Attila Weninger at a School Board meeting in April. (City-Times photo)

By Sara Marls

The Stevens Point School Board tonight will hear comments from area business leaders who support keeping Superintendent Attila Weninger on staff.

District teachers gave Weninger a vote of no confidence last year, following two years of contentious relations and an inability to agree on teachers’ contracts following Act 10.

The School Board, too, has had difficulty communicating with Weninger. Some Board Members have repeatedly lashed out at Weninger during public meetings, arguing that Weninger wasn’t fairly considering new teacher contracts among other issues. Others on the Board champion Weninger as having been the only superintendent to have to handle fallout from legislation like Act 10, and pointed to his work rebuilding relationships with entities like Sentry, which funded the district’s 1-to-1 laptop program.

Citing irreconcilable differences in communication, the Board in May voted to non-renew Weninger’s contract during a closed session, causing two Board Members to leave the room without voting.

“I left the room. During closed session, I left,” said Board Member Chris Scott in May. “I wasn’t comfortable with what I perceived was going on.”

Scott still will not elaborate on what she perceived was “going on” during the meeting, but neither she nor former Board Member Renae Sheibley participated in that vote.

The Board later retracted that vote as it was deemed “unenforceable” under state law. Weninger then resigned effective at the end of the coming school year.

Weninger has said he believed the Board broke a state law when it voted in closed session. Weninger has consulted with an attorney but whether he plans to take legal action is not currently known.

The School Board meets at 6:30 at Bliss Educational Services Center, 1900 Polk Street. The meeting is open to the public.