To the editor,

Not enough was discussed by the school board about the sudden retirement of former Ellsworth Principal Oran Nehls. There's more questions than answers and the public deserves to know the TRUTH. I've brought up many concerns with the school district including inadequate resources for mental health needs and special education needs students along with my belief of the district ignoring self-harm, bullying, harassment of all kinds, sexual assaults, and many other issues that affect our children and staff at Ellsworth Community Schools. The more I looked, the more I was concerned about the problems here.

Mr. Nehls was here for nearly three years and many bad things occurred at Ellsworth High School and many problems were ignored and I felt that it is grounds for neglect. An outside investigation needs to take place; the Wisconsin Department of Justice of the Office of Civil Rights would be best here.

The morale of staff, students, and parents had become very low at EHS. One of the former teachers works with my uncle. He was glad to be out of there. I had difficulty with advocating for my children at the high school and had to get resources from other Middle Boarder Conference schools. It was very frustrating.
It was affecting my children and other high school students. It was affecting my youngest who is in middle school. Our children deserve good leadership and it truly felt like it was lacking here. 

Being a former County Board Supervisor there were giant “RED FLAGS” similar to what I saw by a toxic county administrator. Just like the county, I noticed the same thing at Ellsworth High School. I wonder if Ellsworth School District was a victim of “Passing the Trash” where troublesome employees get big recommendations so they leave? There are many fair questions the school board and public should be asking. My hope is we find the truth and hopefully learn from our mistakes so it doesn't happen again.  

John Shafer

Town of Gilman