Former Wolseley High School principal guilty of professional misconduct

A former Wolseley High School principal has been found guilty of professional misconduct following charges of bribing teachers to change her daughter’s marks and mishandling classes for other students.

In a public notice of penalty hearing, the Saskatchewan Teacher’s Federation ethics committee said Kimberley Sautner was found guilty of professional misconduct following a hearing in February. The penalty hearing is scheduled for Monday.

Sautner, 44, was the principal of Wolseley High school between 2008 and 2014. She now works as a principal in Alberta.

The committee heard how in January 2015, six months after she left the school, Sautner sent text messages to two English teachers asking them to “upgrade” her daughter’s first semester Grade 12 English grade so the girl could skip a university course she was having difficulty with.

Saunter testified she offered to pay the teachers $500 for their time because she felt the task would go above and beyond the teachers’ regular duties. One of the teachers testified Saunter asked her to keep the matter between them.

Following Sautner’s text messages, Wolesley’s new principal looked into Sautner’s daughter’s marks and found a discrepancy between her first semester English mark on a mark verification report and her transcript. The mark on the teacher’s signed report was 60 per cent, but 80 on her transcript.

An IT investigation discovered the mark was changed in a program, which only the principal and secretary have access to. Both Sautner and the secretaries said they did not change the grade.

The Social Studies marks of three other students were also changed, but Sautner denies changing them as well. She also denied allegation she favoured the three students and would text them asking them to get her coffee while they were in class.

Sautner was also under investigation for how she handled the grading of two other students who wanted to upgrade marks in other classes.