Grayslake school board settles with fired finance boss
Grayslake Elementary District 46 board members Wednesday night agreed to pay an undisclosed settlement to Edward Towle, who filed a federal lawsuit over his dismissal as finance boss before he ever started in 2010.
In May, Towle filed the breach-of-contract lawsuit against District 46 in U.S. District Court in Chicago. District 46 board members voted 5-0, with one abstention, in favor of settling the suit.
District 46 board President Ray Millington and Superintendent Ellen Correll said after Wednesday's meeting that terms of Towle's settlement cannot be made public. Towle had sought more than $75,000 in damages from the district.
“We reached an acceptable agreement,” Millington said. “We want to move on to other business.”
Towle bested about 40 candidates who applied to replace Brad Goldstein as chief school business official. Towle was sacked in May 2010 after District 46 officials learned he had been on paid leave at his previous job at a suburban Milwaukee school system and claimed he never told them about his status.
Board members hired Towle on April 7, 2010. Grayslake officials said Towle never told them he was collecting his $107,449 salary to not work at Brown Deer School District for more than a year.
District 46 in court documents denied Towle's claim he was fired because of fears about “bad publicity” by Correll and former school board President Mary Garcia after they learned of his status at Brown Deer. He had a one-year deal for $98,000.
Attorney Daniel Field also wrote that District 46 disputed how Towle, in his lawsuit, portrayed an email sent to him by Correll after his Brown Deer leave became known.
“My biggest fear has come forth,” Correll wrote in the email to Towle. “As I predicted, the Daily Herald has made a (Freedom of Information Act) request regarding you, your contract, letters of recommendation, etc. I was fairly certain this would happen as this is a pattern of the Daily Herald.
“This will lead to a ‘character assassination' for both you and this district. Your best direction, I feel, for future employment would be to resign due to say, difficulty with moving or something of that nature. This is very unfortunate that this all had to happen.”
Towle contended it would have been untruthful to cite moving problems in a resignation. However, District 46's response to the suit denied Correll proposed Towle resign under false pretenses.
Correll declined to address the letter of recommendation that Brown Deer District Administrator Deb Kerr had sent on behalf of Towle.
However, Correll said she learned something from the Towle hiring: “I guess the biggest thing is you always do a site visit,” she said. “And in most cases, I've done that, but because of the distance (to Brown Deer), we didn't do it this time. But I guess I won't care what the distance is.”
Correll added attorneys advised the district that an online search engine use is not trustworthy enough and should be avoided when vetting a prospective employee.
Towle also has been in litigation with Brown Deer. He wants unspecified damages, primarily for defamation and breach of contract.
Just before Grayslake fired him, Kerr issued a statement saying “serious concerns” about Towle's job performance led to him being placed on the paid leave.
Brown Deer officials said they had evidence showing a pattern of professional behavior by Towle that jeopardized the financial security of taxpayers' money.