RUSSELL – Art Johnston, the guest speaker during Monday’s Betterment of RTR meeting, appears to have a tumultuous relationship with Duluth Schools. According to the Duluth News Tribune in 2014, Johnston was in his second term as a school board member when an outside investigator determined that four of the six allegations — including assault or improper conduct — were substantiated. After receiving a heavily-redacted version of the report, the News Tribune revealed the investigation found Johnson’s behavior at a graduation ceremony at East High School was intimidating, threatening and abusive toward both Superintendent Bill Gronseth and board chair Mike Miernicki.

The investigation also concluded that Johnston violated multiple instances of personal conflict of interest and board ethics. His partner, Jane Bushey, was a special education paraprofessional in the district and that he used his position of power inappropriately.

Johnston denied all of the allegation. Despite an attempt to remove him from the board, Johnston remained until his position came up for re-election in November 2017, when he lost his school board seat.

In 2018, the Duluth School District was sued by Johnston for not responding to his request for public data. The News Tribune reported that Johnston’s request included more than 26,000 documents, which the district was required to review first. The review took 1,300 staff hours and was expected to cost between $15,000 and $20,000.

Recently, Duluth Schools agreed to pay Johnston $55,000 as part of a settlement in which the district did not admit wrongdoing.

During his Monday presentation, Johnston repeatedly bashed the school district as well as the News Tribune and other news sources.

“I stand up for the small people,” he said. “I’m pretty proud of that.”