| OCR Text |
Show : 1 ' i; 1 1 .. tr.7 V. . 1 mi.,mm . V ii iii 'l it John Elwell Elwell Hearing Mon. Salt Lake attorney, Oscar McConkie, who is representing the Park City School Board in a law suit filed by former Marsac Elementary school principal John Elwell, told the Record this week he plans to move for a dismissal in the case at a hearing scheduled for Monday in Coalville. Following Follow-ing a 4-1 vote by the school board, Mr. Elwell was fired as Marsac' s principal on June 3, 1977. Kathryn Collard, Elwell's attorney, attor-ney, claims there was a lack of due process in the proceedings leading up to her client's dismissal. Elwell was fired four months after Superintendent Richard Goodworth recommended to the board that the principal be dismissed. The primary reason given was insubordination. Mr. Elwell requested a hearing which was held in private quarters May 31 at Park City High School. A few days later, the school board held a special session and voted, to terminate Elwell's contract. The only dissenting vote came from board vice president and Park City Mayor, Jack Green. Elwell's laywer said her client was not treated fairly and that the reasons for his dismissal were "vague and unanswerable." Oscar Os-car McConkie has maintained, however, that Mr. Elwell was given every chance to defend himself and that he was legally and rightfully fired. "I think the record itself will show there was due process," McConkie told the Record this week. Ms. Collard claims the district did not have a local policy describing how an administrator can be fired in Park City, but Mr. McConkie said the district adopted adopt-ed the state orderly termination procedures. Three school board members will be asked to take depositions next week, Collard said, to determine, for one, if there was any prejudice against Elwell during the May 31 hearing. Collard also said she will make a motion at the Monday hearing asking Mr. McConkie to produce all documents, tapes, and exhibits exhi-bits of that hearing. Elwell's lawyer said she never received the minutes from the hearing, which she added she needs to prepare her case against the school board. If a summary judgement is not rendered Monday, dismissing the former principal's counter charges against the school board, the case will proceed to a trial where the facts of the matter will be examined. "I think at this stage I've got a good change of getting the whole thing dismissed," Oscar McConkie McCon-kie said, adding he did not think the court would substitute its judgement for the school board. The hearing will be conducted in district court in Coalville beginning at 10 a.m. Judge Stewart Hansen, Jr. will preside. |
