Former STC Assistant Principal/Activities Director Brent Bagnall, front, and former High School Principal Roy Frakes, right, walk off the stage at the 2019 graduation ceremony along with then-Superintendent Jared Smith. Bagnall, Frakes and former Food Service Director Sandy Jantzen recently reached out of court settlements with the district over age discrimination claims. NEWS-CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

Three former South Tama County staff members who filed age discrimination lawsuits against the district and former Superintendent Jared Smith related to their termination or non-renewal of employment have reached out of court settlements totaling $1.17 million, according to documents shared with the News Chronicle.

Brent Bagnall, the former activities director and assistant principal, received two payments as part of his agreement, one in the amount of $214,077.72 and another in the amount of $50,000. The law firm representing him, RSH Legal, received a payment of $210,922.28.

Roy Frakes, the former high school principal, received two payments, one in the amount of $175,697.46 and another for $50,000. RSH Legal also received $169,302.54 for representing Frakes.

Former Food Service Director Sandy Jantzen received two payments, one in the amount of $119,770.44 and another for $50,000. RSH Legal was paid $130,229.56 for representing her.

All three plaintiffs filed their original suits on Dec. 15, 2020, and Bagnall’s case was officially dismissed last December, followed by Jantzen’s in January and Frakes’ in March. As part of each settlement, none of the ex-employees are eligible to be rehired, and the district “in no way admits any violation of federal, state, or local statute or ordinance or common law.”

“To the contrary, the District expressly denies any such violation,” it reads. “The parties agree that this Agreement and any payments or other consideration provided pursuant to it are to be considered strictly as a compromise and settlement of a disputed claim between the parties to avoid further controversy, litigation, and expense.”

All of the agreements have been approved by the STC Board of Education, and the payments are covered through the district’s insurance policy. Although Smith, who now serves as the Superintendent of the Waterloo Community School District, did not respond to multiple requests for comment, current STC Superintendent John Cain issued a statement on behalf of the district.

“As a District, we appreciate the opportunity to move forward in our mission to serve students and families,” he said.

Cain was not employed by the district at the time the allegations were made. He did not respond to a follow-up email requesting details on how much STC spent on its own attorneys from Ahlers and Cooney who litigated the case.

For Bagnall, Frakes and Jantzen, the settlements represent the end of a painful ordeal that, as each admitted, caused them a great deal of embarrassment. Frakes, who now works in the Marshalltown Community School District, had spent 10 years at STC before learning that his contract would not be renewed at the conclusion of the 2019-2020 school year, and he was subsequently replaced by Mark Groteluschen, a former coworker of Smith’s from Muscatine. Jantzen spent 18 years with the district before she faced a similar fate when her contract was not renewed, and a younger replacement, Michelle Kalinay, was hired to take over her role.

Like Frakes, Bagnall worked at STC for a decade, but unlike his two former colleagues, he found out sooner — in December of 2019, to be exact — that his contract would not be renewed. Nonetheless, he was still allowed to finish out the school year, working until June 30, 2020, when he was replaced by Anthony Jahr.

All three of the individuals hired to replace the trio were under the age of 40, and Groteluschen and Jahr have since moved on to other jobs.

“Shocked is an understatement,” Bagnall said. “When I had that conversation where (Smith) said ‘I haven’t decided whether I’m gonna keep you or not,’ it’s like, where did that come from?”

Bagnall said he had never been written up for any disciplinary reason during his tenure, and Frakes and Jantzen both said their lone separate disciplinary incidents had occurred under a previous superintendent.

As they noted, Bagnall, Frakes and Jantzen had little in common other than age — they were all 55 or older at the time their contracts were not renewed. Jantzen and Bagnall barely knew each other as they worked in different buildings, but both said they were told they weren’t “good fits” for their positions with the district.

“Everybody thinks we’re all together, (but) it really isn’t one case. It’s three separate cases,” Bagnall said. “But I think if there’s a takeaway I want of my case, it’s that it wasn’t necessary… We got a settlement. I got a settlement. I would rather be teaching or being a principal at the school. I miss the school. I miss the people that I work with. I miss my students, and the money does not make up for that. I was gonna retire there, and the fact that that was taken away from me. I am angry and hurt, and there’s not any amount of money that can replace that.”

Heading into the 2019-2020 school year, Frakes had mentioned the possibility of retirement but had not formally made a decision, and he spoke of feeling embarrassed but unable to change the outcome once Smith and the board opted not to renew his contract.

After his employment at STC came to an end, Frakes spent a month as the assistant manager at a convenience store in Brooklyn before taking a position with Four Oaks Family Connections and then getting back into education with the GMG school district before accepting his current position as a behavior interventionist at Marshalltown. Although he’s moved on and stayed involved in education, he still wishes the process would have played out differently.

“Me as an administrator, when I was working with a teacher or something like that, you want to consider other factors. Their family (and) other things are involved, and it affects more than just that person,” he said. “And I don’t think any consideration was given to that.”

Bagnall said he was never given a concrete reason for his termination, but when he went to file for unemployment, it was reported he had violated school policy and would be ineligible for the benefits. When he appeared at a hearing on the matter, no evidence was presented against him, and he was granted unemployment.

When he filed the lawsuit against the district, he received a new explanation as to why he was fired. The third and final reason he was given, in Bagnall’s words, was that he had been accused of racial profiling, a claim he vehemently denies.

“That was a bridge that you can’t unburn, and so there was no turning back after that,” he said. “I still haven’t been given a straight answer.”

Jantzen was never given a letter to inform her that her contract wouldn’t be renewed, and she said Smith refused to put anything in writing regarding her employment status.

Although Smith has since left STC to take on an administrative role at a bigger district and two of the five current school board members came on after these events unfolded (Clint Werner was elected in November 2019), Bagnall, Frakes and Jantzen were all in agreement about hoping the leadership will follow proper policies and procedures and stick to “finding out the facts” before they make personnel decisions in the future.

“They should’ve been asking a lot more questions than what they did. They just took his word for it,” Jantzen said. “I feel like (Smith) just kind of dumped it on the school, and he’s getting off scot free. That’s the part that upsets me because it was basically him that instigated all of this.”

In Bagnall’s words, the decisions that ultimately led up to the lawsuit and settlement were not an “Oh, my bad,” but rather a serious misstep that should serve as a lesson for the parties involved.

“Everybody thinks we were in it for the money. It has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with protecting our integrity, and, if given the opportunity, I’d love to be back at the high school,” he said. “It wasn’t that I was married to education. I was married to Tama. I wanted to be here, and that was taken away from me. That’s just what I have to live with.”

He added that he would’ve relished the opportunity to take the case to court and make all of the depositions and testimony public.

“That’s the only way that people can be accountable, and that’s the biggest issue I have is there’s no accountability,” he said. “The district gets to sign a piece of paper saying we didn’t do anything wrong, but we paid you $1.1 million or whatever it is… That makes a lot of sense.”