A tort claim filed by a current Evergreen Public Schools educator against the district is likely headed for the courtroom.
Elizabeth Uelmen, who was an associate principal at Cascade Middle School for seven years, filed a tort claim Oct. 28, claiming a hostile work environment, adverse employment decisions, harassment, retaliation, intimidation and bullying. She is claiming damages of not less than $4 million.
The school district has not acted on the claim.
“We don’t think the claim has any merit,” said Gail Spolar, Evergreen Public Schools spokeswoman.
Uelmen claims that she suffered retaliation after reporting inappropriate behavior by another associate principal at Cascade, Elten Paul “Tim” Dotson.
According to the claim, Uelmen reported to higher-level administrators that Dotson was engaged in sexual relationships with two women subordinates at the school.
During her seven years as associate principal at Cascade Middle School, from September 2004 through June 2011, Uelmen had received positive employee reviews. But after she reported Dotson’s behavior to the district office, Uelmen began receiving negative employee reviews, according to the tort claim.
In September 2011, Uelmen was transferred to Frontier Middle School to continue as an associate principal. However, she continued to receive negative employee reviews.
In September, Uelmen says she was demoted and sent to Shahala Middle School as a classroom teacher, resulting in a $33,000 annual pay cut. As an associate principal at Frontier, Uelmen was paid $102,859 for the 2012-13 school year.
“She was part of lateral transfer for the 2011-2012 school year from Cascade to Frontier as part of a districtwide reassignment of middle school associate principals,” Spolar said of Uelmen. “At that point, she had two years of evaluations under two different evaluators at Frontier.”
Spolar said transferring Uelmen to a subordinate position was done “after her performance was found unsatisfactory as an administrator.”
Dotson was put on administrative leave.
“After the district did a thorough investigation of Mr. Dotson and his performance at Cascade, he was terminated,” said Spolar.
A district document from March 22, 2012, cites “reports of sexual harassment and other policy violations” by Dotson.
The memo describes Cascade Middle School as “a workplace that was rife with rumors and scandal that severely disrupted the work and educational environment.”
In August 2011, Dotson filed a complaint of discrimination against the school district with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
That December, he sued the school district, Superintendent John Deeder and two other district employees. Dotson claimed unlawful discriminatory practices because of his gender. That case was settled on Aug. 2, 2012. The terms of the settlement were not available Tuesday.
After being dismissed from the Evergreen district, Dotson was hired to teach middle school science in Almira. Almira, population 275, is in Lincoln County between Wenatchee and Spokane.
An educator since 1993, Uelmen has been employed by Evergreen Public Schools since September 2004. Uelmen lives in Camas with her husband, Mark Johnston.
A tort claim is a prerequisite to filing a lawsuit. After the claim is filed, the district has 60 calendar days to attempt to settle the issue. At that point, a suit can be brought against the school district, the largest in Clark County. The lawsuit is expected to be filed in the coming days.
Uelmen is represented by Marty McLean, an attorney with Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, a Seattle law firm.
“They’ve (the school district) had this 60-day period where they could reach out, and they haven’t,” McLean said.
