SALEM SCHOOLS Board members set aside conflict

If it happens again, charges will be filed, a board member said.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- Two city school board members say they must put their differences aside after an episode in which a verbal confrontation escalated to hitting.
Kathy Gano filed a police report earlier this week alleging that fellow board member Elizabeth Thatcher, 76, slapped her on the arm with her hand and then whacked her twice with an envelope or papers.
Gano, 48, was not injured in the exchange and doesn't intend to file a criminal complaint. The matter has been documented and will not be investigated further, Police Lt. Don Beeson said today.
Gano, who has taught music at St. Paul School in Salem and was elected to the city school board in November 2001, said this morning that the episode occurred Monday evening as the panel was preparing to enter a private meeting.
A public meeting had included an argument among the board over how to handle the appointment of a temporary principal at Reilly Elementary.
What happened
Gano said she approached Thatcher to talk to her about something she had supposedly said in private to schools Superintendent Dr. David Brobeck.
"She was very agitated," Gano said of Thatcher, a former city council member and retired Salem schools teacher who joined the board in January. The exchange resulted in Thatcher's striking her, Gano said.
Thatcher said the matter is being blown out of proportion.
"She verbally attacked me," Thatcher declared. "I said, 'Get away from me' and swiped her with an agenda," Thatcher related. "It wasn't a hit. It was a swipe."
She denied slapping Gano with her hand.
"I told her if she hit me again I would file charges," Gano said.
Both the women agreed this morning that they must try to work together.
"We have to put this behind us," Gano said. "This cannot be good for the kids. It's an embarrassment to the school."
But, she added, "Mrs. Thatcher has to learn to control her temper."
Thatcher chalked up the exchange to "a difference in personalities."