Jensen: pleased to see “fresh start” for Grand Island Public Schools

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) - The man who started a political action committee which backed three new members of the Grand Island school board, said Monday he was pleased that Superintendent Tawana Grover was resigning.

In a statement issued Monday afternoon, Jeremy Jensen said in part, “Our community spoke loud and clear during the previous election that substandard results and poor morale won’t be tolerated any longer.”

In April, Grover fired Jensen as Grand Island Senior High boys soccer coach after he shared content from the Panorama education survey on social media. After that Jensen criticized Grover and the GIPS school board for lack of transparency and for hiding issues he said the district had with teacher satisfaction, recruitment and retention.

Jensen also criticized the Grand Island school board for numerous 9-0 votes.

He then formed the so-called Chaperone political action committee. Three candidates connected to Chaperone ran against incumbents and won seats on the Grand Island school board, including two candidates in Ward A who were voted in on a write-in campaign. The net result of the election was five new members on the Grand Island board.

Grover was expected to hand in a formal resignation to the Grand Island school board at it’s meeting Monday night.

Here is the full text of Jensen’s Monday statement:

“The cornerstone of effective leadership is creating an environment where every member of your team feels valued and appreciated.

It requires humility and transparency. It requires trust and empathy. It requires constant honest assessments of measurable metrics. None of these describe the current state of affairs at Grand Island Public Schools.

Our district isn’t a resume builder for anyone, it’s our home.

Our community spoke loud and clear during the previous election that substandard results and poor morale won’t be tolerated any longer.

We need a Superintendent that will be endeared by the most important asset we have at GIPS - our teachers.

I couldn’t be more pleased to see the fresh start, because I know how much morale and hope has already been boosted within the buildings (and our community) by the prospect of this new beginning.”