Dexter School Board Votes To Pursue Tenure Charges Following Closed Session

“Monday night, the DCS Board of Education voted to pursue tenure charges against a DCS teacher.  Filing tenure charges is part of the process of terminating a contract with a tenured teacher.”

At the Dexter Community Schools Board of Education meeting on Monday, February 24, the board entered a closed session to discuss what was listed as a “Tenure Charge Recommendation” on the agenda. According to the Michigan Department of Education, a tenure charge is a “formal disciplinary action initiated by a school district against a tenured teacher under the Teacher Tenure Act (Public Act 4 of 1937, as amended).” 

The session was closed at the request of the educator, whose name was not disclosed by the board. However, during the public comment portion of the meeting, several people provided comments in support of the teacher. In doing so, at least two individuals identified the person in question as Katherine Kuzma, a physical education teacher at Mill Creek Middle School. 

Though all public comments at the meeting were in support of Ms. Kuzma, some of the wording used in those comments indicated that the tenure charge may be related to accusations of “grooming” or “sexual impropriety.” Neither the school district nor Ms. Kuzma has commented on the nature of the tenure charges. 

Bruce Brown is the former Superintendent at Stockbridge Schools and worked with Ms. Kuzma for several years before she moved to Dexter Community Schools. He said, “Ms. Kuzma is one of the most moral, one of the most ethical people that I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with in my career. As I read through the charges against her, and I read the word ‘grooming,’ it’s not in her DNA, simply impossible.”

Additional comments revealed that the accusations could have to do with Ms. Kuzma’s email communications. Cindy Lance, a longtime Trustee of the Stockbridge School Board also spoke publicly in support of Kuzma. “Snippets from emails can be taken out of context and presented in a manner to lead a conclusion and a vote a certain way. We’ve all seen the power of context–when things are taken out of context.”

She continued, “The term grooming, as mentioned before, I am almost confident, positive with this, she probably didn’t even know what the definition of that word was. The emails to male students were at the top of the list. Was that a strategy to promote outrage or hysteria? Why was that more important as a central focus than what was stated as the same amount of emails to female athletes and students?” It is unclear to what list Ms. Lance was referring.

Lance concluded her prepared remarks with, “Mrs. Kuzma is an exceptional coach, educator, leader, and person. It’s my opinion that any accusations made against her character, integrity, or professionalism are gross misrepresentations of who she is.”

One Dexter parent described the impact Ms. Kuzma had on their students during the time she taught and coached them saying, “[Student name] really valued Katherine’s periodic messages of encouraging hard work, overcoming adversity, leading by examples and he wanted to show his appreciation to her by motivating Katherine to pursue her own weight lifting goals during Coach Whittaker’s before school conditioning program.”

When asked about the tenure charges discussed in the closed session, Dexter Community Schools Superintendent Dr. Chris Timmis provided The Sun Times News with the following statement: 

“Dexter Community Schools takes tremendous pride in hiring the best educators to work with our students.  When we have a situation where one of those educators does not meet our expectations, we are swift with removing the individual from our schools.  

Monday night, the DCS Board of Education voted to pursue tenure charges against a DCS teacher.  Filing tenure charges is part of the process of terminating a contract with a tenured teacher.  This decision is not taken lightly but is necessary to uphold our standard of only having the best educators working with our students.”  

Video for the Board Meeting can be found on the Dexter Community Schools YouTube channel. 

Katherine Kuzma could not be reached for comment.