Another Damning Decision Against Elmbrook Board Leadership
Details in the court judgement highlight the significance of Scott Wheeler and Jean Lambert’s unlawful behavior which led to Mushir Hassan’s erroneous appointment.
As published by the Freeman on 2/6/25, the Elmbrook Board President, Scott Wheeler, and Vice President, Jean Lambert were found guilty of violating open records law.
The court decision admonishes Scott Wheeler and Jean Lambert, stating that their arguments “omit key language” are “grasping-at-straws” and they “violated the law.” It points out the serious nature of the appointment as it affects “who would be in a position of power to significantly impact district policy and finances.”
As Board leadership, both Scott Wheeler and Jean Lambert withheld information from the public and other board members during the meeting “as to how individual members were influencing the selection process on a matter of significant public concern.”
The court points out that if “the public and other board members would have been aware of each member’s candidate preferences contemporaneously” Mushir Hassan would not have been moved forward as the sole candidate for the appointment.
It also points out that Mushir Hassan was both Scott Wheeler and Jean Lambert’s preferred candidate and that “no one was in a position - at the time when it mattered […] to monitor the process.”
The court points out that “it is the very cloak of secrecy that the open meetings law is designed to prevent that allowed Wheeler to affirmatively misrepresent to the public and other board members […] which misrepresentation resulted in the appointment of a particular candidate - Wheeler’s preferred candidate […]”
The court points out that “two of the four applicants for the position were completely eliminated from consideration based upon these email preferences, yet no one attending/watching the meeting knew how any particular member used his or her elected government position and authority to affect that outcome […]”
The court was even shocked that Scott Wheeler and Jean Lambert spoke of transparency, saying “stunningly, Wheeler and Lambert claim the process to ultimately select their personally preferred choice of Hassan was ‘entirely transparent.’ Had the process truly been so, it would have been readily apparent to all members of the board and the public in real time that Hassan never received the four votes necessary […]”
Prior Legal Settlement for Open Records Failure
This is not the only time Elmbrook has run afoul of open records law with this appointment. As previously reported, in early 2022 the district settled a lawsuit for being non-compliant in providing information to the public about applicants for the vacant seat.
Mushir Hassan’s Impacts as a Board Member
COVID Response
Mushir Hassan went on to select members of the Medical Advisory Board and their recommendation of the COVID vaccine for students and staff included hosting a vaccine clinic for students as young as 5. The COVID vaccine provider, Hayat Pharmacy, subsequently paid $2 Million to settle a medicare/medicaid fraud lawsuit.
In May 2021, Elmbrook provided Hayat Pharmacy with an Excellence in a Community Partnership award and in November 2021, Elmbrook honored Hayat Pharmacy again with a Wisconsin Association of School Boards 2021 Business Honor Roll award. Bushra Zaibak, who owns Hayat Pharmacy, has been a Director on the Elmbrook Education Foundation since 2019.
During his time on the board, Mushir Hassan was given an “Excellence in Volunteering” award from the Elmbrook Education Foundation. At the time the picture below was taken, Elmbrook students were required to wear masks, yet the Medical Advisory Board members celebrated their award without masks.
The same year as his award, Mushir Hassan’s daughter also received a scholarship from the Elmbrook Education Foundation.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Mushir also was a strong supporter of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which Elmbrook implemented via their work with ICS for Equity from 2012 to 2021.
On 5/28/21, Chris Thompson, Chief Strategy Officer for Elmbrook, told the Journal Sentinel via email, "We do not teach Critical Race Theory to our students nor train our staff on its tenets."
Yet, a detailed review of ICS and Critical Race Theory clearly states that ICS applies CRT to education.
Additionally, Elmbrook’s board heard in the May 2021 Listening Session that CRT was referenced on 11/23/20 in Elmbrook’s DEI Workgroup notes (which are no longer publicly available) and the community found repeated examples of CRT in the schools and board documents, often labeled as "equity."
The Importance of Local Elections
The erroneous appointment and unlawful actions by Elmbrook’s board leadership, as well as the subsequent decisions that followed, are a real world example of why local elections can have significant impacts to a community.
Update: Thank you to the Journal Sentinel for covering this story.
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