MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin's largest public school district is facing a second allegation of misconduct from top officials.
The newest Equal Rights Division statement of probable cause says there is enough verifiable evidence that former Interim Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Jeremiah Holiday, and other top Milwaukee Public Schools officials retaliated against a whistleblower. This, after The I-Team first broke the story in January of statement of probable cause that Holiday violated state employment laws.
Deborah Kuether, the Director of K-12 Literacy for the district, alleges she was discriminated against for her race and sex and faced retaliation for speaking out about Holiday’s qualifications. When Holiday, a Black man, was promoted by Superintendent Keith Posley in 2019, Kuether, a white woman, says she wrote complaints to the school board about Holiday’s “incompetence” and her belief the promotion was “race based.”
After these complaints, Kuether claims she faced retaliatory actions by Holiday and Posley.
“My duty, when I was in my position as manager of literacy, was to ensure the students of Milwaukee Public Schools Pre-K through 12 had what they needed to be in a high-quality literacy program,” Kuether tells the I-Team. “Unfortunately, that was sacrificed and jeopardized on many occasions in favor of discriminating against me. They made decisions not to put the kids first.”
The statement of probable cause is the next step in determining whether Kuether’s claims are...
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