Hanover school district, former superintendent reach severance deal
By Carrie Napoleon Post-Tribune correspondent January 9, 2013 9:58PM
Carol Kaiser, Superintendent of the Cedar Lake Schools, welcomes guests to the ground breaking for the new Hanover Middle School in this Nov. 8, 2010, file photo. Photo by Scott R. Brandush for the Post-Tribune
Updated: February 11, 2013 7:36AM
CEDAR LAKE — Former Hanover Community Schools Superintendent Carol Kaiser will receive $100,000 in compensatory damages and $50,000 in severance pay in the deal ending her four-year tenure with the system.
Terms of the resignation and severance agreement reached between the Hanover Community School Corp. and former Superintendent Carol Kaiser have been made public after a seven-day waiting period. The deal was approved in a special meeting Dec. 28 pending Kaiser’s signature.
According to the agreement, the “employer has indicated its intent to terminate the employment of the employee” and the “employee contends that the employer has breached its employment contract with her and that has caused her to suffer emotional distress, anxiety and embarrassment.”
Kaiser was placed on paid administrative leave Dec. 10 following the board’s decision to fire former bookkeeper Jennifer Gricich. Later that week, the Lake County Sheriff’s Department confirmed it was conducting an investigation in cooperation with the Indiana State Board of Accounts’ regularly scheduled audit of the school corporation.
Lake County Sheriff spokeswoman Patti Van Til said Wednesday via email “the matter is still in the investigative stage.” A spokesman for the Indiana State Board of Accounts said the results of the audit, which is conducted every two years, are not yet complete.
Kaiser joined the school corporation in 2008. Her contract was renewed in June for three years at a salary of $114,000 a year.
School Board President Mary Joan Dickson said school officials would not comment on the agreement.
