Former Detroit Lakes High حلحلآ» Principal Rod Thompson, who left Detroit Lakes under a cloud about 16 years ago, allegedly after an affair with a subordinate, has resigned under fire from his position as superintendent of the Shakopee حلحلآ» District.
According to the Star Tribune newspaper, his resignation came after a police investigation and a search warrant issued on Thompson's property. The search warrant affidavit refers to purchases of more than $3,500 that Thompson made, including a TV and a trip to Nashville with his wife. The affidavit stated Thompson said he reimbursed the district for purchases he made with his district credit card. Thompson stated that the charges were "unintentional."
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The police investigation stemmed from an investigation undertaken by members of the community, a Facebook group called Concerned Citizens of Shakopee, and the Shakopee Valley News newspaper.
Some Shakopee residents, population 40,000, had been upset about Thompson and lack of information from the school district after Thompson e-mailed staff in March that a human error had led to a more than $4.5 million budget shortfall.
Thompson left Detroit Lakes to become principal and then superintendent at Greenway حلحلآ» District, and some Shakopee residents were upset at news reports that showed Thompson had also discovered a $700,000 budget shortfall while he was at Greenway, where he was hired in 2002.
Thompson explained in a Shakopee Valley News newspaper story that he had been principal in Greenway at the time, not superintendent, that Greenway had had budget problems since 1996, years before he joined the district, and that his multi-year budget plan had left the district in the black.
He left Greenway to become superintendent of the St. Anthony-New Brighton school district in 2006. During his five years there, the district four times won a Finance Award from the state; one of its high schools was repeatedly named by Newsweek as one of the best in the nation, and the district invested over $21 million into its buildings.
After he left the district, Thompson was named in a union grievance, which accused him of getting a school district employee fired. The man was a friend of Thompson's who had applied for a building and grounds position at Thompson's suggestion.
"The Grievant and the Union argued repeatedly at the hearing that ex-school superintendent Rod Thompson's personal falling out with the Grievant was the reason for the discharge," wrote arbitrator Andrea Mitau Kircher. "The Grievant and his wife ... testified that Mr. Thompson had sent her sexual text messages. They believed that Mr. Thompson did not want the حلحلآ» District or the community to find out about this, and therefore, Mr. Thompson somehow caused the Grievant's discharge to occur. Superintendent Thompson had resigned before the July incidents giving rise to this grievance, and regardless of his personal view, the District established by a preponderance of the evidence that the Grievant's pattern of misconduct justified discharge."
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Kircher ruled in favor of the school district in a 20-page finding, noting there was a preponderance of evidence that the man's dismissal was well justified.
Thompson left St. Anthony-New Brighton to join Shakopee Public حلحلآ»s in 2011.
