Well, this article has been up for over an hour and none of the usual posters have put in their two-cents worth, so I'll put in mine...
One can debate integrity, point fingers, argue about who is lying or telling the truth - but in the end Wendt is not under any obligation to return the severance money. That being said, I don't believe that the money is paid out until his last day, June 30. Let's see what, if any, loopholes the school board and Krausman can find before then. Because "exploring other opportunities" and "pursuing opportunities in the private sector" are two different things.

Sounds like the board and king george tried to lie and say they didn't know and then super Wendt said " no joy" your not getting away with politics.... Then, stay to long Pat said.. " let's move on" ( her way of saying I got caught lying about the entire thing) and Graber is now sooooo quiet and not on TV..... The board has not met to see what Obama spin they can create.....and Dr Wendt is taking the $176,000 that they gave him in goooooood faith. Thank you Ankeny school board for your incompetence and wasting all of the taxpayers money and then trying a COVER UP. George and Pat should be recalled.

No surprise.

I will say it again, the solution is to reduce the administration budget by $175,000 for the next school year and let the non-teaching overhead figure it out. They may have to do without a few retreats and consultants and actually do some work on their own, like the public sector tax paying workers.

Wow, I wish I worked at a place where they would pay me $176000 when I decided I didn't want to work there anymore & just up & quit.

Dr. Wendt is like a school in the summertime -- No Class.

As business owner and taxpayer in Ankeny, the total incompetence of this school board astounds me. All they had to do was wait until contracts were due to offer a buyout and Dr. Wendt would probably already have resigned to take the job but our incompetent school board just had to get rid of him that they were willing to pay an extremely competent superintendent to leave. What they are paying him to leave might have covered the roofs for the baseball dugouts.

If you don't get the baseball dugout comment it refers to the school board being about 200k short on the sports complex

Well played Dr. Wendt well played! I would give you more credit but you were playing against a group that between all of them would be unlikely to come up with a full deck

Sorry I keep reading this and the funnier it gets. George Tracy says if he had known they would have stipulated he not be paid. My question for George is why wasn't that put in the agreement anyway? I had a principal teach me the definition of assume, George just finally learned that definition.

You have to be Trent Murphys brother..........

It looks like I owe Graber an apology he voted no on the contract. I still think it is unfair to ask a man to give back a severance package he negotiated just because you find out somebody else thinks he would make an excellent employee.

I live in Oswego and can tell all of you that many of us are furious with our school board for putting us all into a HOLE once again. We are seeing property tax increases on average of $500.00 to $1000.00 yearly. Many are trying to sell but it's our taxes that are killing the deal.Foreclosures are high and it's only going to get worse, who in their right mind would pay over $5000.00 on an 1100sq ft home.
Both High Schools are in the process of adding additions but unlike the state sales tax revenue funding this it's the tax payers picking up the bill.The BOE will have to come to taxpayers for operating money and you can bet that referendum will fail. We've had cuts to transportation and word from the state is we could be on our own for all funding in the near future.
Dr. Wendt has no idea what he's in for!

Look, a community elects a board who clearly expressed their interest in changing direction. They wasted little effort disguising their distaste for his leadership. They rarely veiled their contempt at the board table.

Couple this with the moral and ethical bankruptcy that is Matthew Wendt, and what you get is a poorly structured buyout. Then we are asked to accept this closed-door deal as transition allowance. A board and a superintendent expects THIS community to let this FRAUD go without scrutiny? Really? Now, both are pointing their crooked fingers at each other.

Goodbye now to Dr. Wendt. And, goodbye - in due course - to a board whose time will soon come. To them both, you can run, but you cannot hide from public scrutiny.

Replying to Troy (brother of Trent - who is Trent?):

It's easy to vote “no” on a buy out when you also know the other 4 board members are voting “yes” to buy him out. Wendt is still "out" with a majority vote and Graber and Jorgensen believe they can to tell this community that they did not support the buy out. Had Graber and Jorgensen voted “no” to the original 1 year contract extension with the increase in salary, and then voted “no” to the buy out, THEN they could then stand tall on the principle that they
a. did not support the continued employment of Dr. Wendt, and
b. they would not squander scare district resources in pursuit of showing Dr. Wendt a swift exit.

As it stands, neither Graber nor Jorgensen have demonstrated no more or no less moral courage than the others on the board, or, for that matter, Dr. Wendt.

District attorney Krausman, no doubt present throughout negotiations and in the closed board meeting, has refereed the entire falderal, thus providing the legal shelter for the looming storm that is now gathering.

Shame on them all.

Amen hes gone, just dont pay him

The above 2 comments are totally nonsensical must be our education system at work. Who is Krausman, what dude should go next and who is who working for? Amen who's gone? If you meant Dr. Wendt we don't have a choice they negotiated a contract buyout instead of waiting to see if he would sign a new contract or resign and therefore the taxpayer has no choice but to pay him.

Sorry, I get it you mean Krausman the schools attorney should be fired because it doesn't look like he is working for the taxpayer, and that you are happy Dr. Wendt is also gone but that he shouldn't be paid the contract buyout he negotiated. My apologies.

Well Charlotte frankly I don't give a darn. Posting while not using your real name allows us to not be held accountable by anyone for what we say. For example you can make comments like "couple this with the moral and ethical bankruptcy that is mathew Wendt" with no way for me to be held accountable not just legally but publicly as well. It also means you are not willing to let the community judge you by what you say. You may be right and calm and just but unless you are willing to endure the fallout from your comments you are just more hot air than a person with a valid opinion. I have edited this at Megan's request but she also wants me to change my username. I am not sure what is offensive about an eye socket?. Not sure if this post will show but if it does my name is Troy Murphy and I created this username to make a point about anonymous users.

Wow with friends like Troy us tax payers dont have a chance. my goodness this is interesting, and sad. I guess we didnt need the 175 as bad as troy thinks, maybe we should up it a bit so he feels better at the whole deal?

Carl Metzger former Ankeny City Manager will receive 19 months of salary, one longevity bonus, 19 months of health and life insurance benefits, 200 hours of accrued vacation and reduced retirement contributions totaling $415,751. The truly ironic part is there was no outcry because he is retiring and they bought out his contract but when you buy out the contract of a superintendent and are made to look stupid all of a sudden the public is outraged.

Just so we all understand -- Troy and bro couldn't cut it come election time, so now he wants to sit on the sidelines and throw rocks, not at Wendt, the instigator and perpetrator in this transaction, but in the trusting individuals who took him at his word. If we can't trust someone with a Dr. degree, who can we trust? Troy, do you have a Dr. degree? Should we trust you?

The fab 4 got tossed out for arrogance and the hubris of their situation just doesn't sink into Dr. Murphy's consciousness.

Troy, I get it that you're upset that Wendt is tripping the light fantastic out of town with money he doesn't deserve, taxpayers' money, but blaming the current school board is aiming at the wrong target. They wouldn't have had to do anything with the contract had the previous board not planted a poison pill, on purpose, to insure that the good Dr. couldn't be fired. Having that hanging out there, with the ill will Wendt generated from both the school staff and the community, and having Wendt himself offer an alternative, undoubtedly made the board president and counsel giddy with relief. Yes, the board was naive to take the good doc at his word, but the truly incompetent crew is the gang that set the stage for the negotiation in the first place, and, unfortunately, that includes your brother. Whose hubris was this, the current board, the previous board, or the community for giving such a resounding no confidence vote?

As far as elections are concerned, I don't say you ran for anything, but you continually tie yourself to your brother. He did, and his defeat seems to echo in much of what you write.

If the current board would say, "sorry I screwed up and I will do better in the future" would that let them off the hook in your world?

I don't like my taxes misused any more than you do, but if we are going to point and blame, include ALL the players. Singling out one segment may make you feel better, but certainly doesn't come close to reality.

Yes if the board said I screwed up and quit blaming a man for taking a payout of a contract he was under yes that would let them off the hook, I own a business and if I agree to pay a severance package I don't go back when said package is made public and go he tricked me Waa, Waa, Waa.

Now to your last paragraph. The reality is they ofered him a 1 year extension on his contract and a raise, he countered with an 18 month buyout and he would leave, they then countered with a 1 year buyout and he took it. You can try to blame the previous board because the current board is stupid and you want to smear the previous board but the reality is they didn't have to take his offer they didn't have to counter and they could have written the offer so that if he took another job he wasn't entitled to a severance pay. They did none of this. In my book that makes it this boards fault along with the school lawyer, you can try to keep shifting the blame backwards but since they are not on the board now, did not have a say in offering Wendt a new contract for three years and did not have a say in the buyout and were not consulted in any way according to board minutes blaming them is just a pathetic attempt to shift blame

Earlier I was chastised for calling our school board idiots and retarded. For some reason that post is no longer here nor is my response. The person who chastised me is correct and I would like to apologize, I don't know them personally and can't comment on their actual intellectual abilities. I let my emotions over their actions get the better of me. I believe their actions were stupid and retarded but apologize for insulting them personally, as I said before I don't know them and will therefore refrain from commenting on their intelligence levels only on the merits of their actions.

This is what Anne C. said to me earlier:

Troy, Troy, Troy......is it really necessary to call our school board names such as "ignorant farm kids", "stupid", and "retarded"? That type of childish behavior speaks volumes only about your character.
The only people that know what really went on in that meeting, and exactly what was said, are the school board, Krausman, and Wendt. For the rest of us, it is pure speculation at best.

This was my response:

Actually Anne I apologize for all the comments in which I called the current board stupid and or retarded. I meant to say their actions were stupid and or retarded not them personally. Since I don't personally know them I can't speak to their overall intelligence and I apologize for doing so. In my disgust at paying out 175K because of a stupid decision I let my emotions rule my tongue, for that I do apologize. As far as my character you at least know who I am. I apologize for my behaviour when it gets out of line while you hind behind anonymity and presume to judge others character. The ignorant farm kids comment was made to illustrate that if you are going to say that Dr. Wendt tricked them, then the reverse of that is that those he was negotiating with must be in way over their heads. I apologize if I offended you. You are correct I don't know what was said in the meeting, I do know he was offered a contract extension and raise, that is public record, I also know he took a buyout of his contract and left with 175K offered to him by this school board. That is also public record. My opinion still stands that it really was a stupid decision when it could of been avoided by putting in said contract that if he accepted another job the buyout would be adjusted accordingly. Again I apologize for calling them names personally, but labeling their actions as stupid and retarded is just a statement of fact.

Hey guys I'm new here... what's goin' on?