The Jacksonville Chapter of the NAACP said in a now-deleted social media post that there would be an official grievance filed against Jacksonville School District 117 Superintendent Steve Ptacek.
The chapter alerted the public about possibly filing a grievance with the District 117 Board of Education in a lengthy, now-deleted Facebook post on Sunday. The post called into question certain conduct surrounding leadership in an answer to a post on the District 117 Facebook post.
Superintendent Steve Ptacek posted on Friday about the increasing volume of extreme behaviors from students and parents – citing recent incidents of teachers being assaulted while breaking up physical altercations and text message threats one teacher received from a parent over a rearranged seating chart. Ptacek called for action from state lawmakers to address the problem, but also said that the District administration would not tolerate such behavior.
As an answer to the post, the NAACP said it also found fault in those situations but also said that Ptacek’s own actions with parents and the NAACP about past grievances had fostered an air of mistrust with the community – citing accountability concerns.
The NAACP’s post said they have brought their grievance to both the Regional Superintendent’s office and to the Illinois State Board of Education, who both said that they would await any actions and/or response from the District 117 Board of Education before getting involved with the matter.
Superintendent Steve Ptacek said in an interview with WLDS News on Monday that he’s confident that all of the examples and matters expressed in the NAACP social media, whom Ptacek attributed to Art Wilson, says all were dealt with lawfully and correctly by the district: “At this point in time, Mr. Wilson has said something about filing a grievance, which could lead into some form of a larger investigation. The school district is confident that any investigation into these matters will find the district acted appropriately in light of the actual facts and the law. I’m reserving any statements on Mr. Wilson’s claims until the conclusion of any investigation.”
As far as being address at the Wednesday Board of Education meeting publicly, Ptacek says that with the possibility of an official grievance being followed it was best not to discuss any specific claims: “We will allow the grievance process to take care of those [claims], and we actually are very confident with what the results of that process will be.”
The District 117 Board of Education is scheduled to meet tonight (Wednesday) for their regular monthly meeting, beginning with Committee of the Whole at 6:30PM, followed by their regular business meeting at 7PM. Members of the public will have an opportunity to address the board in either setting, but the board is not obligated by law to answer any questions levied at them by the public during open comments.