda during the same meeting as an action item. Many times when Hawkins presented the bids, the board opted to back out of the projects entirely.

“It (the performance improvement plan) was an outline of different areas that Rick wanted me to work on. The way he put it was, the board gave him a bad evaluation in the area of supervision over me. So he decided to come up with an outline. I took that and filled it in. What I did was tell him what I was doing, where I was going and what I needed help with. He told me we were going to meet weekly so he could better understand what I was doing and the progress of my work,” Hawkins said. “We only met once and from then on, kept with our normal monthly meeting which on average lasted 10 to 15 minutes and didn't include anything from the improvement plan.”

Hawkins worked on average 50 to 60 hours a week and sometimes much more without any compensation for overtime when he could have been given a stipend. For example, during the pandemic, he spent a weekend sanitizing all the middle school lockers and wiping down its desks by himself after the school was shut down due to an outbreak of COVID-19. He worked throughout the 2022 winter holiday break starting Christmas Day after a pipe burst at one of the buildings and received no compensation for his time and not even as much as a “thank you” from Hilderley.

Knight typically worked 80 hours a week throughout his tenure since being hired in February 2019. When he started, just the seventh through 12th grades had laptops for students, for which he was forced to scavenge parts and repair over and over again.

In March 2020, with federal COVID relief dollars, the district purchased thousands of Chromebook laptops for grades K-12, which Knight and his limited staff of two had to set up for all district students who were learning from home.

During the pandemic, Knight broadcast school board meetings over YouTube. The broadcasts abruptly ended around the time of Hilderley's 2022 evaluation with Hilderley citing Americans with Disabilities Act issues. Knight said he checked into ADA-compliant software to improve upon the not-so-reliant YouTube captioning, but the software was cost-prohibitive. At one point, Knight said the district was looking into having someone transcribe the meetings. This year, the district moved up the regular time of its meetings each second and fourth Mondays of the month from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Knight is a former GE HealthCare of Livonia and IBM Watson Health analytics and software support worker. Knight left GE HealthCare in 2017 at a salary of $106,000 to pursue a business venture in agri-tech. He hired in with Tecumseh Public Schools as an information technology user support technician Feb.13, 2019, at a rate of $19 per hour. Knight signed a contract for the role of director of technology March 19, 2019, at a salary of $62,000. He received an additional increase June 5, 2020 to $63,620 because he had taken on additional responsibilities related to the district’s website.

Knight decided to take the job with the school district because he was promised a flexible work schedule which he thought would provide work/life balance for his family with one child in Tecumseh Public Schools.

Hawkins, an Air Force veteran and former Adrian-based Anderson Development Co. employee, hired in at a salary of $60,000. He was asked during interviews why he wanted to take the job with the district when he could make much more in the private sector.

“I told them I am a Tecumseh graduate, and my kids are going to Tecumseh. I loved the idea of working for the school I attended. I loved being in the district with my kids. I'm proud of where I am from and jumped at the opportunity to serve my community,” Hawkins said.

Both Knight and Hawkins received a 20% pay hike in 2021 with Knight’s salary rising to $76,000 and Hawkins’ salary rising to $72,000. Both were told that the increases were modeled after the Tecumseh Education Association (TEA) contract, which was ratified in August 2021 after much negotiation. The 2021 administrative increases were never disclosed to the press.

Administrative and teacher pay

The district reported Friday that there are nine non-union central administrators. Each of these individuals received a one-time 10% wage increase in fiscal year 2021-22 at an additional cost to the district of $103,877. All non-instructional staff also received a 10% wage increase during the same time period. According to the original agreement, there have been no wage increases or adjustments since. Of the nine central administrator full-time equivalent (FTE) employees, 1.6 FTE are state categorical or federally funded. The remaining 7.4 FTE administrators' pay is sourced from the district's general fund.

The ratified contract between the teachers' union and the district was for three years. In year one, the teachers received a 2% stipend as part of federal COVID-19 relief hazard pay and did not receive an increase in their pay scale. Teachers received a 1% salary increase in 2022 and received a 1% salary increase this year.

The TEA rejected a contract agreement in July 2021, which would have replaced its contract that ended in 2019-20 but was extended for the 2020-21 school year due to COVID-19 and anticipated cuts in funding. When the new agreement was signed, there was no retroactive pay, based on Michigan labor law.

Part of the July 2021 TEA proposal was approximately $500,000 in salary changes, including wages and extra duty stipends. The district made no concessions at that time.

The district was well-positioned to approve a raise in teacher pay in 2021 with an increase in per-pupil funding from $8,111 in 2020 to $8,700 in 2021, or $589 more in per-pupil funding.

The district reported Friday that when the TEA contract was implemented, there were approximately 160 TEA members. The estimated additional costs for the three-year contract are as follows: year one, $432,228; year two, $126,747; and year three, $131,277. The majority of the funding comes from the general fund, however, there are a few counselors, reading specialists and instructional coaches who are grant funded.

The district's transparency webpage shows that Hilderley's 2022 salary was $162,600, and that he received a board annuity of $5,670 and retirement of $47,333. Director of Business Services Kelli Glenn had a 2022 salary of $105,964, a board annuity of $2,500 and retirement of $30,450. Director of Student Support Kim Foley had a salary of $102,046, a board annuity of $2,404 and retirement of $29,483. Director of Curriculum Meghan Way had a salary of $105,383, a board annuity of $2,500 and retirement of $30,455.

The district reported Friday that there are currently nine members in the Tecumseh Administrators Association (TAA). The additional cost to the district for fiscal year 2022-23 when the TAA contract was ratified is $110,834. There is a 2% increase built into each step based on years of experience. All TAA contract costs are sourced from the district's general fund.

Filling positions

Both Knight and Hawkins were known entities to the district. Knight’s wife, Jennifer, was a substitute teacher for Tecumseh schools from approximately September 2018 to January 2019. She started as an instructional assistant in February 2019. Jennifer saw the posting Knight applied for while she was applying for different roles within the district.

Hawkins was an active parent volunteer and was asked in 2019 by then director of facilities Tim Brown to bring his résumé to his office. Brown left to work outside the district, and Mike Smith was brought in on a temporary basis. Smith also interviewed Hawkins and offered him the job.

Smith is now the district’s interim director of facilities. Pratt said the position had been posted on the district’s website, but the relevant posting is for a director of operations to supervise maintenance and facilities, an IT service manager, pool director and transportation director.

The requirements listed for the position are a degree in business or construction management, education or a related field; three to five years of experience in public school facilities management or a business of similar size and complexity; demonstrated skills in the use of technology; and facilities director certification. Part of the job responsibilities are bid solicitation and management.

Pratt said that the district will be working with the Lenawee Intermediate School District for its technology needs but the district has posted for a technology support technician on its website. Both positions are salaried roles.

In a Sept. 5 email, Pratt said: “Tom Hawkins and Deven Knight were both relieved of their duties on Thursday, August 17. The District has decided to go in a different direction. We wish both Tom and Deven all the best in their future endeavors. We will have no further comment regarding former employees of the district.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Two Tecumseh schools directors fired with little explanation