WHITEWATER A 69蹤獲 analysis of Whitewater Unified School District documents shows former Superintendent Caroline Pate-Hefty pushed back on negative evaluations the school board gave her during her time in the district.
Before she left in 2025, Pate-Hefty had been under the gun as board members complained in evaluations they were dissatisfied with her leadership.
Records show Pate-Hefty fired back as early as 2022, accusing a board member of retaliation the same accusation the board leveled against her multiple times in her prior employee reviews.
Caroline Pate-Hefty
Later records also show the board altered and streamlined its superintendent review process after Pate-Hefty left the district.
The 69蹤獲 made an open-records request to the district in March. The WWUSD fulfilled the request July 8, sending The 69蹤獲 165 pages of documents.
The request was for any correspondence between school board members of Pate-Heftys evaluations, and for documents that detail reprimands, internal investigations of Pate-Hefty and any record of actions the school board took to destroy or purge any documents related to Pate-Heftys annual performance reviews, which the district initially said in early 2026 it had none of.
Pate-Hefty was placed on leave in her new job as superintendent in the Manheim Township School District in Lancaster County, Pa., with no explanation. Pate-Hefty resigned from the position in March, just months after she left Whitewater in summer 2025.
The 69蹤獲s review of district documents showed emails over specific evaluations of Pate-Hefty and compilations of those evaluations, with mention of reviews going back to 2021.
In one instance, Pate-Hefty emailed board members Jen Kienbaum and Thayer Coburn in October 2022 asking for their thoughts on how to handle a number of comments in this evaluation that seem to be personal attacks not intended for growth and in some cases are inaccurate.
The district supplied no record of a response by the board.
Pate-Hefty directly quoted and called out current board member Maryann Zimmerman and then-members Larry Kachel and Casey Judd.
Pate-Hefty quoted Judd and Zimmerman back-to-back.
As board members, we know that if you complain to us about other board members the likelihood that you are complaining about us to other board members is pretty high, Pate-Hefty said Judd wrote in correspondence.
She said Zimmerman wrote that Judds comments were worrisome, but saying of Pate-Hefty, overall, she has been clear exactly what her values and morals are. The only lapses I saw was to protect herself, which is human and understandable.
Pate-Hefty called this a huge concern, saying she felt blindsided by Judd.
Maryann commenting back to Casey on this seems highly inappropriate for my evaluation, she wrote.
The records do not verify whether Judd or Zimmerman made the statements Pate-Hefty accused them of. Judd verified he made the comments but didnt know what thats about.
Judd would not comment further, saying it was personnel issue. Judd, an attorney, left the Whitewater Unified School District board in 2023.
In his comments, Kachel wrote that an influx of newcomers created additional resource issues but criticized the rate of students leaving the district, saying high open-enrollment numbers do not reflect well on our district or board.
The new math curriculum implementation is a great stepping point, but time will tell on its success. Our proficiency numbers are poor, and we are falling behind the vast majority of our neighboring districts, Kachel wrote, criticizing student performance under Pate-Hefty.
Pate-Hefty said she was being saddled with unfair blame for student population being in flux during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kachel wrote that Pate-Hefty did a tremendous job on the referendum issue, but he has lost some trust that he would leave to discuss for a closed-session meeting.
If it is included in my evaluation, it should be something he is clear about, not referencing closed session as if it will not be disclosed to me and yet, noting it in my evaluation, Pate-Hefty said.
Board member Miguel Aranda expressed in emails for the evaluation that an unnamed employee reached out to him regarding the fear of retaliation, so he mentioned it might be helpful to consider hiring some kind of HR Manager position.
The documents also showed Pate-Hefty and the board attempted to make amends.
In May 2022, Coburn sent an email with bullet points to Pate-Hefty stating that the school boards overarching conclusion was Pate-Hefty needed to build the district leadership team into a cohesive unit that supported her in her role instead of draining resources and damaging the district.
The board is happy to help with that, whether it means sitting in on DLT (District Leadership Team) meetings, forming an ad hoc advisory committee, or securing a management coach for you to work with, Coburn wrote.
He wrote that the board asked her to limit new initiatives or changes to a manageable number of well-defined goals, give the board plenty of time to consider and weigh in on initiatives or changes, help the board articulate a 3-5 year vision for the district, help the board tie future initiatives into the vision and model and demand constructive communication that reinforces the chain of command at all times.
In October that year, Pate-Hefty updated Coburn and Kienbaum with progress, citing an opening-day speech, creating a section of her monthly report to the school board for initiatives, and working with then-Edgerton Superintendent Dennis Pauli to train on long-term planning.
In September 2025 after Pate-Hefty left for another job, the board amended its superintendent evaluation policy.
The board went away from a weighted scoring system that rated superintendents on a scale from 0-4, with 4 being exemplary and 0 being unsatisfactory,
The board also struck a portion of the old policy that required an evaluation to be completed in December and June. The old policy required a written summary of the December evaluation to be presented to the superintendent in an overarching review in June.
Now, the review comes just once a year. The superintendent still completes a self-evaluation for the board annually, similar to the old policy.
Original records request
In February, Adams MultiMedia received copies of Pate-Heftys evaluations through the 2023-24 school year following another open records request. The request did not yield records of evaluations during the 2024-25 school year. At the time, the district said there were no records responsive to the request for those evaluations.
In the initial records request, all evaluations were anonymous and assigned numbers.
In 2021-22, Pate-Hefty received low scores in leadership and district culture, with one person saying the culture was simply unacceptable and calling for more transparency. That person said there was a sense of fear among long-time respected staff and administrators.
In 2023-24, she was criticized by one board member who wrote Be honest in your dealings.
In the 165 pages The 69蹤獲 received in July, the only emails from 2024-25 were of a framework in which to proceed with evaluating, such as a webinar module file and a sample survey.
Pate-Hefty, a 2002 UW-Whitewater grad, was hired in 2020.