Onalaska school board settles email confusion, but member still heated during meeting

Earlier this month, board member said he contacted FBI about incident.

Earlier this month, Onalaska school board member complained of malicious emails being sent to him by the school district.

That board member, Jake Speed, said he’d contacted the FBI about the emails.

That complaint, however, never occurred, according to an FBI agent that was contacted by the district’s lawyer.

Superintendent Fran Finco read a memo sent to him by the lawyer at Monday night’s school board meeting.

“He had searched for the complaint, using the complainant’s name, my name, the name of the school district,” Finco said. “(The special agent) indicated that this is kind of “strange” and explained that he’s on the cyber squad and if there were a complaint, he would see it.”

Speed says he did file the complaint, and gave the district a copy.

Finco also discussed an earlier conversation he had with Speed about the email confusion.

“(Speed) said that he now knows it was Google that was causing his email virus warning messages, not the district,” Finco said. “He said the email from the district is no longer an issue.”

After those claims were debunked at Monday’s meeting, Speed, again got into some heated debates about, among other things, fairness.

“I am treated differently than every other board member,” Speed said at the meeting. “And all I’ve ever asked, from the very beginning, is to be included with this group and to work together. And, again, this is not what’s been happening.”

Board president Ann Garritty says the board had called special meetings and has reached out to act as a team, but those efforts have been rejected by Speed.

“We have offered … do not interrupt me,” Garritty said to Speed. “We have offered. We have set up meetings. We have set up special meetings. So that we can create a team environment here. And your ongoing refusal has gotten us to this point.