D-124 Calls Special Meeting Over Allegations About New Principal

EVERGREEN PARK, IL — The recently named new principal of Central Middle School was placed on leave from his previous position amid allegations of sexually harassing subordinates, bullying, intimidation, sexism, enlisting staffers to conduct research for his graduate school studies and drinking on school grounds following an investigation opened last fall in the wake of the #MeToo movement. As part of a negotiated resignation, the administrator remains on the payroll of North Shore School District 112 in Highland Park through the end of the school year. Although District 124 approved his appointment in Evergreen Park on May 16, the board has called a special meeting for Wednesday night for further closed-door discussions about his hiring.

Parents in North Shore School District 112 were notified after winter break that a middle school principal had been just been placed on “administrative leave for personal reasons.” A Jan. 3 letter from interim superintendents Ed Rafferty and Jane Westerhold assured parents that the reasons for the removal of Principal Matt Eriksen did not involve the “health, safety or welfare of any students or community members.” It said administrators were forbidden from commenting on personnel matters.

Later that month, the board approved a negotiated resignation with Eriksen, allowing him to continue being paid through the end of the year while on “special assignment.” The nature of that assignment was not disclosed, and the separation agreement included a confidentiality clause. In the months since, Patch has learned more details of what led to the principal’s sudden and previously unexplained departure for “personal reasons.”

Matt Eriksen joined District 112 in 2007 as associate principal at Edgewood Middle School after having worked at Highland Middle School in Libertyville. He was appointed principal of Indian Trail School in 2009, and for the past seven years he has been principal of Edgewood. He resigned from the district, effective June 30, to seek “a role that would challenge him intellectually and provide him with the opportunity to impact education on a larger scale,” according to the letter of recommendation included along with his negotiated resignation.

Eriksen declined to be interviewed for this article, citing “already scheduled commitments.” District 124 Superintendent Robert Machak said the district would be unable to comment publicly on Eriksen's employment status prior to Wednesday's special meeting.

Patch spoke independently to several staffers who worked with him for years. Each of the sources asked not to be named due to concerns of retaliation because they are still employed by the district.

‘Literally An Awful Human Being’

The staffers said they were motivated to speak about their experiences with Eriksen in order to prevent other educators from having to go through the same ordeal. While the interviews suggest a highly toxic work environment under his watch, none of the allegations involved any misconduct toward students. Each Edgewood employee provided strikingly similar accounts of their time working with Eriksen, corroborating the specific details included below.

“This is not a person who should be a leader at any school,” one Edgewood staffer told Patch. “People felt very intimidated to say anything,” despite repeated examples of inappropriate and unprofessional behavior, including comments about women’s bodies, references to sexual acts and pressuring his employees to drink alcohol.

Another staffer said it felt like exiting an abusive relationship when Eriksen left, describing him as “literally an awful human being.” His “dictatorship” was characterized by a climate of fear and intimidation among those who weren’t members of Eriksen’s “boys club,” according to the teacher.

Several teachers described instances of favoritism toward Eriksen’s Highland Park friends, especially men and those involved in sports. The unequal treatment had financial effects, as he allegedly granted extra coaching stipends to men while overlooking qualified women and neglected to properly evaluate female teachers, putting them at increased risk of layoffs.

Each source described their former boss as having a split personality – unpredictable and volatile behind closed doors but affable in public.

“He’s got a way of charming people when you don’t know him,” one teacher said. But working for him was “about as hostile as I’ve ever heard of.” Oncee Eriksen was gone, the tone of school meetings changed dramatically.

“I had forgotten,” a longtime teacher told Patch, “what it was like to be in a meeting where it was professional.”

Each of his former employees said Eriksen lacked proper boundaries at work. He would make inappropriate and lewd comments about women, he would reward those who went out drinking with him on their staff evaluations and he would often not observe the classrooms he was responsible for evaluating, the sources noted.

“He was also known as untouchable, because he walks around with that arrogance, it rings so true to what we’ve read about,” one staffer said, citing patterns of behavior spotlighted by the #MeToo Movement. “People are afraid to say anything, people are afraid to speak for fear of retaliation and possible problems with their career.”

In addition to pressuring colleagues to drink alcohol, Eriksen also allegedly drank on campus, although not during school hours. In one instance, Eriksen allegedly drank alcohol from inside a coffee cup during a Spirit Week fundraising event.

Multiple staffers also recalled that while Eriksen was pursuing his doctorate in “Educational Leadership” he would regularly lock the door to his office, which they understood to mean he was conducting his schoolwork during business hours. Edgewood employees described incidents where Eriksen would distribute materials to staff to gather data, which they believed was to be used as part of his studies.

“He made the staff implement certain programs because he needed the data for his thesis, so we were going above and beyond what we needed to do in order to help him with that, so he was way less available throughout the day,” an Edgewood teacher told Patch. “I don’t even know that some students could point him out if he was on the street.”

Eriksen’s #MeToo Moment

Last November, an Edgewood employee reported inappropriate workplace behavior by Eriksen to the district office, and an investigation was opened. Assistant Superintendent for Personnel Services Monica Schroeder and lawyers for the district interviewed more than a dozen Edgewood staff members, according to the sources.

The staffers told Patch the investigation was handled with a high level of confidentiality, as Schroeder helped employees slip out without Eriksen learning they were speaking with his supervisors. They said many of those that did not speak with her did not know the investigation was even taking place. But when word got out that the district’s personnel chief had opened up a probe into the principal’s behavior, more employees spoke about their experience.

Upon returning from winter break, the NSSD112 school board held a closed door discussion at a Jan. 2 special meeting to discuss the “appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal” of staff, according to the meeting agenda. Board President Eric Ephraim did not respond to a request for comment about Eriksen’s departure.

The following day, the notice that Eriksen had been put on leave was sent to parents. The next morning, Jan. 4, a voluntary staff meeting was called at Edgewood, the sources told Patch. District administrators and one of the co-interim superintendents were present as the pair of interim principals was introduced and staffers were informed that Eriksen was forbidden from initiating any contact with school employees, according to multiple sources.

The separation agreement was signed by Eriksen Jan. 18 and by the board on Jan. 23. It includes a promise from Eriksen to never again apply to work in District 112 without specific permission, for the district to respond to all inquiries from potential employers with an agreed-upon statement and for neither party to disparage the other. It provides for Eriksen to continue collecting his $146,016 annual salary, while the board picks up his 9.4 percent contribution to the Illinois Teachers Retirement System and 1.07 percent for health insurance.

Incoming Superintendent Mike Lubelfeld, who was present for a later meeting and had previously hired Eriksen to his first job in the district, said he had no recollection of any such instructions. He said he had nothing but positive things to say about the outgoing principal.

Schroeder, the director’s head of human resources and the person with the most knowledge of the investigation, said the district was “unable to respond” to questions about the nature of Eriksen’s special assignment. In a response to a public records request in February, lawyers for the district said they were “unaware” of any records concerning his special assignment, where he was working or whether he was allowed to have contact with students.

The nature of the negotiated resignation protects the privacy of Eriksen and those who spoke to Scroeder alike. If the district had sought to terminate the principal for cause, he would have been owed full due process hearings, allowing him to confront his accusers directly.

Eriksen was announced as the new principal of Central Middle School in District 124 in Evergreen Park on May 16. After being notified of the nature of the allegations that Eriksen faced in Highland Park, the school board called a special meeting to discuss personnel matters behind closed doors for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the district administrative building, 2929 W. 87th Street. An item involving Eriksen’s hiring is on the agenda for possible action.

Neither his newly-approved contract nor his application for employment with District 124 has yet been publicly disclosed. But prior to his job interview with Lubelfeld in Distrifct 112, Eriksen described how he intended to work alongside staff members.

“Effective communication is an asset that cannot be overlooked in administration. It is often the basis for which people perform beyond expectations in order to achieve a shared vision,” Eriksen wrote. “In order for this occur [sic] within any working system, the leader needs to lead by example.”

Top photo: Matt Eriksen (District 124)