Board Forces Stewart To Bail Out -- Issaquah Schools Chief Gets $143,000 Parachute

ISSAQUAH - The forced resignation of Issaquah school Superintendent William Stewart leaves the School Board with a clean slate and more than a year to search for a new superintendent.

Telephone-harassment charges against Stewart were dropped by King County prosecutors last week.

Last night, the board held a special meeting to accept Stewart's resignation and sign a settlement worth $143,000.

"I was asked to leave, and that's all I'm going to say," Stewart told a reporter this morning. Although the criminal charges were dropped, Stewart still faces a civil suit filed by David Minehan, a Bellevue physician who claims Stewart tried to break up his marriage to Joyce Minehan by sending threatening mail and leaving harassing messages on the Minehans' message machine. According to court documents, Stewart and Joyce Minehan were lovers.

Under the terms of the settlement with the Issaquah School District, Stewart, 57, is leaving "in order to take early retirement," said board President Connie Fletcher.

The settlement allows Stewart to collect the remainder of his $104,000-a-year salary through June 30 while he technically remains on administrative leave. That amounts to about $43,000. The district also has agreed to pay Stewart $100,000 to terminate his contract. He has been on paid administrative leave since Sept. 1.

"He was pretty realistic - he really wanted to stay, but he wasn't going to fight it," said Stewart's criminal attorney, Jenny Durkan. "I think the board concluded they've still got the civil case to go through. It's hard for the district - and it's embarrassing."

Durkan said she thought Stewart would take a break and then look for another job in his field.

"I think he has too much of a love for kids and education - and a lot of years left in him," she said.

Stewart critic Ernie Siemas, who ran unsuccessfully for a board post last year, said he had expected Stewart to return after the gross-demeanor charges were dropped. He was surprised by Stewart's resignation.

"This is absolutely the best possible outcome," Siemas said. "The district gets a clean break, and Bill Stewart isn't found guilty of anything."

In his three years as school superintendent, Stewart had been criticized by parents who said he provided unimaginative leadership and set up roadblocks to their attempts to create alternative programs. His supporters said Stewart was a savvy fiscal manager who had put the district on firm financial footing.

Interim Superintendent Grant Hendrickson will remain through June 1997 while the board searches for a new superintendent.

"We should have somebody well in place by the end of the next school year," Fletcher said. "We'll let things settle down a little bit."

Stewart signed a three-year contract with the board last year that was to end in 1998. Some board critics worried that the contract would force the board to pay Stewart his full salary through 1998 if it wanted to terminate the agreement.

The criminal case against Stewart fell apart two weeks ago when Bellevue District Judge Joel Rindal ruled that a voice expert's testimony identifying Stewart's voice on the recordings would not be admitted in trial. Without that evidence, prosecutors had only testimony from Stewart's former wife identifying the voice heard on the four obscene phone messages as that of her ex-husband.

Fletcher said Stewart approved the agreement Saturday and did not attend last night's meeting or send a representative.