SANDY — When the Canyons School District was created in 2009 there was a lot of talk of change. Three years later, some former and current administrators say the change is in the way the superintendent is treating people.

The employees told KSL News Superintendent David Doty has created an environment of intimidation, calling for loyalty and demanding public silence if they disagree with his moves.

Sharon Okumura knows a lot about leadership in education. She worked as a teacher and administrator for 29 years, and she deeply loved her job.

But after the Jordan/Canyons school district split, she was suddenly reassigned to a new school. Rather than spend one year at a different elementary school, Okumura said she decided she would retire a year earlier than she had planned.

She shared her decision with Superintendent Doty, who she says later held a meeting with her staff while she was on vacation and broke the news that she was leaving.

Okumura wrote Doty an email expressing her concerns about the meeting being held without her present, how much advance warning she had before the announcement of her reassignment, and the need for closure for both staff and students during her departure.

According to Okumura, this was Doty's emailed in reply: "Please be in my office at 4:00 sharp tomorrow afternoon."

"I sent the email to Dr. Doty, and then it made him unhappy," Okumura said, adding that she learned just how unhappy he was the moment she walked into his office — and she was shocked by his reaction.

Okumura said Doty started yelling at her. She claims he berated her for writing him the email and then handed her a formal letter of reprimand.

"He was just really angry," Okumura said. "He shook papers at me at told me I needed to just sit there and listen, and his face was red."

In the letter, Doty stated that Okumura was being placed on paid administrative leave for gross insubordination. She was prohibited from being on any Canyons School District premises or participating in any district activity or function from that day until the day of her retirement. She also was prohibited from communicating with any other district employees, principals or school board members.

"I asked him if I could respond, and he said that no I couldn't, and I was to sit there and I was to listen,' Okumura said.

She said Doty also told her he would have fired her on the spot if she was not already planning to retire, then threatened further discipline if she violated any part of the letter's demands.

"He says if I didn't abide by those directives, it may impact my retirement benefits and post-retirement benefits," Okumura explained. "He had taken away my first amendment rights."

Okumura was dumbfounded. And while she thought she was alone, she said other employees started reaching out to her. They told her they had also been reprimanded, disciplined and told they were not allowed to speak with other employees or board members.

KSL News has spoken with eight Canyons District employees, both past and present, mainly administrators. All said they experienced one or all of the following actions:

• They were given similar letters of reprimand.
• They were demoted without a pay decrease.
• They were asked to write letters expressing their loyalty to the district and superintendent to be kept in their personnel files.

All but Okumura were unwilling to go on camera for fear of retribution from Doty and the district.

KSL News requested to interview Doty to discuss these reprimands and learn his side of the story, but our requests were repeatedly denied.

"If you speak out and they don't like what you're saying, and you're not all for (it) and a ‘yes person,' then you will literally … you could lose your place there. You could lose your job," Okumura said.

"I was fearful for the fact that being reprimanded, and not just myself being reprimanded, but also the employees, fear for them. What would the district do?" said Ellen Wallace, a former school board member for both the Jordan and Canyons school districts.

Wallace said Doty imposed a mandate: no communication between board members and district employees, including principals, without his knowledge and consent. She said it went against everything she had ever believed in as a board member.

"I was shocked," she said. "I couldn't believe it. (I) took it to our president, talked to him about it."

Okumura said she also wrote the board members, expressing her concern about the mandate.

The women say nothing changed, and in fact, when another board member, Kevin Cromar, spoke with administrators and teachers individually, he was publicly censured.

Related:

Canyons School Board member reprimanded for comments made about district leaders

A Canyons School District School Board member came under fire from his colleagues after they said he overstepped his bounds by bad-mouthing a fellow board member.

KSL attended the board meeting where his censure took place. "I am deeply concerned about efforts of intimidation against both me and administrators at the schools," Cromar told those present at the meeting.

"I think it shows the level of problems that are in the district, because of what they did to Kevin as a board member," Wallace said.

KSL wanted to ask Doty directly about what happened, but he again refused to meet with us.

"I got to know a lot of boards, a lot of superintendents, and I have never had this experience before, and (have) never heard of it before," Wallace said.

Wallace said watching what was happening in the Canyons contributed to her decision to not seek board re-election.

Both she and Okumura say they have no ill feelings toward Doty; neither work with or for Canyons anymore. They both say they felt they owed it to the children they served for so many years to speak out.

"If principals aren't going to speak up for their schools, if they're not going to speak up for their teachers, when you start shutting communication down because of fear of retribution, it will harm kids eventually," Okumura said.

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