Hanover School District 28’s superintendent will step down after three months on the job amid allegations the district has been derelict in its tax filings. His tenure will end just before Thanksgiving break, according to an email sent to the D-28 community over the weekend.

Paul Calvert submitted his resignation on Thursday, which the five-person school board unanimously accepted at a special meeting Monday. In his email, Calvert stated he has “taken another position outside of education that will allow (him) to pursue some things that (he has) always wanted to do.”

His departure comes one month after district employees swarmed a board meeting’s public comment section to express ongoing concerns that the district was mishandling their taxes. Those concerns precede Calvert’s time with the district.

The employees alleged they had not received tax refunds and were facing fines by the Internal Revenue Service, for which they had filed dozens of grievances with D-28. The district did not submit employees’ W-2 forms to the federal agency for nearly every year since 2018, they said, and some were “red flagged” for tax fraud.

Calvert subsequently promised at a special board meeting on Sept. 27 that he was working with an outside auditor to examine district funds and ensure all outstanding IRS documents would be completed by the end of the week. The board will provide ongoing reports until the audit is complete.

“There will be additional investigations taking place as needed, and actual dollar amounts that are still owed will be paid,” Calvert said at the Sept. 27 meeting. “Hopefully there should be no more issues going forward at this time.”

Calvert and the board signed a contract of employment in April that committed Calvert to a two-year stint running from July 2023 through June 2025 with a gross annual salary of $112,000. The two parties mutually agreed to terminate that contract on Monday.

In response, a group of employees impacted by D-28’s tax reporting issued a press release Monday evening stating they are “petitioning the Colorado Department of Education to intervene” on their and the community’s behalf while they lack a district leader.

“Our district’s problems include improper tax wage reporting, lack of financial transparency, transportation challenges, an absence of leadership from the superintendent role and the board, and no accountability, discipline, or repercussions for those at fault,” the release states. “The circumstances we find ourselves in have negatively impacted our students’ education, the district, and the community.”

With Calvert’s departure, the board is now grappling with how best to proceed in filling the vacancy.

“It is painful. We went through the process, it took us several months to do it, and we had a superintendent for three months,” board Vice President TJ Lippert said.

Board members proposed a combination of five possible options that ranged from starting an immediate superintendent search to waiting for the “optimal superintendent hiring season.”

The board also suggested hiring the Colorado Association of School Boards to conduct a national search on their behalf. Depending on the approach and how quickly candidates apply, Underwood said they could have somebody in place by the week of Thanksgiving.

Board President Randy Underwood said the board will revisit the timeline discussion during a Thursday work session, when he will have official pricing from CASB on how much it would cost the district to involve the nonprofit organization in its search. At that time, board members will consider which search process will be the best fit.