GREEN BAY (WTAQ-WLUK) – A parent of a Green Bay Area Public School student has started a petition to have Michelle Langenfeld removed as the district’s superintendent.
Elliot Christenson, who started the change.org petition, was among a standing room only crowd at Monday night’s school board meeting where district officials provided an update on Washington Middle School safety plans.
“This is an opportunity for us to reset,” said Langenfeld.
Former Washington teacher Kirsten Westscott first publicly spoke about safety concerns at the school during her resignation to the school board last month.
Since then, Westcott and others have expressed frustration with the district’s response to her remarks.
“I saw no action happening,” said Christenson, who has a child who attends Lombardi Middle School.
Christenson started the petition this past weekend. As of Monday evening, it had 47 signatures.
“It’s not really about the signatures,” said Christenson. “It’s about saying, yes, there is more than one person saying that this is a problem and we’d like there to be some significant change.”
FOX 11 wanted to ask Langenfeld how she feels about the petition. However, Lori Blakeslee, the district’s communications director told FOX 11 she and Langenfeld decided she would not answer any questions about the petition.
School Board President Brenda Warren agreed to speak with FOX 11 briefly off camera about the petition to fire Langenfeld.
Warren says the district has been working with Langenfeld for a year on Washington Middle School issues, and will continue to do so.
She would not say whether the board has discussed her removal.
Langenfeld did have her contract renewed for two more years back in February.
During the school board meeting, district officials identified areas of focus that they believe will lead to significant change at Washington.
Among those areas are formulating a model for consistent student behavior expectations, increasing staff training for dealing with student behavior, and exploring more than 50 community partnership opportunities.
“We realize this won’t be an immediate change or a flip of a switch,” said John Magas, Associate Superintendent of Continuous Improvement for the district. “It’s going to require a lot of hard work.”
The district also listed a number of staff, community, and parent meetings they have setup for the next few weeks to discuss their plans before students return to school on September 5th.
