Recently hired District 113 Superintendent Dr. Laurie Kimbrel has been released from her three-year contract per her own request, as announced at a public board meeting on March 3. In a letter written to the school board on Feb. 25, Kimbrel expressed her appreciation for District 113.

“I enjoyed the opportunity to meet with your leaders, teachers and community members,” Kimbrel said. “However, upon reflection of the needs of the districts as well as my own personal and professional goals, I would like to respectfully request that I be released from my contract.”

Her decision to quit her new job only two months after receiving it came after weeks of turmoil regarding two separate controversies. On Feb. 11, a local San Francisco newspaper reported that the husband of Kimbrel, Tim Olrick, was accused of creating a fake Facebook alias under the name Tom O’Hara to post comments regarding a certain parent in the Tamalpais Union High School District community in which Kimbrel currently works. The parent, Mitchell Wortzman, an active member of a community group called Friends of Tam District, was the subject of accusations made by Olrick that consisted of Wortzman being involved in embezzlement and being a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Olrick made these accusations in response to Wortzman publicly criticizing Kimbrel and her duties as superintendent of Tamalpais Union High School District.

“[My husband] perceived that I was the target of a cyber-bullying situation,” Kimbrel explained after her introduction to the Deerfield community. “So, he made the worst possible decision and that was to make personally insulting statements back to someone in response. That is the wrong response.”

Kimbrel claims that her husband’s online attacks, which occurred in October and November of 2014, were kept secret from her until after she interviewed for the position of District 113 Superintendent in December.

“Not only did I not do it, but I did not have knowledge of it before, during or after,” Kimbrel said. “It was only much later, after my interview process, that I found out about this.”

Kimbrel and her husband offered Wortzman $35,000 in exchange for his silence during a very crucial period for Kimbrel’s transition into District 113. Wortzman wrote a letter to the press on Feb. 11, one week before Kimbrel’s first introduction to District 113.

“There is no lawsuit and there are no police charges,” Kimbrel said. “The extent of this is a letter from their lawyer.”

Kimbrel has denied any involvement or responsibility in her husband’s actions online.

“First of all, this is not something that I did,” Kimbrel explained. “This is a conflict between my husband and a community member.”

DHS biology teacher Marty Esgar is the president of the District Educators Association in District 113. He was a member of the interview committee that questioned a group of finalists for the superintendent position. Esgar, along with the rest of the staff members, community members and students that made up the interview committee, were unaware of the incidents involving Olrick during their interview process in December.

“Of course we are troubled by it because it’s such a focus of schools to makes sure that every kid doesn’t have to face that kind of action, so I think it really makes it difficult,” Esgar said. “Even though it was Dr. Kimbrel’s husband, it still makes it difficult because if people bully in the schools, but the superintendent’s husband did it, it’s kind of hard to hold people to a high standard if your leader has that. It definitely sets up some uncomfortable things.”

On Feb. 18, the day Kimbrel arrived to be introduced to the Highland Park community, another controversy surrounding Kimbrel was reported by the Chicago Tribune. Information surfaced that Kimbrel was employed by the search firm Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates (HYA) from August of last year until October, when she elected to leave. The same firm was later hired by District 113 to search for new superintendent candidates. Kimbrel was selected by the firm she used to work for as a candidate.

“I never actually did any work and I never received any money,” Kimbrel said. “So for three months, I was on their list of around 200 associates nationwide. The work would have been doing searches in California this spring. When I applied for this job (District 113 Superintendent), I was no longer on the list of their associates. I quit before I did any work.”

During her interview for District 113 superintendent, neither Kimbrel nor HYA disclosed her professional relationship with the firm that chose her as a candidate. The committee never knew of her connection to HYA until it was reported in mid-February, several months later.

“She did not disclose to us, nor did HYA disclose the connection to us as far as we know,” Esgar said. “It didn’t come up during the interview because nobody had any reason to believe that. If we had seen listed that she was an HYA associate, we would have certainly asked, but we didn’t know even to ask. People found it only after the fact.”

Now knowing that Kimbrel and HYA both elected not to disclose their connection during the interview process, Esgar is concerned by the activity of HYA.

“What really kind of tainted things after the fact is not knowing that there was any potential conflict ahead of time, then it makes you wonder afterwards, ‘Was there something unethical going on?’” Esgar said. “I’m not saying there was, but it gives the appearance that there might be something unethical when you bring forward associates in your firm and you don’t necessarily tell anyone, especially the committee that is interviewing.”

The resume Kimbel provided to the interview committee did not include her being hired by HYA. On the District 113 webpage, the resume posted for Kimbrel is also missing her brief tenure. However, a copy of Kimbrel’s resume posted on the HYA webpage, which has since been deleted, included the position. Hank Gmitro, President of HYA, wrote a letter to the school board fully explaining their relationship with Kimbrel.

“I asked to have her name removed from our associate list on our website once she decided to be a candidate,” Gmitro said in the letter. “. . .The resum that we created and posted listed her as an associate of the firm, which is something that is routinely added by our office staff on all associates’ resumes. . . I erroneously assumed that removing her name from our associate list also removed her resume from our website.”

Despite HYA’s assumption of responsibility for not properly disclosing their professional relationship with Kimbrel, Esgar believes that Kimbrel had a partial obligation to explain the relationship to the interview committee.

“I think it was HYA’s responsibility to [disclose the connection], but I think she still should have disclosed it herself,” Esgar said. “I think both of them should have disclosed it because they both knew there was a connection and the both should have shared that. I’m not letting her off the hook, but I think they have the greater responsibility given that they are paid to vet candidates and get people here.”

In the same letter written to the school board, Gmitro expressed his regret for the firm’s failure to avoid this miscommunication.

“I apologize to the Board and to the District 113 community for not explicitly sharing the information about the fact that Dr. Kimbrel had agreed to become an associate of HYA,” Gmitro said. “It was my oversight.”

As of now, Kimbrel has not yet apologized for either her undisclosed relationship with HYA or her husband’s online attacks. In the same letter in which she requested to be released from her contract, Kimbrel did not explain why she was deciding to leave District 113.

“I don’t expect her to apologize for his [Olrick’s] actions, but I think the apologizing for what this has brought to our district after the turmoil of last year with Brad Swanson’s departure at Highland Park and the community was all up in uproar, we needed trust and to rebuild and heal,” Esgar said. “So if there is any apology, apologizing that District 113 has anything to do with this. That’s where I think the apology would come in if needed.”

Having also resigned from her current job as superintendent of of Tamalpais Union High School District, Kimbrel will be without a job as of this summer.

Despite Kimbrel’s brief involvement with District 113, District 113 board president Marjie Sandlow has remained respectful and grateful towards Kimbrel.

“We are appreciative of the time (Kimbrel) spent in the district and wish her the best in her future endeavors,” Sandlow said at a board meeting on March third.

The district will conduct another search for a new, permanent superintendent. Despite the unfolding stories behind HYA’s relationship with Kimbrel, the district will once again use the Rosemont-based search firm to find candidates. As noted by board members at a meeting on March third, this search and interview process will be shorter than the previous one, due to HYA having already compiled a list of candidates from the previous search. This time, however, the district will not be re-paying the $57,500 fee for the previous search. During the meeting on March third, school board member Annette Lidawer expressed her concerns regarding transparency in the interview process.

“We do not have any room for not knowing every ounce of information, and having everything vetted to the hilt,” Lidawer said. “Clearly, there were some big things that got by. We don’t have room for that.”