Chase breaks silence about Brotzman

Columbia Public School Superintendent Phyllis Chase said she was assured by Rock Bridge High School principal Bruce Brotzman in early November that an allegation of sexual misconduct against him was false, and that she decided her students and staff were not at risk.

“Let me assure you there’s no latitude on the part of this organization when it comes to the safety of staff or students,” Chase said in her first public comments since Brotzman resigned. “And at this point, from the information that I had, the safety of staff and students was never an issue.”

Chase and Assistant Superintendent Chris Mallory met with Missourian reporters and editors on Wednesday to clear the air about the district’s lack of communication about the allegation against Brotzman, his February resignation and subsequent leave of absence.

“We tried to err on the side of ensuring that we protected our staff and legally followed the guidelines there,” she said. Chase acknowledged her previous reluctance to comment on the allegations due to her desire to be “fair and legally prudent.”

“We just wanted to share this information because it has been agonizing to not comment,” she said, as she had been advised by the district’s legal counsel.

MU police barred Brotzman from campus libraries for a year beginning in July after Michael Hopkins, 22, a library employee and MU student, claimed that Brotzman had appeared sexually aroused and had touched himself on the fourth floor of Ellis Library while Hopkins shelved books nearby. No formal charges have been filed.

Following the disclosure of the report on April 18, Brotzman left Rock Bridge on Friday but remains on the school’s payroll by using his unused sick days. Brotzman had been hired by the Cedar Rapids Public Schools in Iowa as the executive administrator for secondary education. He resigned from that position April 21.

Brotzman was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Chase said she first heard a rumor about an allegation of sexual misconduct between late October and early November, more than three months after the complaint was reported. She questioned her district staff about whether they had any reason to believe the rumor and was told that it was “99.9 percent sure that it was probably just that, a rumor.”

Chase said she obtained the MU police report of the incident in early December but did not speak to MU police. She did, however, call Brotzman in for a meeting.

“At that time he indicated that he had heard such a report as this but didn’t know what was in it, but assured me that there were errors and the report was not true,” Chase said. “Given the fact he indicated the report was untrue, I took that at face value.”

Chase declined to comment on whether she had discussed with Brotzman other allegations of sexual misconduct.

She said she did not have an opinion whether Brotzman’s resignation from Rock Bridge was due to the MU police trespass warning nor did she know why Brotzman decided to take a leave of absence. Chase said she did not ask him to leave, however. She also said she did not know why he chose to resign in Cedar Rapids.

“I don’t know why Dr. Brotzman chose not to move forward in his employment in another district,” Chase said.

Chase hedged her answer on whether Brotzman would be eligible to be rehired by the district but she did say, “I want all of our quality administrators to stay. Dr. Brotzman is certainly no exception as his record has proven.”

Columbia Board of Education member Karla DeSpain said the school board was notified of the allegation sometime in late December or January. However, board members were not shown the MU police report, DeSpain said.

Board member Don Ludwig said he was unable to discuss whether he had seen the report.

“When hearing of the allegations, we were surprised and disappointed,” Ludwig said Wednesday. “We were dumfounded at the incident.”

He added that he was confident that Chase would monitor the allegation for further developments.

“I couldn’t imagine anyone doing a better job in the situation,” Ludwig said. “She was in control of the issue.”

Chase said the board did not ask her to look into the matter further.

Dave Markward, the superintendent of Cedar Rapids Community Schools, who didn’t know of the sexual allegations until last week, said he felt he should’ve been made aware of the allegations and trespass warning.

“I couldn’t speculate if it would change us hiring Mr. Brotzman,” he said. “But if we heard there was an allegation, we would’ve determined if there was something beyond an allegation.”

Markward said that Cedar Rapids sent Human Resource Director Ann Feldmann to Columbia for a day to talk with teachers and other staff members about Brotzman’s work during the district’s hiring process. Feldmann returned to Cedar Rapids with positive and enthusiastic comments about Brotzman’s leadership.

“They were very supportive of Mr. Brotzman and everyone at the high school was sad to see him leave,” Feldmann said.

Feldmann said she spoke with Chase on the phone about Brotzman, but never face to face. She said she asked Chase and Mallory a standard set of questions that Cedar Rapids uses when speaking with references of prospective employees.

The questions include: What would you describe as the strengths of the candidate as a (teacher/associate/worker)? What are some words or phrases you would use to describe the candidate’s character and work ethic? How would you rank the candidate relative to others in his/her position in your district/business and why? Is this person eligible for rehire? With your present knowledge, would be you be willing to rehire this candidate?

Feldmann said there was “clearly no indication of any concern discovered in any of the background checks.”Feldmann also asked Chase and Mallory why Brotzman had resigned from Columbia Schools before having a job in place, something that she said “stood out” to Cedar Rapids school officials.

“I asked them if they could help us understand why he resigned without a job secured,” she said. “We didn’t learn of the allegations when we asked those questions.”

Mary Meisterling, the president of the school board in Cedar Rapids, said she had wondered if Columbia school officials knew about the allegations.

“I thought that maybe this information was out there and we just didn’t know about it,” she said. “I’m disappointed that his information wasn’t shared with us so we could form our own judgment.”

Meisterling said prior knowledge of the allegations doesn’t mean Cedar Rapids officials wouldn’t have hired Brotzman, but that it “just would’ve helped with the decision.”

Cedar Rapids school officials wish they had had the information, but Chase said she would not have handled it any differently nor did she feel the need to share the information about the allegation with Cedar Ridge officials.

“I felt no responsibility to tell them of the allegation given that it was only an allegation,” she said. “It had not been proven.”