[ Editor’s note: Kingfisher Public Schools recently reached a settlement with Mason Mecklenburg in his federal civil suit against the district and four coaches. The settlement was announced two days after a special meeting of the Kingfisher Board of Education in which board members Charles Walker, Carly Franks, Terry Payne and Dana Golbek met in executive session along with Superintendent David Glover and the district’s attorney in the case, Eric Janzen. Board member Brad Wittrock was unable to attend that special meeting. The board did not vote to accept the terms of the settlement, rather to instruct Janzen to follow through in the settlement negotiations with what was discussed in the executive session. A vote to accept the terms is expected to take place at the next board meeting. Public concerns have been raised about the settlement terms, which include a $5 million payout to Mecklenburg, the bulk of which will fall to taxpayers in the school district over the next three years, as well as the agreement to not renew Jeff Myers’ extra-duty contract. Glover wished to address as many of the concerns as possible in the following statement to the citizens of the Kingfisher Public Schools district.]

There seems to be a lot of confusion and questions concerning the recent settlement of Mason Mecklenburg vs Kingfisher School District and just how the decision was made to make the settlement.

Because settlement discussions are legally confidential, there is only so much I can share, however I do want to share as much as I can.

A special meeting was held on Nov. 13 where the Board of Education gave authority to our legal counsel to enter into settlement talks with the plaintiff.

A settlement was advisable because of the odds of being able to win the case in a trial setting and it would be in the best interest of the school district as well as the community to settle now in order to avoid what could have been a much greater judgment handed down in court by a jury.

The decision was made to settle to protect 1,300 students in our district that had nothing to do with what was going on with this case.

We ultimately agreed to a settlement of $5 million and with the district paying $1.25 out of the general fund along with around $1.4 million that the district had already spent on legal fees, the board felt that spending more money on legal fees with the prospect of losing in trial wasn’t worth the risk.

The citizens of our school district are also affected by this settlement which the board understands and sadly had to do.

According to Oklahoma State Statute Title 62 O.S. Sec. 365.5, the settlement can be shared with a portion being placed in the school’s sinking fund which unfortunately affects the tax burden in the school district.

This was not something that the board wanted to do, but had to do in this situation.

People may ask the question as to why did we add things such as turf on two fields, agriculture education barns for hogs and goats, concession improvements, new locker rooms and begin the process of remodeling Gilmour Elementary.

As superintendent, I can only answer that by saying, again, that the students of this district not involved in the lawsuit needed to see that we were still moving forward for them.

The turf was not done for coaches, but for our students that participate in football, soccer, peewee football, summer softball, band and other community activities as needed.

We can’t forget that kids are the reason we have school and Kingfisher kids deserve the best.

Coach Myers’ contract was also part of the settlement agreement and he remains on a teaching contract with the district.

Again, it has to be emphasized that the civil trial was more about the school district than the coaches involved. What the settlement did was free the coaches involved in the suit from the possibility of punitive damages being brought against them as a result of the trial.

Coach Myers will continue to receive his full salary for the rest of this school year.

Finally, there were not going to be any winners to come out of this suit as far as the district and its stakeholders. The board of education acted in the best interest of everyone involved with the hopes that we would all be able to learn from this and move on for the students in our district.

It is time for everyone to see just what a special school system and community we have here in Kingfisher.