FRANKSVILLE, Wis. — A shakeup within a Racine County School district is leaving some parents and students with questions about transparency. Raymond Elementary School principal and long-time educator, Jeff Peterson was recently put on leave. The School Board then voted 4 to 1 to not renew Peterson's contract on December 6th, 2023.
District officials and the principal have mostly remained quiet. That is until now. TMJ4’s Megan Lee sat down with Peterson to hear in his own words what he believes is at the root of the problem.
Peterson has spent nearly three decades teaching and leading schools across Southeast Wisconsin. Now his future in education is in limbo.
“I walked through the doors of Raymond when I was five years old as a kindergartner,” Peterson said.
It was a dream come true when he was hired by Raymond Elementary School in 2021 as principal.
"My first year at Raymond as a principal was amazing," Peterson said.
He said things changed last October. That’s around the time Raymond hired a new superintendent, Dr. Michael Garvey.
"I had worked with Mike Garvey for 30ish days since he was a part-time administrator. And after those 30 some days, I think it was 37 days or so, I was told that I would be put on a plan of improvement,” Peterson explained.
The performance plan came about after Garvey's review of Peterson's first year as principal. Garvey rated Peterson as unsatisfactory in five of eleven standards. The plan said, “Peterson fails to gain support from lead teachers and staff ... does not demonstrate developed leadership skills ... and undermines administration by not supporting final decisions made in meetings.”
The performance plan laid out four areas of needed improvement including, “...Including holding staff accountable through written directives...And the ability to advocate for the administration outside of meetings.” You can find these suggestions on pages 7-12 of the plan.
Peterson believes the plan was unreachable.
"So I consistently ask for examples, in specifics of how the foundation of that plan of improvement was arrived on and how if there were models are things that that the superintendent was expecting me to do provide those to me because I wanted to meet the expectations,” Peterson said.
In progress reports from Garvey in May and June, he wrote that “Peterson had yet to hold certain teachers accountable and did not follow through when handling discipline.” This can be found on page 9.
Peterson claims he was shut out from the board as he tried to work through the plan. "It would be crickets, I would get absolutely no feedback from anyone.”
In September, the school board voted to issue a preliminary notice of non-renewal of his contract. The next day, he was placed on non-disciplinary administrative leave pending an investigation into misconduct.
"I was coming off of a 20 plus year career where concerns hadn't been brought to my attention or people weren't doubtful of my leadership skills and abilities,” Peterson said.
While on leave, an anonymous letter circulated around the district. It accused Peterson of the "...sexualization of children and things that border on child grooming."
Accusations stem from an October 2022 investigation by a law firm at the request of the Raymond Board of Education. In it, the law firm substantiated several allegations including that Peterson asked staff to take pictures of students in pools and bedrooms as part of a scavenger hunt. Which can be found in this document, on page 17.
Peterson said the scavenger hunt was a way to get the community involved with the school. He questions the motive behind the investigation.
"You don't know what it feels like to be in your community and have people posting vile disgusting comparisons in social media connected to your sex," Peterson explained.
“Do you believe that it's because of your sexual orientation that your contract is not being renewed?” TMJ4's Megan Lee asked.
"I do," Jeff said.
He added that the support he has felt from teachers, peers, and students gets him through his hard days.
"Having your life's passion, your career taken away from you is hard having happen in the place that made you want to be an educator is at times unbearable.”
We requested an interview with Superintendent Garvey who recently resigned. We also asked members of the school board to talk about the ongoing issues within the district. In response, we received links to Peterson’s personnel file which has since been posted on the district's website.
Peterson has filed a complaint to appeal the decision on his contract.
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