Faced with firing, tenured Jackson teacher resigns

~ Patti Miinch's attorney claimed she angered school officials over a teacher survey.

Award-winning tenured Jackson teacher Patti Miinch resigned abruptly Thursday evening just before the start of a public hearing in front of the Jackson school board to contest school officials' intention to fire her.

Miinch's attorney, Ken McManaman, said school officials wanted to fire her on grounds of immorality and absenteeism. The school administration claimed she failed to attend a teaching seminar that she was expected to attend and lied about it, McManaman said.

But McManaman contended that school officials wanted to fire her because of a teacher survey she conducted two years ago when she was president of the Jackson Community Teachers Association. The survey results showed low morale among teachers and criticized the performance of school administrators.

"I think the entire termination was based upon the fact that she had angered the administration," the Cape Girardeau lawyer said.

Miinch, a ninth-grade language arts teacher, was one of four teachers honored as educator of the year by the Jackson Chamber of Commerce in April 2004.

In February 2005, Jackson Junior High School principal Cory Crosnoe praised Miinch in a letter. "Mrs. Miinch is a veteran member of our faculty who is broadly recognized as a teacher who is not only a master of her discipline but also a teacher who has an authentic passion for teaching and for our kids," he wrote.

Miinch brought a copy of the letter to the board office Thursday.

She left without comment after the hearing was canceled.

The school district's attorney, Steve Wright of Columbia, met briefly in closed session with the school board before announcing the outcome. "She simply has resigned for personal reasons," Wright said.

"I think it was the best thing for the district and her under the circumstances," he said.

The decision occurred, Wright said, after he and McManaman met in a back room at the school board office just prior to the hearing. School board members and Miinch's friends, who had planned to testify, waited through a half-hour delay while the back-room discussion took place.

The hearing had been scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. But it was 6 p.m. before board president Brent Wills gaveled the meeting to order and then announced the hearing had been canceled.

Wright said Miinch would have found it difficult to land another teaching job if she had been fired.

McManaman said the school board's lawyer suggested Miinch resign. Wright made that offer at 5:15 p.m., only 15 minutes before the hearing was scheduled to start, McManaman said.

"I need a job," Miinch said shortly before the hearing was to start.

Miinch's resignation is scheduled to take effect today, which is the formal end of the 2005-2006 school year.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123