Last week KCE reported that Jack Musha was out as Bristol School District administrator. We have since received investigative reports from the district that highlight a long list of allegations of misconduct against the outgoing administrator. The district’s legal counsel, Shana Lewis, heavily redacted the records that we received. She had previously given Musha advice that he could deny a public records request to KCE because we made a date typo on a request. Musha didn’t take her bad and unethical advice. Lewis works for the law firm Renning, Lewis & Lacy out of Madison.
Musha, 44, tendered his resignation last week and his last day with the district is December 31, 2024. According to public records, the board was poised to terminate Musha and Musha decided to resign in lieu of termination. He was hired as the district’s administrator in 2021. He has not reported to work at all this school year and has been on a board-approved leave at least for most of the year, which KCE believes was administrative in nature.
A member of the district’s administrative team filed a harassment complaint against Musha, and the district hired a law firm to investigate those accusations. The investigation concluded that Musha didn’t discriminate against the staffer based on a protected status. This investigation, however, seemingly uncovered other alleged misconduct by Musha. The board of education also made allegations against Musha.
For example, witnesses heard Musha call the board president “that bitch” and its vice president a “cunt.” Reached for comment today, both board president Tina Elfering and board vice-president Joanne Gray told KCE that they aren’t commenting due to advice from the district’s attorney, but Elfering did say:
“Upon the advice of legal counsel, I will not be responding to questions regarding the investigative report. However, I can assure you that I am committed to upholding a high standard of conduct and ensuring a positive environment for Bristol School employees, children, and the community.“
While campaigning for school board in early 2024, Musha contacted two of the candidates. He asked them if they wanted to hold a meeting with him in his office and discuss “the rules and expectation of school board members.” This was seen by some as an attempt to intimidate the candidates or influence the election. The election that followed flipped the board that was mostly loyal to Musha.
Members of the district’s administrative team were entitled to yearly reviews under their contracts. The board found out that Musha hadn’t completed many of them in about three years. They gave him a directive to complete the reviews. He allegedly didn’t do them when ordered. He finally authored the reviews and electronically signed them. The evidence, according to the investigators, showed that Musha then back-dated the electronic signatures to make it appear he did them on time.
According to the board, Musha violated numerous school policies:
- Musha failed to finalize a contract with an employee per a board directive.
- Musha used foul language in a building with 4 through 14-year-olds
- Musha failed to comply with board directives involving a complaint against his ex-wife, Stephanie Musha.
- Musha became irate with staff at the final staff meeting of the 2023-2024 school year.
- Musha used the board president’s digital signature after she explicitly informed Musha he no longer had the authority to use it.
The investigator wrote in his report that Musha denied the allegations of calling the women a “bitch” and “cunt”, but he said that several factors provide the [witness] with credibility. The investigator elaborated by writing “further, numerous witnesses have testified to Musha’s propensity to become highly emotional and to ‘unload’ on people when he became overwhelmed. Numerous witnesses also testified to Musha’s ongoing frustrations with the board and in particular, its [president and vice president] given their animus to the 2024 spring referendum,” which failed.
A district parent told KCE that she was happy that Musha is leaving saying “How can the board or other administrative staff have confidence in a leader who behaves in this manner? I’m looking forward to a new administrator who is cognizant of the student’s and community’s best interest.”
Musha was emailed with a request for comment, asking why he chose to resign instead of having a hearing, where he could call witnesses and present evidence:
“Hearings are hard on everyone involved. I decided it was not worth the mental strain, attorney costs (for both sides) and dividing the community any further. It was clear it was time for me to move on,” said Musha.
“I have ALWAYS placed the students of the Bristol community as the first priority of the district. The support of Bristol families and staff has been overwhelming. Their positive and thankful messages have verified how much I meant to them. I want them to know that I am extremely grateful and thankful for the entire Bristol School community and proud of all we have accomplished in the last 5 years. I will miss the students, staff and families dearly and wish them nothing but the best as they move forward,” added Musha.
21 Responses
Good riddance, douche canoe.
He must not know Tina very well, calling her a b*tch only makes her work harder and hold people more accountable for their actions.
Ughhhhhhhh Bristol again!!!!!! Well geez
Well, yhat is the problem when people don’t get fire right away or they are allowed to resogn in lieu of a lawsuit—they just go elsewhere and reappear as if nothing happened. Sounds like that is what happened before to that teacher going to Illinois??? Or to Murdock running for office. They this what they did wasn’t so bad. Total idiots. We are worse tho for not checking thoroughly and hiring of voting for them.
Would love to see a very simple change to state law, so that prospective employers can be told a very simple statement, “He/she resigned while under investigation for ________.”.
It is a truthful, factual statement that deserves to be made when police, fire, teachers, whatever’s quit to stop and investigation and/or findings from being made.
How can you miss the students when you haven’t seen them for a year? What a flipping nutjob! Have a great new year. Bristol will.
Completely agree, but I’m glad that Kevin published his reply for the exact reason you mentioned.
Any public employee taking wages and lying about doing their job, or not doing their job should be fired. Simple.
The school’s Attorney Shana Lewis , is notorious for advising school board members to heavily redact or deny any open records requests. She works with a majority of the schools in Kenosha County.
Hopefully this board will hire a competent administrator this time around. The previous boards are 0-2 on the last two administrations.
On the bright side, for a change, at least he wasn’t doing anything inappropriate with the students.
I am sure there are plenty off C s and B s involved in education so I give him a pass on that, but maybe next time keep it to yourself and complete the little paperwork required for the fat taxpayer checks you receive.
Don’t forget to mark your calendars for 02/18/25 to vote against the next massive property tax increase KUSD is trying to sneak through on an off elections “referendum”.
Vote no to giving all these hacks a raise!
Tina Elfering don’t like it when you get called a bitch ‘ most women don’t. But when you received a complaint in May regarding the head of the custodian staff about him calling someone a f-bitch you did nothing When the list was so long about his attitude, at Bristol school besides his swearing in front of the children and talked about everyone at the school when he throws things, kicks things, screams at the delivery truck drivers and some of the people working on the new addition , when they walk out into the hall to see him yelling at one of his workers so loud they just shake their head in disbelief when he shows not a ounce of pride in the job but to stand in the lunchroom most of the day , Not willing to do hardly any of his jobs. This list gets longer and just gets worse. you’ve seen
the complaint you should have read it all lots of people have seen him and the way he acts. There was a lot of proof in that complaint . He should not be working around children some people are scared of the way he gets angry and flies off the handle. You. kick Mr. Musha out, but you did nothing about him, shame on you for not even a response. Do your job drain the swamp, don’t just keep them because they might be a friend.
Tina Elfering is on the school board. The board’s responsibility is to manage the Administrator, who is responsible for managing the rest of the school. This comment seems like another strike against the administrator for not doing his job.
… it’s still up to and in the power of the board to direct whomever the acting administrator might be to fire a person for cause.
And if even half the accusations of this custodians actions are true, he should be fired yesterday.
Sounds like someone doesn’t like Tina lol
You do realize it’s the Administration to hire and fire LOL
Good luck trying to find another way to show how much you are jealous of her.
Get in line asshole.
Got a half year salary for doing nothing? Tax dollars wasted again!
Yes we are all jealous of her for what i am not sure.
Kevin, do you know if there is a replacement or will there be (and when) a special election to full this spot?
The board extended interim district administration James Feil’s contract until June 30, 2025, while they work on hiring a permanent replacement for the 2025-2026 school year.
He will land another job at a local school I’m sure…. that’s how these storys end!
This school has been going downhill for years the place is dirty and smells they pay to many people to stand around on their phones What ever happened to giving our children home cooked meals. They just don’t exist anymore over paid underworked too busy standing around on their phones in the lunchroom everyday .