[Nfbwv-talk] Text of Updated Keller Story

[Dave Allen]

Hi Ed!

Thanks for sharing the article.

Clearly it's about interpretation.

Cheers,
Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: NFBWV-talk [mailto:nfbwv-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ed
McDonald via NFBWV-talk
Sent: Sunday, 19 November 2017 4:55 a.m.
To: nfbwv-talk at nfbnet.org
Cc: Ed McDonald
Subject: [Nfbwv-talk] Text of Updated Keller Story

In case link in previous message did not work, here is the text of the
story:

The West Virginia Board of Education unanimously voted Friday, without
explanation, to immediately fire state Schools for the Deaf and the Blind
Superintendent Martin Keller Jr.

Keller's Martinsburg-based attorney, Christine Glover, said Keller will file
a federal lawsuit to get his job back and seek punitive damages. Keller said
it would be against state schools Superintendent Steve Paine.

Glover, who said she began representing Keller on Thursday, said the
lawsuit's claims might include that the firing allegedly was in retaliation
for Keller not taking an action that would have resulted in the Romney
schools closing. She also said the claims might include an allegation that
Paine discriminated against Keller because he's deaf.


The state school board hired Keller, in a voice vote with no nays heard, in
August 2015 at an annual salary of $110,000. State education officials have
said they believe he's the first deaf superintendent in the schools'
history, which stretches back to 1870.

Kristin Anderson, the West Virginia Department of Education's communications
director, said that, to her knowledge, the department and board aren't
planning to close the school or move it. She declined comment on Keller's
allegations regarding retaliation and other issues because "it's a personnel
matter."

Glover said Friday's "hearing" supposedly was about Keller allegedly being
untruthful while applying for the job. She sent the Gazette-Mail a message
from Keller in which he writes, "I understand that the Board is considering
my termination due to their belief that I was untruthful" in answering "no"
to the application question "Have you ever been dismissed or asked to resign
from any employment?"

"I was then informed that my departure from the Georgia School for the Deaf
was in question," Keller said. "This was not the result of punitive action,
and references no misconduct."

He wrote that he was sent another document he had never seen regarding the
end of his employment in Georgia, "and it is the only one that refers to the
separation notice as a 'termination.' "

Meghan Frick, communications director for the Georgia Department of
Education, said Friday afternoon that Keller involuntarily left a
less-than-a-year-long stint as the Georgia school's assistant director of
instruction. Frick also called it a "termination," but she said further
information on the possible reasoning would require filing an open-records
request and more time to provide answers.

"My supervisor had been made aware, despite my efforts, that I was seeking
employment elsewhere and was interested in accepting a vacant position,
which I did indeed move into," Keller wrote of his time in Georgia. "I saw
this notice of separation of their acknowledgment of this information and
found, and still find, it to have a different meaning than dismissal. The
question, again asks of dismissal or requested resignation. To me, and I
believe many others, this has a negative connotation which implies punitive
action."

Four people asked the board before its vote to keep Keller. Two of the
speakers, Ruby Losh, president of the West Virginia School for the Deaf
Alumni Association, and Marcus Soulsby, treasurer of the National Federation
of the Blind of West Virginia, said their organizations support Keller.

"Students here have excelled because of his presence," Losh said. "Having
Dr. Keller here provides us with access to a deaf leader."

The board went into closed session for about an hour, with members claiming
it was allowable because of an exception from the open-meetings law for
personnel matters.

Board Vice President Dave Perry said the closed session was "at the request
of Dr. Keller." Perry said he asked Keller during the meeting if he'd like
to have the closed session opened to the public but that Keller declined.

After Keller's firing, the board appointed current Chief Financial Officer
Mark Gandolfi and School for the Blind Principal Jamie McBride-Vittorio to,
as Anderson put it, "assume all administrative and educational duties until
such time that a new Superintendent is hired."

"I was not surprised," Keller said after his firing, "because I knew that
this was retaliation on [Paine's] part. I have strong evidence that I will
share later. I'm going to be filing a complaint, a retaliation complaint
against Dr. Paine at the federal level. It is not over and you will
understand."

Paine was mum on the issue.

"I have no comment," he said, "It's a personnel issue."

Glover said videos of interviews of Keller by Paine show discrimination,
saying they show Paine couldn't understand why Keller couldn't speak without
using an interpreter. She also said they show Paine making "very
inappropriate comments." She said she didn't know why the interviews were
conducted.