ROCK SPRINGS — The Following is a Sweetwater County School District press release.

The full text follows:

At its meeting on Monday, the Board of Trustees of Sweetwater County School District Number One was approached by teachers and staff of Eastside Elementary and asked to respond to questions involving the employment of Eastside Principal Brent McMurtrey. The employment information of a District employee is confidential to that employee and the Board declined to respond to the public’s questions.

State and Federal Law, along with District policy and procedure treat personnel records of
District staff as confidential information. This confidentiality covers all aspects of employment; from disciplinary matters to matters involving the wellbeing of individual employees, such as when an employee provides information of a medical nature and requests accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (the “ADA”) or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (“Section 504”), federal laws that govern employer responsibility for providing access to employment when an employee suffers from a disabling condition.

Similarly, the District is governed by the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), which contains responsibilities to do with employee’s rights provide certain employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year. The FMLA has specific rules that apply to educators as well as to “key employees”, which limits a key employee’s right to job protection where it would cause undue hardship to the District if the position were to go unfilled. The District also has policies dealing with sick leave, both short-term and long-term. All information gathered by the District in meeting its obligations under these laws and policies is confidential and cannot be discussed publicly.

Employees should understand that the District is committed to meeting its obligations under federal and state law and District policy, and will seek to accommodate all requests for accommodations, acknowledging that it is not always possible to provide the specific relief requested, for various reasons such as a lack of medical information, undue hardship, or inability of the employee to perform the essential functions of the job even with accommodations. The District encourages any staff member needing accommodations to make a request with assurance that the information provided will not be shared with other employees, staff members, students, parents, or the public. Every employee has a right to expect reasonable privacy and the District will honor that right.