Between 75 and 100 people attended the Mason Consolidated Schools board meeting Feb. 4. Many of them were there in solidarity with Allen Rosenberger, the former high school shop teacher at the center of a complicated legal battle.
And according to Rosenberger’s lawyer, Erin Donahue, it might not be over yet.
“We are currently considering all legal avenues moving forward,” she said.
The Mason superintendent, Kelli Tuller, filed tenure charges against Rosenberger, accusing him of embezzling school funds in June 2025. A judge declared that the case lacked a solid foundation and dismissed it, but Rosenberger hasn’t been reinstated to his former position two months later. Instead, he has been given two new classes to teach in a different building.
What happened at the meeting?
During public comment early in the meeting, several people stood up to express displeasure with Tuller in particular and the board in general regarding a closed legal battle with Rosenberger.
“The situation this leadership has placed the district in is deeply concerning, financially and culturally, and has unnecessarily divided families and communities,” said Tara Stubleski during her public comment. The same sentiment was echoed in many public comments that evening.
After public comments, the board approved the creation of two new classes for Rosenberger to teach at Mason Middle School: woodshop and robotics/coding. He previously taught construction trades at the high school.
“We wanted to do that for quite some time and then we got really excited because Mr. Hodge’s experience and expertise in the field of construction coupled with Mr. Rosenberger’s background and teaching, it really makes for a great department in our construction trades program,” Tuller told the Monroe News.
Why were people angry?
It stems from a legal battle between the Mason board of education and Rosenberger which began in June 2025 when Tuller and the board filed tenure charges against Rosenberger, alleging that he had embezzled school money. Specifically, they accused him of pocketing the rebates he received from Menards when he used school district money to buy supplies for the CTE class he taught.
The legal battle went on until December 2025 when administrative law judge Lindsay Wilson declared the attempt to fire Rosenberger by Mason Consolidated Schools “arbitrary and capricious,” which by legal definition is a decision “based on whim or caprice and not on considered, principled reasoning.” According to a legal document dated Dec. 22, Rosenberger was to be “reinstated to his employment on a date to be determined by (Mason Consolidated Schools).”
During this legal battle, Rosenberger’s class was being taught by Todd Hodge, who is still teaching the class in the wake of Rosenberger’s return to Mason. Several people at the meeting expressed concerns that he wasn’t a certified teacher and that keeping both him and Rosenberger would cost the district too much money. Tuller refuted those claims later, saying that Hodge has an ACA certification and that the school is able to afford both teachers.
There are others who are unhappy with Tuller specifically. Kodie Boden, who attended Mason High School along with her husband, and whose children attend now, said there’s a possibility that she will remove her children from the school.
“She’s wasting taxpayer dollars, she’s not invested in our students, in our community, at all,” Boden said.
— Contact reporter Connor Veenstra at CVeenstra@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Mason teacher reinstated after embezzlement claim, but community anger continues
Reporting by Connor Veenstra, The Monroe News / The Monroe News
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