EVANSVILLE — Responding to a Courier & Press story about teachers who work in schools led by their mother or father, one veteran EVSC school board member insisted Monday that “direct reporting relationships” are what count.
“If an employee is not in a direct supervisor relationship, I have not viewed that alone as a problem,” Chris Kiefer said during the board’s regularly scheduled meeting.
If a legitimate conflict of interest were to arise, Kiefer said, “an appropriate reassignment or other corrective action should be considered.”
“I also believe we must be fair to employees who happen to have a family connection,” he said. “It is not right for someone to be viewed only as ‘the spouse of,’ or ‘the son or daughter of,’ rather than as an individual who works hard, performs well and earns evaluations or promotions on their own merit.”
The Courier & Press story, published April 16, reported there are numerous examples of members of the same family working under EVSC’s districtwide umbrella of 3,400 employees — and a few where the son or daughter of a building principal works alongside other teachers at that school.
The story cited one prominent example at EVSC’s largest school — the hiring of North High School Principal John Skinner’s daughter, Kaitlin Schantz, and Skinner’s son-in-law, Anthony Schantz, as teachers there.
In 2024, the year before Anthony Schantz began working at North, he taught at Harrison High School — where his mother-in-law, Tamara Skinner, was principal.
Schantz had worked at other schools not led by an in-law before 2024. He is listed on North’s website as a mathematics teacher. A December 2024 Gallup poll reported that nearly half of 1,471 responding education leaders said finding qualified math teachers was “very challenging” and more difficult than finding applicants for English language or social studies positions.
Nobody who spoke to the Courier & Press suggested that the Schantzes are not valuable assets at North; rather, that EVSC isn’t careful enough or transparent enough in policing the hiring of family members to avoid situations that invite perceptions of nepotism.
EVSC’s position has been that there’s no ethical problem with the hiring of teachers at schools where a parent serves as principal — as long as principals don’t evaluate or directly supervise their offspring.
“When that happens, we’re very mindful of who is doing that teacher’s evaluation — who is really ultimately going to be supervising that person — and so oftentimes in our schools, there are many people that are able to evaluate,” Superintendent Darla Hoover told the Courier & Press.
The problem with that, one current and one former EVSC teacher told the Courier & Press, is that asking a subordinate of a principal to evaluate the principal’s son or daughter puts that person in an untenable position.
Any assistant principal or department chair would hesitate to render a negative evaluation if one is called for, they said.
“If (the teacher has) got the right name, if they’re related to that principal, there’s not going to be an impartial evaluation — even if they’re (the principal) not the person doing the evaluation,” retired EVSC teacher Laura Ballard said. “It’s just not going to happen.”
A teacher who worked at one of the schools the Courier & Press identified where a colleague was the principal’s son or daughter said it was “extremely uncomfortable.” It wasn’t possible for co-workers of the principal’s child to speak freely among themselves for fear they might be overheard and their comments reported to the principal, this teacher said.
“Definitely, if I’m trying to talk to somebody and have a candid conversation, it was definitely a ‘watch your back, check the halls, make sure,’ you know,” the teacher said.
Another administrator did perform the evaluation of the principal’s child and walk-throughs and coaching, the teacher said.
“But at the same time, how are they going to do fidelity if they’re worried about, if (the principal) sees that (their child) didn’t get a good review, well, (they’re) going to brush it back,” the teacher said.
Kiefer cast the issue not as one of perceptions about the principal’s son or daughter working at the school, or the principal’s daughter and son-in-law working at the school. To him it’s about merit regardless of family connections.
If a teacher performs well and truly earns their advancement, Kiefer suggested, the fact that the principal is the teacher’s parent shouldn’t be of concern.
“The key issue is not whether relatives work in the district, but whether employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications and fairness,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: EVSC board member talks ‘nepotism’ in wake of report
Reporting by Thomas B. Langhorne, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
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