School district investigating allegations
By Robert Cloud
The former Iola-Scandinavia district administrator is now accused of harassment by a co-worker in Clintonville.
Lynette Edwards, the Clintonville School District’s business manager, filed a petition seeking a restraining order against David Dyb, Clintonville’s new superintendent, on Oct. 30.
On Nov. 9, Edwards and Dyb appeared in Waupaca County Circuit Court.
Edwards withdrew her petition, and Judge Vicki Clussman dismissed the case.
Edwards told the court her complaints were being investigated internally, and she did not want to detract from the school district’s many achievements.
In her petition, Edwards provided a statement that described a meeting in Dyb’s office on the morning of Oct. 27.
Ben Huber, Mark Zachow, Lance Bagstad, Troy Kuhn, Dyb and Edwards were at the meeting, according to Edwards.
“He accused me of being ‘icy at best’ toward him and that I’m unable to ‘get over the past,’” Edwards alleged. “He accused me of having a ‘problem’ with his hire and at least once leaned toward me pointing his finger at my face. He also told me more than once that he didn’t appreciate my ‘smirk.’”
Edwards said Dyb became increasingly agitated when she began questioning him.
“Finally, Mr. Dyb became so upset that he leaned over the table, looked at me threateningly and twice yelled, ‘Do you know who you’re talking to?” she wrote.
Edwards said she no longer felt safe.
“I spent six years working in a state prison and I’ve never felt as harassed or threatened as I do by Mr. Dyb,” Edwards wrote.
In her petition to the court, she requested that Dyb not be allowed to work in the district’s office.
“In referencing the court documents, an injunction was no longer being requested and the matter has been dismissed,” Dyb said in an email to the Clintonville Tribune-Gazette. “Unfortunately, I cannot comment on any internal school district personnel topic.”
Dyb resigned his position as Iola-Scandinavia’s school district administrator during the last academic year.
On Jan. 3, the I-S School Board voted in closed session to accept Dyb’s resignation. The board voted in open session to accept his resignation on April 4.
Dyb, who described his resignation as “involuntary,” spent the second semester of 2016-17 on sabbatical leave.
The Clintonville School Board voted to hire Dyb as the district’s interim superintendent on Aug. 21 and approved offering him the position permanently on Oct. 23.
Edwards took over as the Clintonville School District business manager on July 1, 2014.
She began working for the district as as an executive secretary in November 2006.
Erik Buchinger contributed to this article.