The Durango School District 9-R board met for more than two hours Tuesday in a closed session to discuss the handling of a call to police last month concerning a district administrator who was reportedly not allowed on the grounds of Needham Elementary School.
Last week, The Durango Herald reported that on Oct. 19, Needham Elementary Principal Jennifer McKenna directed a staff member to call 911 because the district’s spokeswoman, Julie Popp, a parent of a student at Needham, was not allowed at the school and was trespassing.
“Standard operating procedure was used for the Needham 911 call,” school board president Nancy Stubbs said after four board members emerged from the executive session. “Anytime there’s a disagreement with a parent that gets difficult, it’s standard to call police. It prevents misunderstanding. They are objective and can help cool things down.”
Part of school board members’ discussion of the incident, Stubbs said, was an appraisal of whether Superintendent Dan Snowberger handled a discussion of the event with The Durango Herald appropriately.
Initially, Snowberger and McKenna refused to discuss the police call with the Herald, and when the Herald asked each for comment, both denied an incident took place.
The Herald provided Snowberger and McKenna with a call detail report from the Durango Police Department and an audio recording of the 911 call to police dispatch.
In separate letters sent Sunday by Snowberger to 9-R staff and McKenna to Needham parents, both acknowledge an incident took place, and both provided some details about what they say happened.
Stubbs said that as part of a work session Thursday, an executive session will continue a discussion of the incident. School board members will comment about the incident during an open portion of the meeting.
During a work session, comment from the public is not taken.
After the closed session Tuesday, board member Shere Byrd said, “I think, perhaps because of the people involved, the call attracted more interest in the media than would normally be the case.”
parmijo@durangoherald.com
