PSD Superintendent Brian Kingsley, district employee subject of investigation

Poudre School District’s Board of Education has hired an outside investigator to determine the nature of a relationship between Superintendent Brian Kingsley and a school district employee, the Coloradoan has confirmed.

Multiple school board members, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed they directed an investigation be conducted following discussions that took place in one or more executive sessions related to personnel and legal matters during recent meetings.

The last regularly scheduled school board meeting that ended with an executive session to discuss those topics occurred on May 14.

The Coloradoan is not naming the employee or their position with PSD at this time.

While the district will pay for the investigation, the terms of the contract and its cost were not immediately available.

The investigation comes amid a time when the district is grappling with financial concerns.

School district officials, including Kingsley, considered closing as many as five neighborhood schools to address declining enrollment, underutilized buildings and the financial shortcomings that were related. But the PSD Board of Education ended that process this past Monday by a unanimous 7-0 vote during a special meeting.

Kingsley remains in his role, and he denied having any inappropriate relationship in a text Friday to the Coloradoan. He claimed there was already an internal HR investigation that found "absolutely nothing."

“These baseless rumors are completely unfounded and entirely false,” Kingsley said in the text message. “I welcome this investigation, because I am confident it will find what our internal HR investigation found: absolutely nothing.

“Our district, like many across the country is currently facing a challenging budget picture. Every member of our community has a right to their opinion about how I’m handling that situation and to voice that opinion publicly. I stand by the decision to ensure that women executives at PSD are paid comparably to men who do the same work. And to imply that decision was based on something other than their talent, hard work, and merit is outrageous, and frankly, sexist.

“I am disappointed that members of this community would resort to dragging my family and PSD staff through the mud over a political disagreement. It’s so far removed from the values we ought to be modeling for our students.

“It is my greatest hope that we can come together as a community, discuss the complex challenges that we all face and begin to work in partnership to identify real solutions without personal attacks that lack dignity and are hurtful.”

From the Coloradoan archive:Brian Kingsley is officially PSD's superintendent. Here's how he plans to approach the role.

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.