School board member Haggar faces rebuke for alleged comment

“The facts will fully come out in time”

Recent comments by a local school board member have ruffled some feathers. Re1J school board member Don Haggar was criticized by colleagues and members of the public at a school board meeting Monday, June 4 for allegedly making comments related to the district’s math curriculum that included the words “stupid students.” Haggar denied having negative impressions of the students or making comments to that effect.

Fellow school board member Bill Powell voiced his own concerns and those brought to him by two people who attended the previous week’s PEO (Philanthropic Education Organization) meeting, about statements Haggar made during a conversation, saying “You referred to our students as, and I quote, ‘our stupid students’… We need an explanation of why and how you came to characterize our students as such.”
Haggar responded, “I do not recall making such a statement. Therefore I’ll need some context to try to remember if I did make such a statement.”
According to Powell, who was not at the meeting but wanted to state his grievances in a public setting, Haggar was invited to the PEO meeting and responded to questions as a school board member. In a discussion of the district’s elementary math program, Haggar was alleged to have been asked why the students’ overall math test scores were so low. “You said, ‘Our stupid students couldn’t pass the tests,’” Powell stated.
The math scores being referenced in the conversation are likely last year’s Colorado Student Assessment Program test scores, since the standardized test scores from this past school year aren’t available yet. Those scores showed the school’s elementary students to be ahead of the state average and tracking a typical trend through the grade levels.
Shaking his head, Haggar said, “No, I did not say that … I went into a discussion about the deficiencies in the math curriculum, which makes it difficult for the students to learn. I did not say that the students were stupid.”
Then board member Jim Perkins reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper, saying he’d gotten similar feedback regarding Haggar’s comment from another “concerned citizen who was at the meeting.”
Haggar admitted, “I may have said [the curriculum] may produce stupid students, but I did not say that we have stupid students.”
Rita Merrigan, president of the Gunnison County Education Association, told the group, “This board is known for commending students’ high achievements, for congratulations,” and called Haggar’s comment an “aberration.”
“Do you wish for the public to hear a school board representative speak this way, speaking ill of our students? I don’t believe so,” she said. “And how do you suggest that the damage caused by this statement might be repaired?”
Powell explained that the district’s mission is to “educate all students to the highest possible standard” and reminded Haggar and the room that the school board’s job is to support that mission.
“The vast majority of students have scored very well on those tests. They’ve exceeded the expectations. Those students who have not met or exceeded the expectations have special services provided to them,” Powell said. “I think when we talk to the public we need to give them factual information about the progress our students are or are not making.”
Haggar asked Powell, “Have you read the math curriculum?” Powell had and said that even though Haggar had “philosophical differences” with the board over the way the subjects are being taught, which he expressed publicly at the PEO meeting, he and every board member needs to be supportive of the kids. He also said grades were good and continually improving.
“Then why are our grades so low, if everything you’ve said was true?” Haggar asked. Powell disputed Haggar’s claim that the grades were low and called for the superintendent to supply a report of the district’s elementary test scores.
Then Haggar took a different view of the charge being made against him, from one of misunderstanding, to one of conspiracy. “I am absolutely amazed at how rumor and innuendo is being stated as fact. Neither of you heard any comment directly. There seems to have been some people who manufactured this statement,” Haggar said to Powell and Merrigan.
“Since I did speak on what I believe to be a weakness in the math curriculum in our lower schools, I can see how they could have come to that conclusion. But I have nothing to apologize for, because I did not make the statement. The people who are reporting it have an agenda and I’m sorry for them.”
“You never said, ‘stupid students’?” Powell probed.
“I don’t know if I put the two words together,” Haggar said. “I can’t think of anything I said that would have denigrated the students, because what I’m trying to do is raise the students. It really bothers me that there’s a witch-hunt, or something, going on. I have no apology to make.”
Finally, after some hesitation, Candi Borah, a retired schoolteacher who was at the meeting and heard Haggar’s comment, stood to address Haggar and the board. “I’m sorry Mr. Haggar. I was in that meeting … You owe this community an apology. Our students are not stupid,” she said.
Haggar said he was finding it difficult to apologize because, “I don’t have in my mind blaming the students for the lack of the curriculum. I have criticized the curriculum and not the students.”
Powell pointed out that censure by the board or a recall election by the public are the two recourses available to the board to punish Haggar, if the allegations against him are found to be accurate.
“The facts will fully come out in time,” Powell said.
The board of education doesn’t meet again until July, when they’ll have a regular session. Superintendent Jon Nelson also said some of those people who would be asked to come and testify on the district’s math curriculum won’t be working through the summer, so a report could be delayed until August.