Durango School District 9-R appointed two new members to its board Tuesday night, including a former principal of Durango High School who was reprimanded in 2002 by district administration.
Brieanne Stahnke was named to represent District D, and former DHS principal Greg Spradling was named to represent District A. Both appointments are two-year terms.
District D’s seat was empty before Stahnke’s appointment.
Stahnke has worked for BP for seven years, specializing in project management and engineering, according to the news release.
Spradling will replace departing board member Kristy Rodri, who resigned after moving to an out-of-district residence. Rodri defeated Spradling in the 2011 school board elections.
Spradling served as DHS principal from 2001 to 2007, when he resigned. In 2002, district administrators reprimanded Spradling after he showed three male teachers a picture on his office computer that reportedly showed topless women. At the time, he claimed the photograph was an attachment to an email that he’d opened by accident. He was hired as the principal of Ridgway Secondary School in mid-2007, but he was abruptly placed on administrative leave, and the district did not renew his contract at the end of his first year.
A Durango School District 9-R news release said Spradling’s résumé “boasts 32 years of experience in education.”
Julie Popp, district spokeswoman, said board members chose Spradling and Stahnke after advertising the open positions, taking résumés and conducting interviews, which were open to the public.
The board chose Spradling over Andrea Parmenter, who also applied to represent District A.
The Durango Herald asked school board President Andrew Burns if Spradling’s actions in 2002 were weighed in the decision-making process.
Burns, who replied by email, wrote that personnel files are not privy to public under state open-records law. He wrote, “Therefore the information within the files regarding any incident with Greg Spradling during his tenure as DHS Principal is not public information. We can say, however, that there is nothing in there that supports your claims.”
Burns said all candidates went through the same interview process. “The current board members selected the candidates that we felt were the best qualified based on experience,” he wrote in the email
At the time of the incident, Spradling told the Herald: “I take full responsibility for my actions; it was a judgment error on my part.”
He also added, “It was not pornography, but it was inappropriate.”
In an email sent Tuesday, Durango School District 9-R Superintendent Dan Snowberger said he hoped the Herald would not “jump on a negative track here with unsubstantiated allegations against an individual who has offered himself for service to our district. We have a great board of dedicated volunteers who give countless hours to provide oversight for our work to improve the school district.
“We are fortunate to have both Greg and Brieanne join our team to represent their respective communities as a voice in setting policy and direction within Durango 9-R,” he said.
In the news release announcing the new members’ appointment, Burns said he believed the “breadth of our new board will bring important perspectives from all Durango community members, enabling the best practices in education.”
cmcallister@durangoherald.com
