The former superintendent of the Delphi Community Schools has begun to talk about his firing now that a deal is done with the school corporation.
Greg Briles was let go in September after the Delphi School Board raised concerns about how the need for an emergency loan had seemingly snuck up on the district.
He says he’d intended to retire from his most recent job and now he’s not sure what’s next for his career – or for those who might succeed him.
“I’m concerned about the way superintendents are treated after this situation," Briles says. "This was my first bad experience like this, and I’m very concerned. Not just me, but superintendents in general.”
Briles admits he did push for several sizable expenditures in his three years in office, including buying solar panels to generate electricity, LED lights to save power and panic buttons to allow for quick alerts of school emergencies.
Briles has begun speaking to the media after weeks of silence and says he thinks some in the community were uncomfortable about the speed at which he spent money to make improvements to the district’s schools.
“I don’t think we spent too much, too fast, I think that maybe I just pushed out of the comfort zone," he says. "You know, I don’t regret doing anything that we did, because I know it’s going to be better in the future for those students and staff members.”
But he also attributes the issues that got him fired, in part, to two changes in school corporation treasurers, as well as a simultaneous shift in the software used to track financial data.
“Had my treasurer said, in May, that ‘hey, you’re going to need to do a tax anticipation warrant,’ I would have done it in May. But we weren’t made aware of that tightness until Dr. [Ed] Eiler came in.”
According to his lawyer, Bob Reiling, Briles will receive a severance package worth about $54,000, with $10,000 of that going to pay attorney fees. Reiling says the deal cites “philosophical differences” as the reason for the dismissal.
School corporation lawyer Nick Otis did not respond to multiple calls seeking comment.
