Superintendent Who Backed Mask Mandates And Equity Policies Scores Nearly $1 Million Settlement

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include comment from Mike Peterson, Douglas County School Board director.

A former Colorado superintendent will receive nearly $1 million from a school district that fired him over his support for COVID-19 mask mandates and equity policies, according to a Monday press release.

The Douglas County School District settled with Corey Wise on Monday, agreeing to pay the former administrator $832,733 after he sued for being unlawfully terminated without cause, according to a press release. Wise sued the Douglas County School Board alleging that the conservative majority fired him in February over his support for a district COVID-19 mask mandate and equity policy. (RELATED: Florida School Boards Flip Red, Immediately Oust Superintendents Who Oversaw Mask Mandates)

“The not-so-thinly-veiled discriminatory and retaliatory animus exhibited by Board Members Myers, Peterson, William and Winegar towards historically vulnerable and disenfranchised students in the district and their advocates has resulted in real harm to Douglas County’s students and their quality of education,” Wise’s attorneys wrote in a press release. “Sadly, these individuals have put their own political aspirations and plotting over the well-being and success of students and families in the district.”

Ahead of voting 4-3 to fire Wise, the board noted that Wise pushed for students and staff to wear masks despite the mandate being lifted, the Denver Post reported. Wise was also in support of keeping the district’s equity policy, which the board voted to remove, that required the school to create an equity advisory committee in order to hire a more diverse staff and evaluate school curriculum to be inclusive of all students.

“I don’t think he does a good job representing the board to staff,” Christy Williams, a board member, told the outlet. “I’ve heard from leadership there are times he misrepresents our intentions, and I don’t feel that’s the kind of superintendent that we need.”

The money used to pay for the settlement is coming from the district’s insurance policy in order that no funds were diverted from the school or its students, the press release stated.

“As one Director, I voted to terminate the former superintendent due to a lack of competency – period,” Mike Peterson, Douglas County School Board director, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “He was paid out in full in accordance with his contract. In response to threatened civil rights litigation, the school district’s insurance provider agreed to settle with him. Per the settlement agreement, the former superintendent has agreed this is not an admission of liability on the part of the school district. I will not allow this matter to distract me from focusing on our students and securing more competitive pay for our teachers and staff.”

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