BOZEMAN — Back in November, the Bozeman school board announced they were putting the then superintendent Bob Connors on administrative leave pending a performance review. Then about 2 months later they announced they reached a severance agreement with Connors, but they left out all the details in the middle.
Details starting on October 19, 2020 - MTN News obtained documents from the district which show two administrators accused Connors of verbally assaulting them after a meeting.
One of the accusers said they had never witnessed “an angry tirade from a supervisor in a school setting” and the encounter left them “shell-shocked” and “scared”
The second accuser described the incident as a “disturbing, explosive event” and also wrote the incident was “personally disturbing and professionally unprecedented. I do not feel safe.”
The administrators said Connors accused them of “undermining him in a public meeting” which was the reason behind the alleged verbal attack.
But his attorney denies the accusations saying “his only regret is that he’s no longer able to work with the students, teachers, and staff” and “These stressful times allowed a raised voice with colleagues to become a cause of concern” and “he did not violate any district policy, nor engage in conduct that was detrimental in any way to the district
So is it a matter of he said/she said? Well, the district did send Connors a letter of reprimand saying “While it has been determined that your behavior did not rise to the behavior to the level of violation of Policy of 5015, your behavior was unprofessional and entirely unacceptable for the Superintendent of the District.”
The district and Connors reached a severance agreement paying Connors’ contract out in full but ending his employment with the school district.
Right now, Marilyn King and Casey Bertram are serving as the co-interim superintendents, and then Bertram will serve as the interim superintendent for the 2021-2022 school year.
