PSD Superintendent Brian Kingsley cleared by outside investigation, school board says

Corrections and clarifications: The reasons given by Poudre School District for denying the Coloradoan's request to view the investigation have been updated since this story was first published to remove an incorrect reference for exclusions allowed under the Colorado Open Records Act.

The Poudre School District Board of Education issued a statement Wednesday night saying members are satisfied with the conclusions of an outside investigation finding no wrongdoing or misconduct on the part of Superintendent Brian Kingsley or any district employee.

The school board called for the investigation in May to determine the nature of a relationship between Kingsley and a district employee. The investigation concluded nearly two weeks ago.

Three board members already shared their thoughts on the investigation with the Coloradoan, but the formal statement from the board as a whole didn't come until after a special meeting held in executive session Wednesday night.

Until that night, school district officials not only declined the Coloradoan's requests to review the report, citing attorney-client privilege, but also declined to answer questions about the cost of the investigation and who performed it. The Coloradoan submitted formal requests for all information through the process outlined in the Colorado Open Records Act.

A Coloradoan reporter attending the meeting learned upon arrival that attorney Adele Reester of Lyons Gaddis, a law firm based in Longmont, performed the investigation based on her presence in the executive session — a fact school board president Kristen Draper confirmed afterward. The cost is not yet known, Draper said, since the investigator remained on the clock working for the school board while attending Wednesday night’s special meeting in the superintendent’s board room at the school district’s administrative offices.

“Having reviewed the report, the Board is satisfied with its conclusions that the evidence does not support finding of the alleged wrongdoing or alleged misconduct,” read the statement, emailed to the Coloradoan by Draper soon after the meeting adjourned. “Moreover, the allegations that precipitated this investigation and privileged report could not be substantiated in any meaningful way, and there were no findings of any wrongdoing of any District employee, including the Superintendent. In the Board’s opinion, the investigator was thorough, impartial, and clear in the report.

“Further, the Board is confident that the investigator gave the appropriate weight to the credibility of witnesses, providing context behind statements and facts that were alleged that could not be substantiated beyond mere speculation and surmise, and therefore have no justifiable basis.

“On balance, the Board has faith that the investigation and its findings are credible and legitimate, and no further action is required at this time. The Board is committed to refocusing all efforts to continue the District’s demonstrated improvements in the areas of literacy, mental health, and graduation rates, led by Superintendent Kingsley.”

More: PSD Superintendent Brian Kingsley cleared of wrongdoing, 3 board members say

Kingsley was out of town attending the Colorado Association of School Executives’ annual conference in Breckenridge, school district spokesperson Emily Shockley said Tuesday.

He texted a statement to the Coloradoan on Wednesday night pointing out that the investigation found “no merits to the allegations of wrongdoing that were brought against me. I appreciate the work of the investigators to resolve this matter. The allegations were hurtful, and the report confirms they were unfounded.

“With this matter now resolved, I hope we can move forward and reunite as a PSD community around our common goal of ensuring a world-class educational experience for every single student in the district.”

PSD still has not disclosed any portion of the report, or its cost

All requests by the Coloradoan to review the investigation or its findings have been denied.

School district attorney Autumn Aspen, in an email July 18, wrote that the “investigation report and any related documents are attorney-client privileged attorney work product and further protected from disclosure” under the Colorado Open Records Act “and therefore not available to review.”

A formal response July 22 to the CORA request to view the report and its findings also cited exclusions for “confidential personnel file record” in denying access.

The district said it had one responsive record to an additional request for all contracts for “outside” or “independent” investigations into the activities and/or actions of the superintendent and members of his cabinet or executive leadership team since his hiring July 1, 2021, but denied access under the same exclusions cited in the previous request. It is unclear if this is the same investigation that the school board commented on Wednesday night.

The district also denied having any record of a contract for the current investigation, nor proof of financial commitments or obligations in response to a separate open-records request.

But another open-records request yielded a list of payments made to Lyons Gaddis over the previous five years. The only payment since 2022 listed was for an invoice dated June 25, 2024, for $17,290.70.

It is not clear what portion of the payment was for this investigation, given it was not completed until July 12, according to text messages sent to a reporter that day and again Wednesday night by Kingsley.

More: Investigation into PSD superintendent and employee complete, but findings still secret

Six of the seven members of the Board of Education, who all confirmed they had seen the report and its findings, attended the special meeting Wednesday night. Draper, Jim Brokish, Conor Duffy, Kevin Havelda and Scott Schoenbauer attended in person, while Carolyn Reed, who was traveling in Central America, participated virtually. The seventh board member, vice president Jessica Zamora, was traveling in Europe and unable to participate, other board members said.

Brokish’s motion for the board to convene in executive session, made immediately after the meeting was called to order at 5:32 p.m., cited the discussion of legal matters related to the investigation into Kingsley as the reason to exclude the media and public. Also invited to participate were Reester and Aspen. The motion passed 6-0.

There were no members of the public in attendance. The Coloradoan was the only media outlet in attendance.

Board members began leaving the meeting about 7:15 p.m., telling a Coloradoan reporter waiting outside that the attorneys and Draper were preparing a formal response, which was emailed to the reporter about 15 minutes later. Draper confirmed the email had been received while speaking to the reporter afterward.

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com , x.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news .

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: PSD Superintendent Brian Kingsley cleared by outside investigation, school board says