An amendment to the teacher hiring policy was passed by the New Ulm School Board Thursday, apparently to avoid proceedings on discrimination charges.

The board voted, 6-0, with Chairman Gene Forstner abstaining, to allow spouses of teachers to be employed as faculty members in the district.

THE AMENDMENT allows spouses to be hired unless:

1) The spouse would be working under the authority or supervision of his marriage partner;

2) The work of the spouse would be audited by his marriage partner; or

3) The hiring would cause an actual or reasonable conflict situation for the married couple and their jobs.

Supt. Ted R. Olson labeled the third clause a “catchall.”

IN OUTLINING the amendment,Olson indicated that it had been suggested to the school district Sept.5 by a state official when Olson, A1Dosland, attorney for the district,and Board member Janet Mildenberg met with a state official concerning the hiring policy.

The meeting had been called after the New Ulm Human Rights

Commission filed a charge of discriminatory hiring with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.

If the board had not approved the change in the hiring policy, according to Olson, a public hearing would have been held in coming months over the charge.

FORSTNER, in abstaining from the vote, said he had mixed feelings about changing the policy and several times mentioned the possibility of the school district making a test case of the policy in the courts.

“I think maybe it’s a more honest policy,” he said of the old one,”than adopting some of these fancy things and still operating under the old policy. But then, nowadays, you’ve got to play games.”

“My feeling is if it’s important enough to administrators, it’s important,”‘ Board member Ron Albright said of the old policy.”If they feel they could live with the change, then we’d go along with it.”

Olson responded that he doesn’t see significant hiring problems with the new policy.