Publications & Sites 
Winnetka school settles with fired teacher
Updated: January 14, 2013 4:04PM
WINNETKA — Former Hubbard Woods Elementary School teacher David Wartik and the Winnetka Public Schools District 36 School Board have come to a financial settlement over Wartik’s firing last spring.
According to the agreement, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act Request made by the Winnetka Talk, Wartik will receive a payment of $71,000 from the school district as compensation.
Wartik was fired by the School Board on March 15, 2012. He had requested an appeal of his dismissal in front of an impartial hearing officer selected by both parties and appointed by the Illinois State Board of Education.
Under terms of the agreement Wartik will drop his appeal and the district will not object to Wartik’s petition for or receipt of unemployment benefits. The agreement states Wartik will not seek re-employment with District 36.
The agreement also states it in no way shall be construed as an admission of guilt by any party.
Controversy arose when it was discovered early last year that the Evanston Police Department was investigating Wartik through its Juvenile Bureau over an incident alleged to have taken place in the late 1990s at National-Lewis University’s Laboratory School.
The District 36 School Board placed Wartik on leave and began its own investigation, which the board later claimed Wartik obstructed.
Superintendent Thomas Hagerman said the obstruction had to do with “destruction of evidence” that had been stored digitally.
Wartik was fired in March after a lengthy board meeting. By April, the Evanston Police Department announced their investigation of Wartik had been dropped.
Under terms of the agreement Wartik and the district stated they would “take no action and make no statement, including any press release or statement to the parents, faculty, students or taxpayers of the district that would impinge or disparage the reputation of the other.”
The district would not comment on the matter and a message left for Wartik’s attorney was not returned.
