A former teacher and football coach will receive a $150,000 settlement stemming from a dispute over his dismissal from the Juneau School District.
Former Superintendent Glenn Gelbrich fired Bill Byouer in June 2013.
Byouer was a physical education teacher at Floyd Dryden Middle School and also served as head football coach at Thunder Mountain High School. The dismissal stemmed from allegations that he did not serve as a good role model, did not ensure the safety of students, and tried to minimize an incident at a Gold Beach, Oregon football camp during the previous summer.
“There’s nothing in there where he admits he did anything wrong. That’s part of the way settlements work. Neither side admits fault,” says current Juneau School Superintendent Mark Miller, whose office announced the settlement on Thursday.
The deal resolves and releases all parties of past and future claims in the case.
“We had a court hearing, a briefing on it in Superior Court last month. The press was there,” Miller says. “So, between the fact that it was very public and that these are public tax dollars that people have a right to know.”
The Juneau School District went to court in an attempt to vacate an arbitrator’s award that ordered Byouer be reinstated at his old job with restored seniority, back pay and benefits.
Along with City and Borough of Juneau risk management officials, Miller says district officials considered the chances of a decision in their favor.
“When you make a motion to vacate, you have to get a judge to agree with you,” Miller says. “You can end up going to trial. You’re spending huge amounts of legal time on both sides of it. Quite honestly, it’s a coin flip. Anytime, you adjudicate a situation like that, it can go either way.”
Although arbitrator Sandra Gangle ruled that Byouer should get his job back, she also determined that Byouer should not be reinstated to his position as head coach or receive back pay as a coach. However, she ruled that he could apply for future coaching positions.
Superintendent Miller says there’s nothing barring or blocking Byouer from reapplying for a teaching job.
The settlement does not affect Byouer’s pension or benefits he may have accrued while he worked as a teacher.
When asked about potential public criticism for using tax dollars for a monetary settlement, Miller said the school district has similar personnel issues, legal costs, and liabilities that are faced by any other business.
“We analyze our options and we try to make decisions that long-term save the district money, and move on and lower our liability,” Miller says. “Which is what I think any taxpayer would say: ‘Don’t get us into a situation in which we have a huge liability that could be much more extensive than what we’re in.'”
The Juneau Education Association represented Byouer during the case. An attorney for JEA declined to comment or answer questions about the settlement without authorization from membership.
Byouer could not be reached for comment.
Both Byouer and assistant coach John Wahl sparred with students during the football camp in Oregon in the summer of 2012. According to court documents filed with the school district’s motion to vacate the arbitrator’s award, Byouer boxed with his stepson at the football camp, but the boy was uninjured.
Wahl was acquitted of misdemeanor assault after another boy was knocked unconscious.
