Still no decision on fate of Walker sign-stomping kindergarten teacher

By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON, Wis. — The professional fate of a Germantown kindergarten teacher who went off on Gov. Scott Walker signs at a GOP booth at the Jefferson County Fair remains on hold as the school district continues to investigate the conduct of April Kay Smith.

“It’s all about making sure we have done complete due diligence, making sure we are looking at it from all angles,” Germantown District Administrator Jeff Holmes told Wisconsin Reporter on Wednesday.

Holmes in early September said he hoped to have the “investigation completed and reported out to the (school) board by the end of last month.”

For now, Smith, 38, remains on unpaid leave.

Holmes said a meeting has been scheduled with Smith and her “representative.” Following that session, the administrator will “likely bring a recommendation” to the Germantown School Board, and a special meeting will be called.

“The intent is to have that done before the end of the month,” Holmes said.

Smith, who teaches at Amy Belle Elementary School, first denied, then admitted to Jefferson County authorities she damaged several signs at the Jefferson County Republican Party booth after the fair had shut down for the night on July 9.

An incident report obtained by Wisconsin Reporter in August notes Smith “confessed to damaging and ripping out the signs.”

“She stated her husband told her to lie and that she’s just so angry with (Gov.) Scott Walker due to the fact that she was a school teacher,” the report states.

Walker’s collective-bargaining reforms, known as Act 10, checked the power of public employee labor unions and elicited the ire of many state and local government employees.

Holmes, who has served as administrator for 15 months, said Act 10 has helped the district deal with tight fiscal constraints, but that it will take more than Walker’s reforms to “correct the ills” of a state funding formula that penalizes Germantown taxpayers for living in a manufacturing-heavy community.

Smith was tracked down by a fair-goer who was relaxing by the GOP tent and disgusted by what she saw.

Roxane Stillman followed Smith about the fairgrounds calling for a police officer. A Jefferson County deputy finally arrived and interviewed Smith, who appeared “to have glassy and bloodshot eyes and slurred speech,” according to the report. The document states Smith tested .06 in a preliminary breath test, below the legal limit of intoxication.

At that time, Smith told the deputy she was a kindergarten teacher from Germantown, the report states.

“I advised her again that I believe she was being untruthful and asked her how she would feel if one of her students lied to her,” the deputy wrote in the report. “At this time, she confessed to damaging and ripping out the signs. She stated … that she’s just so angry with Scott Walker due to the fact that she was a school teacher.”

Smith is scheduled to appear at 11 a.m., Oct. 31 in Jefferson County Court on a disorderly conduct charge. Stillman has been subpoenaed to testify, sources tell Wisconsin Reporter.

Smith could not be reached for comment.