ST. CHARLES COUNTY • Bryan Spencer will be sworn in today in Jefferson City as a state representative, with his future as a teacher in the Francis Howell School District up in the air.
The district’s board has twice rejected Spencer’s request for an unpaid leave of absence that would allow him to return to his job when his career in the Legislature ends.
What happens now is unclear. Spencer has hired an attorney, Robert Herman, and said he may sue the district.
Spencer insists he won’t resign and submitted a letter to the district last week saying he would begin a leave from his job as a special education teacher Tuesday despite the lack of approval.
“I’m in uncharted water,” said Spencer, R-Wentzville.
District administrators couldn’t be reached for comment on Spencer’s status.
The school board president, Marty Hodits, said he didn’t have details on how the district would respond to Spencer’s absence from the classroom.
However, he said state law on tenured teachers would be followed. Spencer has been a teacher in the district for 22 years, most recently at Francis Howell North High School.
“We will follow the proper things,” Hodits said.
Spencer and some other Republicans say he’s been treated unfairly, because the board has regularly approved unpaid leaves of absence for two leaders in a teachers union usually allied with Democrats.
Hodits says the union officials’ situation is different because in their roles they still spend their full time on education and often interact with the district.
Hodits, a political independent, asserted that politics isn’t involved and that there are more Republicans on the board than Democrats. In Missouri school board members are listed on the ballot without party affiliation.
“He has made it into a major political cause,” Hodits said. “It was never a Democrat-vs.-Republican” issue.
Spencer was elected in November for the first time as a House member, a part-time position. Many state legislators continue to hold private-sector jobs.
However, the state Constitution bars legislators from simultaneously holding most other government employment, including teaching in public schools.
Spencer first asked in September — after winning the August GOP primary — for a leave to cover his initial two-year term should he win the November general election. He said he asked that it be renewable for future terms.
Cheryl Bates, the Harvester Township Republican committeewoman, said she’s trying to get Republicans and others supporting Spencer to attend the school board’s next meeting Jan. 17 to urge reconsideration of his request.
“I think it’s a double standard,” Bates said. She added that she doesn’t want the district to spend money on lawyers to defend the action should Spencer sue. Giving him a leave would cost nothing, she said.
Meanwhile, Rep.-elect Michael Butler, D-St. Louis, also elected for the first time in November, says he didn’t seek a leave of absence from his role as a substitute teacher in the city schools. He also said he wouldn’t work as a substitute while a legislator.
