2009-07-02
Keel wants job back
By Stephanie Parker
Former Bandera High School Principal Theresa Keel wants her job back as high school principal. She has been reassigned as principal to the Alternative Education Placement program and as liaison to parents in the English as a Second Language program.
With only 10 days left in the school year, Bandera Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Kevin Dyes removed Keel as principal on Monday, June 1, citing “for the benefit of the school district” as the reason for her removal.
Dyes appointed popular Middle School Principal Gary Bitzkie as the new BHS principal.
Seeking to regain her job, Keel took her Level II grievance to Dyes on Monday, June 22. The superintendent must respond by Monday, July 6. If he denies her grievance, she is entitled to a Level III hearing before the BISD Board of Trustees. To assist with her appeal, Keel has hired an attorney, Jefferson “Jay” K. Brim III of Austin.
Brim, an outside counsel for the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals, said that he would help Keel “all the way” to her Level III appeal with board members – and beyond that to legal proceedings if necessary.
In an interview, he said Keel currently has an internal grievance with the superintendent, but that she has the legal foundation for a lawsuit if the issue is not resolved.
“There is a statue in the education code that gives principals the right to refuse to accept an administrator on their campus if they feel that individual will not be an asset to their campus,” Brim explained.
“Four days after she vetoed the placement of Alkek Elementary School Assistant Principal Jo Ellen Fisk, Mrs. Keel was reassigned and Dyes said he had lost all confidence in her judgment,” he continued.
Brim also noted, “She then asked him if (her reassignment) was related to the cheerleader fiasco and Dr. Dyes said, ‘Oh, no.’ Those were the only two things that could have caused the reassignment, so by his own words, Dr. Dyes’ reassignment of her was for an illegal reason.”
