"Westonka Resident Seeks Answers from Superintendent About 'Harlem Shake' Suspensions"

Dear Superintendent Borg,

I received the following email auto reply from your computer last Monday
indicating that you were out of the office until Monday, Feb. 25th.  This
prompts the following few questions for you:

1.  Were you out of the district office and unavailable last Friday
afternoon (Feb. 22) at the time the Harlem Shake incident took place?

2.  Were you available Friday afternoon and over the weekend via your cell
phone either by voice calls or text messaging?

3.  Were any attempts to contact you either successfully or unsuccessfully
made by district staff on Friday afternoon / evening (Feb. 22)?  If so, by
whom?

4.  Did you participate in the discipline decisions on Friday (Feb. 22) made
regarding the Harlem Shake?

5.  Was Assistant Superintendent Mark Femrite present on duty at the school
facilities last Friday afternoon?  If not, was he available by voice calls
or text message?  Were attempts to contact Mr. Femrite either successfully
or unsuccessfully made by district staff on Friday afternoon/evening Feb 22.
If so, by whom?  Did Mr. Femrite participate in disciplinary decisions?

6.  Repeat item #5 questions, for School Principal Keith Randklev.

7.  Repeat item #5 questions for Assistant Principal Marty Fischer.

8.  Does the school district have a policy on who exactly needs to present
at the school facilities on "Duty Days" and which officials can be gone?

9.  Please name everyone who participated in reviewing the Harlem Shake
incident and deciding upon disciplinary action last Friday afternoon (Feb.
22)?

10. If more school officials than just Dion Koltes decided on the
disciplinary action, why is he the only one being thrown under the bus and
put on administrative leave at this time?

11. You stated during last Monday's (Feb. 25th) School Board Meeting that "I
own this".  Is there a reason why only Dion Koltes is being placed under the
bus and you are not joining him there if you do in fact "own this"?

12. School Board Chair Dave Botts participated in a radio broadcasted phone
interview Tuesday afternoon (Feb 26) with John Williams of WCCO radio.  He
indicated that the Athletic Director was being investigated for additional
allegations.  Has Dave Botts been made aware that his further defamation of
Dion Koltes could result in a huge lawsuit similar to what took place back
in 2005 when a custodian won a suit for $1.28 million from the Westonka
district?  Since Dave was on the board at that time, he should be well aware
of this event.  I attached the pertinent documents for your convenience.
Dave's radio interview is particularly troubling to me, since judgments made
against the school district are paid for by a separate "Judgment Levy" that
is an additional tax paid by all district residents, without their
authorization or vote, above and beyond their existing school property
taxes.  I believe that it would wise for you and the school board to reign
in Chair Dave Botts and ask for his resignation as his careless actions are
putting the school district in further jeopardy on many levels.

13. At several meetings during my tenure on the school board, I brought up
the fact that the Minnetrista Police Blotter published regularly in the
Laker Newspaper had a sizable percentage of the police department's reported
incidents taking place at the Westonka High School.  I stated that if the
parents of students entrust their children's education to the district, that
the district should personally provide school discipline for misbehavior and
that students should not leave our school with a police records for lapses
in their immature judgment, as these records are permanent and affect the
ability of a student being accepted into post secondary institutions,
receiving a job offer, or who-knows-what down the road.  The school board
and you disagreed with me on this at the time.  After seeing the devastating
results of the Harlem Shake incident, I beg you to reconsider and scale back
the presence of police officers in our school buildings.

14. I hereby request a copy of the district's investigation report on the
incident, which I understand is being conducted by an outside source.  I
accept the fact that names of students will need to be redacted from this
report in order to conform with data privacy issues, but our community
deserves nothing less.
__________________________________________________________

My two cents:

Dion Koltes, suspended NO ONE!  Kevin Borg, is paid a tremendous amount of money to prevent what happened last Friday from happening.  Where was he?  Did it really take him three days to figure out the magnitude of what was transpiring, or was he swimming with the dolphins with his phone turned off?  On Monday, Kevin said, "I own this, it happened on my watch."  Why not fix it last Friday while it was still fixable?  These types of things keep happening over and over and over on Kevin's watch, yet, Dion Koltes is on "administrative leave," while Kevin keeps getting huge raises.