A Griffith Public Schools Board of Education member has resigned in the aftermath of a censure vote taken against her Thursday night — a measure of which she herself voted in favor.
Former Board Member Jennifer Gooldy also filed a second police report against GPS Superintendent Leah Dumezich for threatening to sue her after the Thursday night School Board meeting. The report was the second Gooldy filed against Dumezich in two weeks.
Multiple sources told the Post-Tribune Friday morning that Gooldy, who was elected in November 2022, resigned, but there was no official confirmation until after the school corporation’s website removed her name from the Board of Education’s roster Friday afternoon. Dumezich declined to comment; Gooldy asked the Post-Tribune in a text who told the paper she’d resigned, then didn’t respond to a request to confirm. Two school officials who asked to not be identified did confirm Friday afternoon.
The spat began during a Feb. 23 executive session, when Dumezich and the members confronted Gooldy about her “attempting to represent the board on her own in a public setting without approval from the board,” according to the first police report dated Feb. 24th . Gooldy, according to that police report, became argumentative and accusatory, according to witness statements to Griffith police by school board members and staff present.
School Board Vice President Jason Jaques on March 1 informed police he had escorted Dumezich out of the room to deescalate the situation when things erupted, according to the report. Jacques said he brought Dumezich back into the meeting a short time later in hopes of everyone working out their differences, but Gooldy “was still ramped up from the previous argument,” the report said.
According to board member Tina Adams’s account to police, Jaques whisked Dumezich out of the room when Gooldy began saying to Dumezich, “If you ever threaten my family…”
In her written account of the events to police — which coincide with the minutes taken at the Feb. 23 executive session — Tracy Whitman, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, stated that Gooldy “quickly became agitated and seemed to stay angry, and that she had to ask her not to raise her voice at her.” Whitman recalled that Dumezich asked Gooldy if she had anything to do with contacting an area superintendent on two occasions about taking over her job, then related that Gooldy first denied the accusation before blaming two town officials for putting her up to it.
The town and schools have been at odds recently over permitting issues involving the Griffith High School Auditorium project and the protracted site plan review of the addition to Wadsworth Elementary School, with the Griffith Town Council recently fining the school’s general contractor $26,000 over permitting violations.
Whitman also reported Dumezich’s response to Gooldy, saying that “she (Dumezich) had worked her (tail) off, she had a contract, and she wasn’t going anywhere, and if she continued, she would sue Mrs. Gooldy personally.”
Gooldy demanded an apology from Dumezich when Jacques brought her back into the room, but she refused, according to Whitman’s statement and the executive session notes.
Also making police statements were Terri Chance, school finance director, and Board President Emily Conner, who had encouraged board members to email their account of the events to Griffith Police Chief Greg Mance.
Gooldy in the Feb. 24 police report stated to Griffith police that “Leah (Dumezich) threatened to sue her, arrest her and called her family ‘slime balls and scum bags’.” She admitted saying at the executive session that Griffith schools should have a superintendent search and that they needed find someone more qualified for the position, the police report said.
Near the end of the Thursday’s school board meeting, Conner succeeded in her motion to add an agenda item calling for Gooldy’s censure. She explained that she sought censure because of Gooldy’s violation of the board’s code of ethics rules over her inquiries about trying to replace Dumezich and for her behavior at the executive session.
Board member Kathy Ruesken made the motion to censure Gooldy and Adams seconded. Accordingly, the censure conveys a public expression of disapproval but disposes no actual punishment or dismissal.
“This is not a conspiracy against Jennifer Gooldy,” Ruesken said. “We all know what happened in that room. What she’s saying is not true.”
Gooldy then offered a statement to the packed LGI room at Griffith High School.
“I would not have filed a false police report against anybody,” she said. “I felt threatened by the superintendent.”
As it came her turn to vote, Gooldy said that she would be in favor of the motion “if the whole board thought it happened.” Gooldy agreed with the rest of the school board — that she made false accusations against Superintendent Leah Dumezich in a police report she had filed — and voted in favor of censuring herself.
After the vote, the room erupted in a standing ovation.
In a second police report filed March 10, Gooldy told police that Dumezich “threatened to sue her for vindication if she did not leave her a good review.” When the officer asked what review, Gooldy “stated she was unsure, maybe like an evaluation,” the report said.
Jim Masters and Michelle L. Quinn are freelance reporters for the Post-Tribune.
