A teacher has asked Lawrence school board president Leonard Ortiz for a public apology following an alleged dressing down he gave her for speaking out in favor of a new ornamental tower for Lawrence High School.

Before fifth-grade teacher Haley Bruns spoke at Monday’s school board meeting, Ortiz had lambasted the tower idea.

“I believe a public apology – public rather than private – is appropriate after what happened,” said Bruns, a teacher at Woodlawn School.

But Ortiz said his comments to Bruns were misunderstood.

“I don’t know where this is coming from,” he said.

Ortiz and Bruns are expected to meet today.

“We’ll sit down, we’ll talk about it,” said Supt. Randy Weseman, who brokered the meeting after Bruns contacted him Tuesday morning.

“I asked her to put her concerns in writing and I said we’d deal with it,” Weseman said. “We’ll try to achieve what I call a perception clarification.”

Bruns’ subsequent written statement about the incident was forwarded to Ortiz, other board members and the Journal-World.

Bruns and Ortiz agree they had a brief conversation after the board meeting, during which Bruns spoke in favor of a spending $37,400 for a lighted tower to mark the new entrance to the east gym at LHS.

Ortiz had opposed the tower, arguing it was unnecessary and, if approved, would violate the public trust because it wasn’t part of a $54 million bond package approved by voters in 2004.

Ortiz’s objections prompted an 80-minute debate among board members, resulting in three votes. Ortiz won the first vote, 4-3; lost the second, 3-4; and lost the third, 1-6.

A matter of pride?

The board meeting ended at 9:50 p.m. Afterward, Bruns said, she was approached by Ortiz as she was putting her laptop computer in its case.

An architectural rendering shows what Lawrence High School would look like with a tower entrance to the east gym.

“I looked up and there was the school board president standing there,” Bruns said. “He said ‘That was sickest and saddest commentary I have heard,’ and that ‘Bricks and mortar do not make proud students.'”

Earlier, Bruns had told board members that buildings influenced student pride in boththeir schools and themselves. The tower, she said, would instill pride and could, in theory, prevent some students from dropping out of school.

Ortiz had wondered aloud if the tower wasn’t part of an unspoken and shortsighted plan to keep Free State High School from benefiting more from the bond issue than LHS.

Bruns said her encounter with Ortiz was not pleasant.

“It was very much an in-your-face, you’re-out-of-line kind of thing. It was like ‘How dare you?'” she said. “I was stunned.”

Bruns said she defended her position to Ortiz, albeit briefly.

That’s not how Ortiz remembered the conversation.

He said he and Bruns “just talked and had our philosophical differences about self-image and material culture.”

He denied using the words “sickest” and “saddest.”

“That’s not something I would say,” Ortiz said. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding. I’m just surprised.”

Board members Linda Robinson and Cindy Yulich witnessed the conversation but were not close enough to hear the discussion.

“I heard Leonard call to (Bruns) and I saw him speaking with her,” Yulich said. “But I didn’t hear what was said.”

“I saw them talking, but I didn’t hear anything,” Robinson said. “But when I was leaving the building, Haley was there and she made the comment that she’d just been chewed out. It was late and we were both going to our cars, so we really didn’t talk about it.”

Public comment

Bruns said she felt compelled to speak in favor of the tower after former board member James Hilliard spoke against it. Hilliard accused the board of inside deal-making and warned that if the tower remained in the plans for LHS, voters would feel like the board had “pulled the wool over their eyes.”

In her statement, Bruns wrote: “I : wonder if James Hilliard was confronted after the meeting by board members who disagreed with his comments.”

Hilliard said he left the meeting shortly after board members voted on the tower.

“I left early, so don’t know anything about this,” he said. “But I have to say I know Mr. Ortiz, and this doesn’t sound like something he would do.”

During the meeting, board member Sue Morgan defended the tower, noting the bond issue included reconfiguring the gym entrance at LHS. The tower, she said, is part of the proposed entrance.

Morgan was out of town Thursday and could not be reached for comment.

Contacted by the Journal-World Tuesday afternoon, Bruns provided the newspaper with a copy of her statement.

Her decision didn’t sit well with Ortiz.

“I think it’s really unfortunate that people can say whatever they want, and then it becomes public,” he said. “I think she’s using the paper to punish me for something.”

Bruns disagreed. “I didn’t contact the newspaper; the newspaper contacted me,” she said. “I just think people ought to know what’s going on. If it’s not all right for a patron or, in my case, a teacher to take part in a public meeting, then the public needs to know that.”

This is the second time Ortiz has reacted strongly to board business. In November 2004, he walked out of a meeting because he felt slighted during a discussion about meeting schedules.