Kevin Grawer is a Spanish teacher and assistant basketball coach at Kirkwood High School. He wants to move on to an elementary school assistant principal position in the Hancock school district.
The problem is that he was offered a contract after June 1, giving Kirkwood the right to hold him to his current pact and not permit him to leave for the Hancock job.
According to Ed Stewart, Hancock superintendent, it is not a lateral move. It will pay Grawer more than his current position and he will have more responsibility.
Acting almost like a professional sports agent, Stewart represented Grawer and made his case to the Kirkwood School Board last week.
Believe it or not, there is state law that says tenured teachers have until June 1 to void contracts. The law has bite because if a teacher bolts on a contract after June 1 they can have their state certification revoked.
Sounding very much like a National Football League general manager, Deb Ayers, assistant superintendent for human resources, said in a Kirkwood-Webster Times article, “The district’s policy is to follow state statute, and we will follow the district policy in all instances relating to request for early release.”
In other words, “No you don’t get a new, lucrative contract elsewhere, no you aren’t getting anymore cash out of us, yes, you’re here for the season and you’ll like it or you’ll be suspended.”
Already, there is rumbling that Kirkwood is out-of-line and being heavy-handed.
So what.
For the past few weeks, sports fans have been bombarded with the antics of Terrell Owens and other NFL holdouts who signed their names to contracts.
Every fan who has lambasted T.O., Green Bay Packers receiver Javan Walker, agent Drew Rosenhaus and all holdouts must be on the side of Kirkwood in the matter of Mr. Grawer.
It’s funny how the unreal world of the NFL can actually make sense some times.