Board rehires K-2 teacher

SWAN VALLEY – At a special meeting July 19, the Swan Valley School Board voted unanimously to rehire Chris Mauldin as the kindergarten – second grade teacher for the 2022-2023 school year. Principal Aaron Morgenstern said this decision was based on the Office of Public Instruction’s (OPI) willingness to extend his provisional license for one more year.

In an interview after the meeting, Morgenstern said Mauldin received an email from OPI that said, unlike in 2021, they were not going to extend any expiring provisional licenses for 2022-2023 due to COVID. Due to challenges that had come up with completing his coursework, Mauldin was not going to be unable to finish his program within the three-year requirement for his provisional license.

“For all intents and purposes, his license was expiring, OPI said they weren’t going to extend those and his coursework wasn’t not going to be done in time in order for him to apply for a normal teaching license,” Morgenstern said.

While Mauldin offered alternatives to explore, at a special board meeting May 26 the board voted unanimously to non-renew Mauldin’s certified teacher contract without cause because he wouldn’t be certified in the fall.

“The legal ramifications and the penalties that can incur on a school if they employ a non-licensed teacher from OPI wasn’t worth, unfortunately, the risk of doing it,” Morgenstern said. “It can have some pretty detrimental impacts on the school.”

While Morgenstern acknowledged the board did hire him last year with an expired teaching certificate for K-12 Music, he had his license reinstated prior to the start of the school year.

“My situation was a complete different situation than what Chris is doing,” Morgenstern said. “He was approaching this from not having any kind of teaching credentials at all.”

Morgenstern said Swan Valley School advertised the position and received two applications that the hiring committee reviewed. While they interviewed one applicant, they did not make an offer.

Morgenstern said Mauldin received a letter from OPI that stated, following review of his case, they would make an exception and extend his provisional license for one year.

“With that information and the fact that we did not offer the position to the person we interviewed, the board made the decision to rehire him,” Morgenstern said.

Since Mauldin had previously worked for them, Morgenstern said Missoula County Superintendent Erin Lipkind advised him that they could just offer him a new contract instead of going through the entire application process.

“I figured that was going to be easier because in the end we were going to come to the same result anyway so why jump through extra hoops,” Morgenstern said. “In a unionized school that would be totally different.”

Teacher contracts are typically offered in August. The next board meeting is scheduled for Aug. 18 at 7 p.m. at Swan Valley Elementary School following the Board’s Strategic Planning session at 3:30 p.m.