Council Looking for Third Superintendent in Three Years
Council School District’s Superintendent Pat Griffin tendered his resignation by email on May 14. He will stay on through June to help with the end of the school year, but he will not return next year. He was halfway through a two year contract. His stated reason in his email was to attend to family matters.
The previous Superintendent, Clete Edmunson, resigned in June of 2023. The 2023-2024 school year was held together largely by teaching staff and Mike Howard, who had retired from education but took a part time contract with Council to help for the year.
The school board will meet on May 20th, after our press deadline, where it is anticipated they will approve a course of action to find or appoint a new superintendent for the next school year. One option that the board may consider is promoting Mr. Brian Joyce to Superintendent. Or, they may advertise for the position to look for candidates. The board has options and they will be discussing those on Tuesday evening.
The Council School District has had a rough go of it this year. Some of the issues at the school spilled over to social media and the opinion page of this paper. In March Emilee McLinn, a former “Teacher of the Year” was fired.
Council School District Board Chair Steve Ryals sent the following statement in regards to McLinn’s firing: It was the decision of the School Board and the administration that it was in the best interests of the school to terminate the employment of Emilee McLinn at this time. This was not an easy decision to make and was not done on the spur of the moment. All Board members were in agreement with this decision. Since this is a personnel matter we are not able to comment on the specific nature of this issue. Idaho is an “At Will” state which means that any non certified employee can quit or be discharged at any time for any reason. We wish Mrs. McLinn the best as this was a difficult decision for everyone.
Additionally, mediation between the administration and the staff was scheduled for May 19-20. That was canceled after Mr. Griffin resigned.
