A Gateway School Director withdrew her application to work as a school aide just before the board revised its policy to disallow members from working as subcontractors within the district.
School Director Valerie Warning, 62, applied in June to Kelly Services Inc., which fills temporary teacher, secretary, paraprofessional/aide and nurse positions in the district, because she said she misses working with children. Warning worked as an aide for Gateway before being elected to the school board in 2015.
Her application with Kelly Services concerned board members who saw it as a conflict of interest. The issue led the board to adopt a policy revision saying a board member could work for any staffing service agency as long as their role was not within the Gateway School District.
“This issue has gotten out of hand and has become a distraction, something I had no intentions of happening. My only intentions (were) to help children as I have very much enjoyed my 15 years as an employee here at Gateway. Many people, including board members, had childish responses to my request,” Warning said in a prepared statement at an Aug. 14 meeting.
Warning has said she did not see her wish to work as an aide at Gateway as a conflict of interest.
Warning said she will still try to work as a substitute teacher, just not at Gateway.
The policy, previously under a 30-day public display, passed 5-2. School directors Jessie Kalkstein and John Ritter dissented. George Lapcevich and Warning abstained.
Dillon Carr is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Dillon at 412-871-2325, dcarr@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dillonswriting.
