05/26/2006

Official fined for accessing porn at work

Superintendent ordered to pay district $10,000

by christine finger

cfinger@record-eagle.com

and patrick sullivan

psullivan@record-eagle.com

KALKASKA — Kalkaska Public Schools' superintendent Daniel McKenzie must pay $10,000 after the school board found he used his work computer for "non-business affairs," including accessing pornography.

Trustee Robert Dunn confirmed McKenzie was disciplined for accessing financial and pornographic Web sites while at work. There have been no criminal allegations against McKenzie.

McKenzie, who has held his position for three years, did not return repeated messages requesting comment.

Dunn said he and trustee Donna Wednieski voted to terminate McKenzie's contract on moral and financial grounds, but other school board members turned down that proposal.

"It was very serious, no doubt about it," Dunn said. "He basically wasted our time, and in today's world, you must be accountable for your time."

Instead, the board voted April 27 to make McKenzie pay the district $10,000 after it received allegations that same week. The board placed a letter of reprimand in his personnel file, but did not suspend him. He also lost three weeks of paid vacation — half his yearly amount. Dunn said board members also voted to shorten McKenzie's contract.

The board met in closed session at McKenzie's request to discuss the allegations before returning to vote in open session.

Dunn said McKenzie made a public apology at a meeting Wednesday about an upcoming school bond issue, although Dunn said he didn't attend the meeting.

"The amount of rumors that were going ... around, it was just getting out of hand," Dunn said when asked what he thought might have prompted McKenzie's apology.

Joyce Ann Golden, Kalkaska school board vice president, refused to confirm that allegations included McKenzie visiting pornographic Web sites, but she confirmed the penalties the board ordered.

Golden said McKenzie violated the district's computer use policy because he visited sites that weren't related to job duties. She said the $10,000 — to be docked from his paychecks over the next year — was not based on a specific number of hours since the district's log of visited Web sites only goes back two weeks.

"It wasn't anything that violated the law or would make him unsafe to children or working," she said. "We're confident that he's a good superintendent. It was poor judgment, and we're holding him accountable."

Joe Bowen, a Kalkaska parent and a former district custodian who was recently laid off, said the board should have fired McKenzie.

"They'd have been fired on the spot if it would have happened to anybody else," Bowen said. "He's not paid to sit there and look at pornographic sites or any other site that doesn't have anything to do with his job."

Bowen said he plans to attempt to recall all school board members who will be returning for the next term over this issue and a spate of recent cuts at the school, including his own job.