Three school board members say investigation exonerates PSD superintendent

Three school board members who reviewed the report and agreed to share their opinions with The Coloradoan said an independent investigation into Poudre School District Superintendent Brian Kingsley’s relationship found no irregularities or misconduct on the part of the Poudre district superintendent.

“A thorough investigation of this matter was conducted by an impartial third-party investigator,” School Board Chair Kristen Draper said in a text message Friday. “The investigation report concluded that the allegations of misconduct made against the superintendent are without merit.”

Draper and board members Conor Duffy, Scott Schoenbauer, Carolyn Reed and Kevin Havelda all said they had reviewed the investigation.

Draper, Duffy and Reed all agreed with the investigation’s findings and cleared Kingsley of any violations of district policies or procedures. They said they shared their thoughts as individuals who had reviewed the report, not on behalf of the entire school board.

“The evidence in the report supports the conclusion that no wrongdoing was found,” Reed said Friday.

Schoenbauer and Havelda declined to comment on Friday, saying they wanted to wait until the two board members, who had not yet seen the report, had the opportunity to do so.

A statement from the full school board is expected once all members have had a chance to review and be informed about the investigation and its findings, Draper said. Board members Jim Brokish and Jessica Zamora are out of town and the investigation report was made available for in-person review only.

Kingsley told the Coloradoan in a text message that he had not seen the report. He said he would wait until the school board as a whole made a public statement about its findings before commenting.

Mysterious investigations in the Poudre school district

Very little is known about the scope of the investigation and its findings other than the statements of Draper, Duffy and Reed.

The school board voted in May to hire an outside investigator to look into the nature of Kingsley’s relationship with a school district employee. It is unclear what prompted the investigation.

The Coloradoan is not disclosing the name of the second PSD employee or his position at this time. Multiple calls to the employee have gone unanswered since the investigation began.

It is not known whether there were any suspicions that the second employee had committed any wrongdoing. If so, it is not known whether the report exonerated the second PSD employee in the same way that it did Kingsley.

Will the results ever be published?

The findings have not yet been provided to The Coloradoan for independent review, despite repeated requests by the school district’s legal counsel, chief of staff and communications team, members of the school board and in a formal records request submitted late Tuesday afternoon.

The investigation report was made available only to members of the school board for personal review at the school district headquarters in Fort Collins.

“The investigation report and all related documents are subject to attorney-client privilege and are additionally protected from disclosure under the Colorado Open Records Act and are therefore not available for inspection,” Autumn Aspen, the school district’s legal counsel, wrote in an email Thursday.

It’s unclear which part of the Colorado Open Records Act Aspen is referring to. The act is a large section of Colorado law that contains numerous provisions about when records must be made public and when they are protected from public disclosure.

On Thursday, the Coloradoan asked Aspen about the specific exception that led her to believe the recordings were protected, but no response was available by Friday evening.

How much money was spent on the investigation?

School board members acknowledged from the beginning that taxpayer money would be spent on the investigation, and the financial cost was a concern for many in the community after the school’s uncertain financial future nearly led to the closure of several schools.

However, the total amount spent on the investigation has yet to be disclosed.

The school board did not respond to The Coloradoan’s request for a copy of the contract for the outside investigation to determine who conducted it and how much it cost, but Colorado law requires it to do so by Monday evening.

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