Latest turmoil for tiny Northwoods district: Felony charges filed against 5 current and former school board members
Annysa Johnson
Five current and former board members of a tiny Northwoods school district are facing felony charges for allegedly falsifying a letter to the state Department of Public Instruction and, in one case, destroying a video of a heated board meeting.
The charges are the latest development for the Mercer School District, which drew national attention in 2016 after two of its girls volleyball coaches — one is among those charged — allowed some players to watch the sexploitation flick "50 Shades of Grey" en route to a tournament.
The charges stem from an investigation by DPI in response to a complaint by board member Christa Reinert, an angry-volleyball-parent-turned-whistleblower who ran for office in part because of the "50 Shades" debacle.
The charges, filed in Iron County Circuit Court, accuse board members Deanna Pierpont, Michele Holmstrom and Noel Brandt of misconduct in office; and former members Denise Thompson and Colleen "Kelly" Kohegyi of falsely exercising a function of public office.
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The five signed a May 1, 2018, letter to DPI detailing how they voted in closed session to give $18,000 in bonuses to District Administrator Erik Torkelson and three others, without acknowledging the votes in any minutes. All five identified themselves as board members, though two had lost their seats the month before.
Pierpont faces a second charge of misconduct for allegedly deleting a video recording of a heated school board meeting in October 2017. In an interview months later, Pierpont told the Journal Sentinel that she had erased it and that Mercer no longer records its meetings.
"I didn't like what I saw. ... People in the audience were yelling. Students were there. ... I just felt that I didn't want that out on the website," she said at the time.
Efforts to reach the five were not immediately successful.
Last summer, DPI issued a finding that the Mercer School District inappropriately spent about $175,000 from its community programs and services account — otherwise known as "Fund 80" — over the 2015-'16 and 2016-'17 school years. Most of that was used to boost wages and benefits for a small group of employees, including Torkelson, who is also Kohegyi's son-in-law, without adequate documentation, according to the letter.
DPI also admonished board members for voting on bonuses in closed session. State law allows votes in closed session, but only in limited cases, and the state Department of Justice advises elected bodies not to do so, unless "doing so would compromise the need for the closed session."
Mercer challenged DPI's findings, and Torkelson said Tuesday that the two sides are in mediation to resolve the dispute.
Reinert, who has taken on the role of board watchdog, lost her seat April 2 but said she will continue to push for transparency and accountability in the Mercer schools. She said she recently delivered a new cache of documents to the Iron County District Attorney's Office.
Contact Annysa Johnson at anjohnson@jrn.com or 414-224-2061. Follow her on Twitter at @JSEdbeat. And join the Journal Sentinel conversation about education issues at www.facebook.com/groups/WisconsinEducation.