Former employees call for Lakeland School District board resignation

RATHDRUM, Idaho – Dozens of former staff members and community members are asking the Lakeland School District board of trustees to resign, with one former teacher claiming the board is working against teachers and students.

Former teacher Allison Knoll says the Lakeland School District board of trustees has been a problem since 2020. The removal of Superintendent Rusty Taylor last month was the final straw for her and others calling for the board’s resignation.

“The teachers are not trusted to do the jobs that they were hired to do,” Knoll said.

Knoll believes the board’s action against Taylor was retaliatory.

“I think that it was a vindictive action because the superintendent, Rusty Taylor, was trying to stand up for the teachers, the students and pushing against some of the things that the board was asking,” she said.

In a letter presented to the school board Wednesday night, Knoll stated the board has been bad stewards of taxpayers’ money by failing to find reasonable cause to fire Taylor and now paying out his more than $150,000 contract, and by putting next month’s $3 million facilities levy at risk.

“It is proving to the taxpayers that they’re not managing the money that they already have. And it’s kind of unfair to then expect the taxpayers to give them more money on top of that,” Knoll said.

Knoll says the board’s actions are reasons why teachers and employees have resigned, including herself.

In resignation letters shared with 4 News Now, both Knoll and a school board clerk stated the behavior of the school board were reasons for leaving. One of them said “patterns of unprofessional conduct, a lack of respectful dialogue and the way sensitive matters are handled have created conditions that make it impossible to carry out my responsibilities effectively.”

Knoll cited that the board’s oversight of curriculum is hurting students.

“They are micromanaging. They are asking teachers to do more with less,” she said.

One trustee provided a statement that read in part: “The board has both the authority and the responsibility to oversee the superintendent’s employment. Resigning because a vocal group disagrees with a legally sound, unanimously supported decision would be a failure of my obligation to the voters, not a fulfillment of it.”