MERRILL, Wis. (WSAU-WAOW) — Text messages between two Merrill Area Public Schools administrators who resigned in April amid an investigation into personal misconduct have been released.
An open-records request from WAOW Newsline 9 has led to the messages being released by the Merrill school board. Parts of the messages have been redacted because they were determined as personal in nature and unrelated to the case, according to School Board President Jen Seliger, but the messages that have been released suggest a romantic relationship between former Superintendent Wally Leipart and former Assistant Superintendent Michele Jahnke.
An excerpt from the messages reads:
Leipart: I really think the safest and most probable truth since there is suspicion is to say as friends we talked about struggles at work and home. But at no time did we conspire to coordinate separations not have we had any intimate relationship
Jahnke: I agree
Jahnke: Baby are we going to be ok?
Leipart: We have to be patient and we need to keep being excellent at work
Other messages between the two question what would happen if they were “found out” and also reference “keeping the story straight.”
According to court documents, both Leipart’s spouse and Jahnke’s spouse filed for divorce in the days before the school board placed the former administrators on leave and started their investigation.
