A discriminatory hiring practice charge has been made against the New Ulm School District.

The Department of Human Rights is charging that the school board is violating state statute with its policy against hiring applicants whose spouses are teachers in the district.

Al Dosland,attorney for the school district, indicated that the case will probably wind up in the courts if the school board chooses to try to retain the policy.

HOWEVER,there seems to be mixed feeling among school board members whether the policy is worth retaining.

The Human Rights Act, Dosland explained Thursday, makes it illegal for the school district to discriminate in hiring based on sex or marriage status.

We think that we’ll really open ourselves up to quite a different approach(of hiring) than we have (followed) in the past (if the policy is abandoned),” Board Chairman Gene Forstner said. “My feeling is that it’ll create more problems than it will solve. It is my feeling that the policy has worked well for the district.”

The district, he said, could have problems with teachers already on the payroll if it turned down applications by their spouses.

BOARD member Wanda Penrod contended, on the other hand, that the policy could restrict the district in its hiring of the best possible personnel if a better applicant happened to be married to someone already teaching in the district.

“If one individual is married to another individual, (it) should not be the basis for hiring or not hiring,”she said.

Board member Jay Marti added that, putting himself in an applicant’s shoes, he would be unhappy if he was turned down simply because of his wife’s job.

“AS A taxpayer,” Mrs. Penrod added, “I would be unhappy if we took a lesser applicant because the better applicant was married to a teacher.”

Forstner responded that with today’s employment market, there are a number of qualified applicants.

Supt. Ted R. Olson, pointing out that there would be some costs involved in a lawsuit and court cases to fight the DHR charge, indicated that he was growing unsure of the merits of the policy.

“Probably, we should take a hard look at it,” he said. “Because of the size of the school, probably we’re out of tune. Probably, we wouldn’t have the problems if we changed the policy.”

THE HUMAN Rights Act, Dosland explained Thursday, makes it illegal for the school district to discriminate in hiring based on sex or marriage status.

But, he contended, the board policy applies to both sexes and has nothing to do with marital status, only with who an applicant is married to.

Dosland and Olson are to confer with CHR officials Sept.5 in St. Paul to see if the matter can be resolved without a public hearing. If not, a public hearing would probably be held sometime in October.

A COURT case, if one is held,would come after that. Dosland described the possible school district chances in court as “fair” and “reasonable.”

The school board has had the hiring policy for a long time, according to Olson. It was reaffirmed last fall when Olson indicated that applications for a position for the practical nursing school had posed a conflict with the policy.

The board’s reaffirmation at that time brought criticism from the New Ulm Human Rights Commission.

New Ulm Daily Journal

August 8, 1975