Hamilton Southeastern School Corp. has filed its formal response to an unfair labor complaint the Hamilton Southeastern Education Association submitted in mid-June to the Indiana Education Employment Relations board.
The response, which was filed July 19, denies HSEA’s allegations that Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Brian Murphy acted inappropriately during interactions with HSEA President Abby Taylor and Indiana State Teachers Association UniServ Director Becky Slayton.
The district’s response repeatedly stated that the interactions were mischaracterized in the complaint.
The HSEA complaint cites text messages, in-person and telephone conversations, emails and voicemail messages. Screenshots of the text messages were included and in one thread, Murphy instructed Taylor on how to be a good advocate.
In its response, the district stated, “The text messages speak for themselves. The school denies any allegations … which are inconsistent with the text messages.”
The complaint also alleges that Murphy threatened in a message and a phone conversation to contact Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston to “bring down collective bargaining.”
The HSE Schools’ response stated that “the school denies this telephone conversation between Brian Murphy and Becky Slayton is properly characterized.”
The complaint also alleges that Murphy physically and verbally intimidated Taylor during meetings and refused to reschedule a meeting when association representatives said they were not available.
According to the complaint, Taylor submitted a hostile work environment notice related to Murphy’s actions to Deputy Superintendent Matt Kegley in early May. The following day, Murphy allegedly called Slayton and left a voicemail stating that he would be filing his own civil, criminal and civil complaints.
Murphy also allegedly warned both Taylor and Slayton about practicing law without a license when they cited Indiana law.
The district’s response to each of those allegations again stated that conversations between Murphy and union representatives were mischaracterized.
During the HSE Board of Trustees’ July 11 meeting, teachers and their supporters packed the audience and several speakers spoke in strong support of the union. During that meeting, the board announced that its regular July 24 meeting was canceled, but teachers organized a demonstration that day, anyway.
Taylor announced to the gathering that the district’s response didn’t follow proper procedures, which will delay the process. A prehearing conference had been scheduled for July 23. At deadline for this report, IEERB had not responded to a request for an updated hearing date.
