Principal ditched last job
By TOM MUSICK -
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SPRING GROVE – Daniel Markofski abruptly stopped showing up to his last job as an elementary school principal less than two months after he started in August 2005, officials said Wednesday.
Craig Bender, the superintendent of the Sauk Prairie School District in Sauk City, Wis., said Markofski just disappeared. “We couldn’t track him down.”
Patricia Anderson, president of the Board of Education for Nippersink School District 2, said the search committee was aware of Markofski’s situation at his last job.
She said the search committee gave his “personal issues” due consideration before they hired him. They ran a criminal background check on Markofski, which came up clean.
Markofski was not given a drug screening. It’s not required of principals. But school board members said Wednesday that they would consider changing that policy.
School officials said Wednesday that Markofski, 47, of Richmond, would not return to his job as a first-year principal at Spring Grove Elementary School after his weekend arrest in a Wisconsin motel room.
Police said they found Markofski smoking marijuana and watching pornography in the room with two underage girls who were partially nude.
Markofski remained in a Milwaukee County jail Wednesday afternoon on $5,000 bond, which must be paid in full in Wisconsin. He was charged with having sex with a child age 16 and two counts of exposing a child to harmful materials.
At a special board meeting Wednesday night, the school board suspended Markofski without pay and said they would hold a public hearing Tuesday to consider his dismissal. And if Markofski makes bail, they said they would have him arrested if he steps foot on school district property. The school district also said it would notify parents via its Web site when Markofski is released from custody.
Bender said he did not recall any District 2 officials ever calling him for a reference check regarding Markofski, who resigned in mid-October 2005. He was the principal at Black Hawk and Tower Rock elementary schools, which have about 100 students each in rural towns about 25 miles northwest of Madison.
Markofski told Bender that he was going through a divorce and struggling with personal issues when the superintendent contacted him shortly after he stopped showing up to work.
“He just said he was having personal family problems and emotional problems, and he just didn’t feel he could fulfill his duties to the school district, and he would like to resign,” Bender said. “There were never any problems with students or staff that I was aware of.”
Markofski’s divorce was finalized in January 2006, according to Vilas County, Wis., court records. Court documents showed that his wife, Gail, was a teacher, and the couple had three grown children.
In the documents, Markofski listed his occupation status as unemployed.
Bender said he believed that Markofski was substitute teaching in northern Wisconsin after he resigned from Sauk Prairie. He was not aware that Markofski since had been hired as a principal in Spring Grove.
“What little contact I had with him was saying, ‘Look, are you getting some help?’ ” Bender said. “He told me he was working with a clergy person.”
Before Sauk Prairie, Markofski worked from 1997 to 2005 at Arbor Vitae-Woodruff Elementary School in Woodruff, Wis., said Patrick Gasper, the communications officer for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Markofski started as a teacher at the school before becoming an assistant principal, Gasper said.
In March 2007, Nippersink District 2’s school board voted unanimously to hire Markofski, whom they said had been a vice principal at a one-school elementary district in Wisconsin.
Arbor Vitae-Woodruff is a one-school district, while Sauk Prairie School District includes seven schools with students ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade.
At the time, Anderson said, officials were impressed by Markofski’s upbeat attitude and problem-solving skills. Markofski’s District 2 salary was set at $83,500 plus benefits. He replaced John Druszczak, who retired after 14 years as principal.
Markofski also taught from 1995 to 1997 at North Lakeland Elementary School in Boulder Junction, Wis., Gasper said.
Gasper said the department had received no prior complaints against Markofski. State officials flagged his teaching certificate this week after learning of his arrest.
“He was here long before I got here,” said Richard Vought, Boulder Junction’s superintendent. “I’ve looked at his file. There’s nothing negative.”
Bender said he was stunned to hear about the allegations against Markofski.
“I’m shocked,” he said. “He never presented that kind of an image here at all. I was never aware of any problems with students or staff. I do know that he was struggling emotionally with things.”
“They all loved him,” said Kim Schmidt, the parent of child at Spring Grove. “The kids felt as if they’ve been tricked, let down, deceived. He abandoned them.”
Police said Markofski picked up a 16-year-old girl and her 15-year-old cousin after school Friday and took them to the beach and McDonald’s before dropping them off at a baby-sitting job. He picked up the girls again about 9 p.m. Friday and supplied them with alcohol, marijuana and pornography in addition to performing a sex act on the 16-year-old girl, police said.
If convicted, Markofski could be sentenced to more than seven years in prison.
What’s next
The school board met Wednesday night and set a public hearing for Tuesday to consider dismissing Daniel Markofski. The Spring Grove Elementary School principal will be suspended without pay until a decision is reached, and officials said they would have him arrested if he returned to school district property.
• Northwest Herald reporters David Fitzgerald and Tim Kane contributed to this report.
