The school board suspended Milton A. Walters in March without pay. One day later, the district fired its employer relations director, Yvonne Mathis. Walters and Mathis had been involved in a relationship before Mathis was hired and the text messages showed that Walters "essentially manipulated the application process when (Mathis) was hired" in January last year, district solicitor Ira Weiss said.
Many of the texts were "quite explicit in nature, with emojis and all that stuff," and "clearly established there was an inappropriate relationship" since Walters was Mathis's supervisor, Weiss noted.
Walters and Mathis were not reached for comment. Mathis filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the district, according to Weiss. Walters has asked for a hearing to challenge charges that he neglected his regular HR duties, Weiss noted.
"It's completely unacceptable that the person running the office in charge of enforcing workplace conduct would engage in this type of conduct," Weiss said. "It is much worse that it occurred by someone in his position."