Woodward, Okla. — The public forum at Monday night’s Woodward Board of Education meeting was almost all about Cedar Heights Elementary principal Sharon Yeager.

Yeager was involved in a scuffle with a parent of a Cedar Heights student on Feb. 24.  The parent was arrested following the incident, charged with assault and has been banned from school property.

Eight people signed up to speak about Yeager during Monday’s school board meeting.  However, due to rules limiting “no more than three (3) speakers shall speak on the same subject with the same positions,” only five people actually had their say.  All five that spoke were parents or grandparents of current or former Cedar Heights students.

CINDY GOETZINGER - SUPPORTER

First to speak were three people who support Yeager: Cindy Goetzinger, mother of a fourth grader at the school; Margie Smith, grandmother of another student; and Shannon Laverty, father of “two young students” at the school.

All three described Yeager as respectful and caring and noted they were glad their children were attending a school under her leadership.

Goetzinger admitted that as the mother of a 10-year-old boy she was “familiar with the principal’s office.”

However, she said that every time her son was sent to the office, “he was always treated with respect by Mrs. Yeager and he always treated her with respect,” because that is what she and her husband taught him to do at home.

She went on to say that “kindness and respect has to start at home and you cannot got up and blame the school when your child does something wrong.”

Goetzinger described Yeager as hard-working.

“I’ve never met anybody who works harder on fundraisers (for the school),” she said.

“I just think a lot of Mrs. Yeager,” she said, having also noted, “she’s one of the best.”

Goetzinger also told The News, “I feel great about (her son) attending Cedar Heights.”

MARGIE SMITH - SUPPORTER

Smith feels similarly about her grandson, telling the school board and audience at Monday’s meeting, “luckily for him, he attends Cedar Heights.”

Of the principal, she said, “you couldn’t ask for a more caring, safety conscious person.”

Smith talked of times when she saw Yeager “out in the pouring rain directing cars and shoveling snow.”

Smith said “not every experience I’ve had up there (at the school) has been positive.”

She noted her grandson has also spent some time in Yeager’s office, learning important lessons about respect and “visiting about attitude.”

Nevertheless, she said, “there’s no doubt in my mind that Cedar Heights is where I want my up and coming grandchildren to go to school,” especially if the school is still under Yeager’s tutelage.

“You won’t find a lady that cares more about her students,” Smith said, adding that “integrity is a big part of everything at Cedar Heights.”

SHANNON LAVERTY - SUPPORTER

Laverty said that Yeager not only shows care and respect for her students, but also for their parents and the entire community.

In fact, he said when he was new to Woodward, he found “the gates of the community through the doors of Cedar Heights.”

He said the first time he ever stepped through those doors, “Yeager met me with a handshake and a smile.”

“I was not dressed professionally as I was working in the oilfield at the time,” Laverty said, but noted that “she showed me the same respect she would show to a doctor or a lawyer.”

“She shows respect no matter your race, creed, or whatever,” he said.

Laverty said he feels as if Yeager and others at the school work to instill this same respect and other “values and morals” in the students at the school.

“I know they are receiving important building blocks for success in the future,” he said of his own children.

“I can’t say enough about Mrs. Yeager,” Laverty said.  “I think she’s doing a very good job.”

LEILA SPRAY - OPPONENT

The other two people to speak were Leila Spray, the grandmother of a 3rd grader at the school, and Jami Boone, the mother of two students at the school, who both said they feel it is time for Yeager to retire and move on.

Both discussed incidents where they dealt with Yeager over issues with their children, where as Spray said, they felt “a line had been crossed.”

In Spray’s case, she described a time when she was called up to the school to meet with Yeager because her grandson had drawn in a book.

When she arrived at the school, she learned that what he had drawn was “a faint pencil line.” Yet, she said her grandson was in tears because Yeager “went on a tirade, telling my grandson he had no right to deface her property and that the book cost $65 and if he was her child, she would make him work to pay it off for destroying the book.”

Spray said that “while I agree he should not write in the book,” she told Yeager that the pencil mark didn’t destroy the book and proved it by erasing the mark.

She said she went on to tell Yeager that she felt she was too harsh in her treatment of the situation, noting that she felt Yeager was “almost to the point of verbally assaulting (her grandson).”

Spray went on to describe Yeager as a bully, noting “we don’t let other children bully our kids, why should we let an adult.”

She added that her “grandson is an A student,” but has begun to “hate school” because he is afraid of getting on the principal’s bad side.

JAMI BOONE - OPPONENT

Boone said her issues with the principal arose out of instances where she claimed Yeager called her first-grade son “a hooligan” and “wouldn’t find help for my dyslexic daughter.”

In a previous interview with The News, Boone said that Yeager made the “hooligan” comment to her son after she allowed him to get a mohawk.  She said Yeager tried to force her to get the boy’s hair cut by telling her the mohawk was against school rules because it was “a distraction.”  But she said, “his teacher didn’t think it was a distraction, she said she thought it was cute.”

In the matter with her daughter, Boone told The News and those attending Monday night’s school board meeting that Yeager “laughed in my face” when she tried to get help for her daughter’s dyslexia and had to eventually take the matter to Superintendent Vickie Williams before her daughter could get tutoring.

Boonesaid she also took issue whenYeager made recent comments to her “that I should take my kids out of her school.”

Although Boone and Spray were the only two to speak out against Yeager, Boone claimed “there a lot of parents that want to speak out, but they’re afraid to, because they’re afraid what will happen to their children.”

She ended her comments by stating that she believes “Yeager is eligible for retirement this year; and it’s time.”

ADDITIONAL SUPPORTERS

When the other three people who signed up to speak about Mrs. Yeager were invited to the podium, they all said they weren’t allowed to share their comments under the school board’s rules because they were also “for Mrs. Yeager.”

However, after the meeting Craig Bruehl, who was one of the other three supporters, told The News that should he have gotten to speak he would have told the school board and audience that he is “definitely 100 percent in support of Mrs. Yeager.”

He noted that he has sent “two kids through Cedar Heights . . . (and) one more should be through Cedar Heights in a couple of years.”

From his experiences with her, Bruehl said he feels that “she is definitely an excellent principal.”

And like the other supporters he feels she shows “integrity and a dedication to the kids.”

Bruehl added that in reference to the recent scuffle between Yeager and another Cedar Heights parent, he feels there has been “some sensationalism with the issue.”

NO COMMENTS FROM SCHOOL OFFICIALS

None of the  school board members responded to any of the comments about Yeager according to their rules about the open forum which state “The Board may ask for clarification, but will not respond to or make any statement about items brought up in Open Forum due to the laws governing the ‘Open Meetings Act,’ where those items are not considered agenda items.”

Yeager was in attendance at Monday night’s meeting, but also did not respond to comments.

She told The News, “I’ve been told by my school board that all of the comments should come through the board office.”

However, she noted that she does “have a lot” of things she would like to say about the issues, just “not any I can share at this time.”