As was expected eventually, the Custer County School Board terminated the two-year contract a year early with Superintendent Thom Peck last Tuesday. This came after months of tension, when, during an allegedly illegal executive session on February 11, the board demanded Peck resign without giving any substantial reasons why. Two days later, after Peck refused to resign, the board held an emergency meeting on February 13 to fire Peck, but an outburst of public support for Peck during the meeting paused their actions.
However, since that original demand that Peck resign, the board has been looking for a reason to fire Peck while attempting to save face with the Public. On April 15, Board President Reggie Foster announced to staff she had decided to place Peck and the High School Principal, Aundrea McCormick, on administrative leave without the approval of the rest of the school board. In addition, Foster worked out deals without board approval to hire a husband and wife team of Walt and Lori Cooper to take over as Superintendent and High School Principal. Further muddying the waters is the fact that Walt Cooper works for the firm that found and helped recruit Peck to Custer County last year.
On April 16, Foster called a special meeting to rubber-stamp the decisions she had made and prevent public comment on the situation. The board approved all of Fosterâs decisions in less than 20 minutes without any substantive discussion.
Sometime after the April 16 meeting, Foster, once again, without a vote of the board, decided to direct acting Superintendent Walt Cooper to hire a âthird-partyâ investigator to look into a pair of hiring decisions for nearly volunteer middle school baseball coaches (the coaches are paid a small amount) that had taken place in early April. The investigation predictably âfoundâ that Peck and McCormick had broken school policy in their hiring decisions and also state law. However, these claims are not only false, but the investigator was not an attorney and did not render a legal opinion on the matter. The school board has seemed reluctant to use its own attorney, canceling an executive session during the Tuesday meeting to get legal advice (the Tribune has requested the full text of the investigation and will dive into the many false claims made against Peck in a future edition).
Colorado is an at-will state, meaning the board has the right to fire Peck at any time for any reason. The entire drama around the investigation and the likely illegal executive session was a way to try to save face with the public for firing a Superintendent who had proven popular with many in the school and the community.
Peck is the third Superintendent in three years, with School Board members Reggie Foster and Jennifer Kriegh forcing Jackie Crabtree to resign in 2024 and Peck in 2025 in the same dramatic fashion. In addition, Vice President of the board Brad Davis resigned at the beginning of May, claiming that he would soon be leaving the region.
This author filed a Colorado Open Meeting Lawsuit against the School Board regarding the February 11 executive session, where all of the issues revolving around Peck started when the Board demanded Peck resign.
– Jordan Hedberg
