Ongoing battle between Mount Prospect principal, superintendent

After a 6-year-old Westbrook student was put on the wrong bus to go home, he hid behind a couch and told his father his principal, Jan Ewing, "yelled at me and scared me."

Earlier the same day, Aug. 27, Ewing also yelled at the district's interim transportation coordinator and a police officer about where to load the buses.

Or so says Superintendent Elaine Aumiller.

The August incident was one of the reasons Aumiller wants to fire Ewing, according to a Sept. 16 memorandum titled, "Principal Jan Ewing's Recommendation for Dismissal."

The Daily Herald has obtained the eight-page letter and about 15 pages of other documents written between Sept. 16 and 30 regarding Ewing's potential firing, including her response to those allegations.

In Aumiller's memo, she criticizes Ewing's "recent erratic and insubordinate conduct" including a "temperamental and unapologetic attitude toward students and parents," "insubordination toward the superintendent" and "an inability to accept responsibility for your actions and inactions."

On Friday, Aumiller declined to get into specifics about the memo, but she did say she does not have a personal problem with Ewing, who has been Westbrooks's principal since July 2007. In July of this year Ewing was given a two-year contract to continue in her position, and in 2009 she earned about $129,000.

"I understand I come across unflattering," Aumiller said. "But from my side, this was never personal. I can't go into details about an employee even if that employee decides to put information out there."

Ewing, however, thinks her clashes with Aumiller might be personal. She said she never met Aumiller before the superintendent took over District 57 on July 1, 2009, but said the two did compete for the same assistant superintendent job in Prospect Heights Elementary District 23 in 2004.

Ewing got the position and worked for District 23 for three years. She would not speculate if getting that position affected Aumiller's treatment of her today.

"I'm only a forward-moving person," was her response.

Aumiller, meanwhile, said only she was "not going to dignify that with a response," when asked about the District 23 position.

In support of Ewing, more than 100 residents attended a standing-room-only meeting Sept. 23, many wearing green, Westbrook's color. Ewing was absent, she said, because she and her husband were in Michigan at their son's wedding.

The school board will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday to decide if Ewing should be fired. The board will allow public comments but will conduct Ewing's dismissal hearing in closed session. Ewing has asked the hearing be held in public.

Board President Joseph Leane said the hearing has to be private to protect other employees who are involved. Leane, too, declined to comment on the newly released information.

"The board needs to protect everyone involved including the district should (Ewing) decide to accuse us of defaming her in public," Leane said. "We understand this is disruptive for the Westbrook community, and we are trying to come to a resolution as soon as possible."

According to Aumiller's Sept. 16 memo, issues with Ewing began in May 2010 when Aumiller noticed Ewing was leaving board of education meetings early.

The next problem comes up Aug. 10 when she was "combative and argumentative" with the district's business manager in a meeting about buses, according to Aumiller.

In the past two months, Ewing also sent e-mails to board members, including some e-mails where they were blind-copied.

"Mrs. Ewing was seemingly trying to garner sympathy with the board by secret communication," Aumiller states in her memo.

Ewing countered that this fall was the first time she noticed "a spotlight was on me," which is why she started blind-copying board members on e-mails related to busing, and those between her and Aumiller.

"It's like she's taking snapshots of things that happened and blowing everything out of proportion," Ewing said. "All of the sudden the focus wasn't on the children or my work but directly on me."

Ewing denies most of Aumiller's claims. For example, in the Aug. 27 example involving the 6-year-old boy, Ewing said she talked with the boy's mother and father and worked everything out.

"We communicated in positive ways and were able to talk about reconnecting in the next week to come," Ewing's letter states.

Eventually on Sept. 3, after several missed and canceled meetings, Aumiller and Ewing finally met face-to-face when Aumiller told Ewing she could request a paid administrative leave or "I would place her on it," according to one memo.

Ewing refused to ask for paid leave, so Aumiller followed through on her promise.

"Before I could finish, (Ewing) leaned across the table, tried to get into my face and angrily stated: 'I knew this is what you were coming over here to do. I have known all week. You can't tell me what to do. You can't make me leave this building," according to Aumiller.

Ewing eventually left Westbrook after talking to her lawyer and to her husband. Aumiller then told Ewing to have no contact with board members or with District 57 staffers or parents, or discuss her leave with anyone but family or counselors.

Aumiller notes that Ewing disobeyed that order when she dropped off a letter to the Daily Herald on Sept. 17.

Ewing defends her move.

"It is my right to notify the press as the guardians of free speech," she said. "Throughout this process, I have not been given the opportunity to share the facts as I know them. This has been difficult and upsetting beyond description."

Words: Board to meet Tuesday to decide principal's fate