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McLaughlin teacher says she was involuntarily reassigned; files grievance and asks board to intervene
Summary
Nicole Stewart, a math teacher at McLaughlin Middle School, told the Pasco School Board she was involuntarily reassigned to special education without prior discussion and has filed a grievance seeking reinstatement to her middle-level math position.
Nicole Stewart, a McLaughlin Middle School math teacher, used public comment time at Tuesday’s Pasco School Board meeting to describe an involuntary reassignment to special education that she said occurred without consultation and to report she has filed a grievance.
“I was called into a meeting and told I was being sent back to SPED,” Stewart told the board. She said she began her career in special education eight years ago but later earned a middle-level math endorsement, obtained a middle school math position after two years of openings, and “I am in love with it.” She said the math role at her school remains open, that she is qualified for it, and “I’m not allowed to apply for it.”
Stewart described personal and professional impacts of the reassignment and said she has followed the district grievance procedure. “I filed a grievance, and I'm following the procedure,” she told the board, and later added, “I teach math, and I'd like my job back, please.”
The nut graf: Stewart said she was notified of the reassignment on May 13, that she had invested in professional growth (including pursuing a master’s degree), and that the reassignment occurred without “a conversation about my needs as a person or a teacher.” She asked the board to consider the human impact of staffing decisions and urged that the district “make this right.”
Board members responded to the comment with expressions of appreciation for her courage in speaking; the meeting record does not show any immediate board action or formal response to the grievance during the public-comment period. Stewart said she is pursuing the formal grievance steps but asked the board to hear her concerns in person.
No board motion or vote addressing the reassignment was recorded in Tuesday’s meeting minutes. The board’s public-comment rules and the transcript show Stewart’s remarks were part of the meeting’s public-comment segment; any personnel actions or grievance outcomes would be governed by district human-resources procedures and relevant collective-bargaining agreements, and were not resolved on the dais.
