A former Whitnall School District employee has been charged with falsifying results for the election of the School Board's president.
Shari Rodriguez, 53, was charged June 22 with one felony count of misconduct in public office (act in excess of lawful authority). If convicted, she could face up to a $10,000 fine or three years and six months in prison or both, according to online court records.
Rodriguez was the executive assistant to the Whitnall School District superintendent and Whitnall School Board. She was in charge of collecting the votes from school board members, counting them and announcing the results but had no authority to change the votes themselves, the criminal complaint said.
On April 24, the board held its annual reorganization in which its members elect the president, vice president, treasurer and clerk from its membership.
During the vote for president, Rodriguez handed paper ballots to each board member. She then collected the ballots.
Board members Jason Craig and Kevin Stachowiak were nominated for board president. VIdeo of the April 24 meeting shows that when Rodriguez read the votes, she read off four votes for Stachowiak and three for Craig.
That led board member Karen Mikolainis — who is shown in the video but not named in the complaint — to ask for a recount. A second vote led to the same result.
An investigation revealed the vote reporting was inaccurate and that the actual winner was Craig, the complaint said.
The complaint said Rodriguez told another school district employee that she thought about keeping an extra ballot with Stachowiak's name on it. Rodriguez called that employee later that evening to admit she gave an extra vote to Stachowiak and approached the employee the next day at work to tell him what she did.
That employee told district superintendent Lisa Olson what had happened.
Rodriguez admitted switching to votes to both Olson and a detective , the complaint said. She told the detective she did so "because she was working 12-hour days and thought having (Stachowiak) as president would relieve some of her workload," the complaint said.
Rodriguez was initially put on administrative leave and later fired, the complaint noted.
A statement released by the board April 27, after Rodriguez was fired, said, "This is an egregious violation that does not reflect the expected conduct of district employees."
The board held another reorganization vote May 8 at which board members elected Craig as the board president, board member Cassie Rainer as vice president, Mikolainis as treasurer and board member Rachel Scherrer as clerk.
Attempts to reach Rodriguez have been unsuccessful.
She is scheduled to make her initial appearance in court July 6.
Contact Alec Johnson at (262) 875-9469 or alec.johnson@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlecJohnson12.
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