Fired principal, board reach deal to avoid suits

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This article was published 25/06/2012 (5102 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FORMER high school principal Ryan Land and Thompson school trustees have reached a deal that rescinded his firing and ended all litigation.

Land formally resigned as principal of R.D. Parker Collegiate, the School District of Mystery Lake wiped out his firing last year, Land is welcome back on school division property and everyone is moving on, said a joint statement.

Land’s grievance hearing was called off. Neither side will comment further.

Land’s firing was central to turmoil that led a provincially ordered consultant to conclude earlier this year Thompson’s schools are filled with fear, mistrust, intimidation and apprehension. The division split into factions with special agendas and employees feared for their jobs.

The division has had three superintendents and eight assistant superintendents in the past four years. R.D. Parker Collegiate has had three principals and nine vice-principals in that time and has had two acting principals since the school board fired Land.

Trustees took the extraordinary action of publicly rebuking Land, then fired him publicly last year.

The latest superintendent, Bev Hammond, lasted only 16 months after coming from Alberta. She quit suddenly in January, a move that school board chairman Alexander Ashton said was not a firing or buyout. Hammond has not granted media interviews since leaving Thompson.

Hammond said last year she had uncovered evidence at least two dozen high school students graduated under Land’s watch without deserving to do so.

The division has called off searches for a new superintendent and new high school principal, while denying Mystery Lake is unable to attract qualified candidates because of its many controversies.

Shortly after the division fired Land, he was hired for a senior management position in Thompson by mining giant Vale.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca