GENEVA – Geneva District 304 officials found no evidence to support a former custodian’s grievance against Director of Facility Operations Scott Ney, according to a letter of findings from Superintendent Kent Mutlcher.

Tom Kenney, who had worked as a dayshift custodian and warehouse manager under Ney, said he retired Aug. 11, 2020 because of the way Ney treated him.

More than 90 employees who worked under Ney since 2012 resigned or retired, several of them saying they and others left because of the harassing way he treated them and other employees under his leadership.

The 11-page letter was a response to six specific grievances Kenney filed March 22, alleging that Ney “created a toxic work environment by bullying, harassing, intimidating and/or embarrassing you, while you were employed by the district from July 2007 through August of 2020.”

Mutchler wrote in conclusion that based on the preponderance of the evidence “gathered in this investigation does not support any of your allegations.”

“Although you and the Director of Facility Operations may not have had a perfect working relationship, I find no evidence of a toxic work environment or bullying, harassing, intimidating or embarrassing you, as you have claimed,” Mutchler wrote.

The allegations included Kenney being wrongly accused of stealing a coach’s jacket, being assigned 40 work orders after he complained, having his productivity and having his quality of work evaluation reduced to “does not meet expectations.”

The findings included that Ney never accused Kenney of taking the jacket, but that he just questioned him about it.

Findings also included that Kenney was assigned more work orders than usual on four dates, ranging from 16 to 42, but no evidence that Ney assigned 40 as alleged.

As to the reduction in his work evaluation, Kenney alleged that Ney told the building services coordinator that she did not have a choice but to downgrade his evaluation.

But the building services coordinator told the complaint managers that when Kenney did not want to complete a task, “she would sometimes have to ask you eight (or) nine times to complete a task,” that he procrastinated on activities he did not prefer and sometimes never completed work orders.

Kenney said he stands by his grievance.

“Every item in my grievance is true,” Kenney said.

Kenney filed an appeal of Mutchler’s letter to the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Adam Law, who forwarded it to the school board.

The school board can “affirm, reverse, or amend Dr. Mutchler’s decision or direct him to gather additional information,” Law wrote in an email response to Kenney’s appeal.

The grievance that Kenney filed is not related to the Batavia law firm the district hired to probe allegations against Ney for workplace harassment.

In May, the school board approved a legal services agreement with Drendel and Jansons Law Group at a total cost of $19,000 to $23,750.

The law group is investigating allegations of a negative work environment as reported by the Kane County Chronicle.