Northport's school superintendent: 'I feel  beat upon'

What started as a normal meeting for the Northport Board of Education Monday night ended with emotional venting by Superintendent Tyrus Wessell.

Before the outburst, the school board and Wessell recognized athletic director Marshall Collins and volunteer coordinators Mike and Jeremy Connolly, and their daughter Erin, for their work in running the Class D boys’ basketball district games last week.

"I’m so proud and pleased to call Marshall a colleague. He organized the tournament, got the volunteers, everything went off perfectly," Wessell said.

Collins, in turn, praised the Connollys and all 15 people who volunteered selling tickets, working the concession stand, and helping out where needed.

"Mike, Jeremy and Erin Connolly were very visible at every game. We had 15 volunteers over the week, I thought everything went great. I’m glad I waited a couple of years before taking on the task of hosting a basketball district. I want to say thank you for everyone who came out for the game and we all really appreciate the community’s support," Collins said.

While district week was overall a success for Northport, the championship game was marred by the theft of $1,700 in money taken in through ticket and concession sales. According to reports from the county Sheriff’s Department and statements from school officials, the money was taken from a locked office sometime after the end of the first half of the championship game and Monday, March 3. The incident remains under investigation.

Wessell said after the meeting the school district will still have to pay about two-thirds of gate receipts to the Michigan High School Athletic Association for hosting the tournaments. He said the district insurance provider will cover most of the funds taken in the theft, but was hesitant to release that information. "I don’t want people to think ‘It’s no big deal, they’ve got insurance.’ This is a big deal," he said.

Both Wessell and Collins said they are eager to host another boys’ basketball district tournament, though Wessell wasn’t too enthusiastic last week when he was quoted in the March 6 issue of the Enterprise about the theft incident.

"It took the fun right out of the final. Something like this really makes you not want to host events like this," he was quoted as saying.

When board member Bonnie Shiner questioned Wessell’s statement in the newspaper, he said he could only recall talking about "the fun being taken out" of the event. Wessell, however, denied saying not wanting "to host events like this" in the future. "I didn’t make that statement," he said. Later, he told a reporter he honestly did not remember making the statement.

Collins came to Wessell’s defense. "You need to take into consideration the timing of events. We just discovered the money was missing on Monday. I don’t think he meant to say it like that, I think he was misquoted. I want to make it very clear; we’re ready to host any event," he said.

Board member Jeff Dyer said he would like to focus on the positives that occurred during district week. "I heard many people say they would like us to host districts every year. They were impressed with the comfortable seating, the concession stands, everything," he said.

During the meeting, Wessell was taken to task by board members on a variety of subjects, including the scheduling of classes, and the ongoing special education administrative law hearing brought by a complaint filed by board member Alan Woods. When the three-hour meeting was nearing an end, Wessell spoke in a shaky, strained voice.

"I feel honored to be your superintendent, yet I feel beat upon. I’ve spent half of my time this year on the special education hearing and I know I’ve missed things with the staff," he said. The board will hold a special meeting on Monday at 7 p.m. to conduct a review of Wessell’s job performance over the last year.

Wessell has already requested a closed session when the review is held, and said he thought about not coming at all.

"For the first time since I became superintendent here, I seriously considered not coming to my own evaluation, I am dreading it. I come here two Mondays each month and just get beat down," he said, referring to School Board meetings.

Wessell started to apologize for his outburst, but at least one board member, Susan Cordes, said there was no need.

"You have every right to say those things and we need to hear them," she said.