Portland Public Schools has agreed to pay $410,000 to a former employee who claimed she was fired for repeatedly raising red flags over a lack of safety for seventh-graders working with band saws, nail guns and other dangerous equipment.

The Portland school board unanimously approved the settlement Tuesday.

Only $60,000 of that settlement will be covered by the district’s insurance. The other $350,000 will come out of the general fund, district spokeswoman Karen Werstein said.

Marie Tyvoll initially sued the district for $930,000 in June 2018, alleging she was fired for her actions as a whistleblower nearly seven months earlier.

Tyvoll was hired as the career learning coordinator in the Office of School Performance Feb. 1, 2016. She ran a program called the “seventh grade maker experience,” which allowed students to spend three days at off-site career experiences including a woodshop operated by the ReBuilding Center,a local nonprofit.

Tyvoll said in her complaint that she approached Joe Crelier, the school district’s director of risk management, for safety protocols ahead of the 2016-17 school year. Instead, Crelier directed Tyvoll to draft her own guidelines with the help of Brian Barnes, a woodshop teacher at Cleveland High.

Over the next year, Tyvoll said she and Crelier repeatedly saw what they considered lackluster safety precautions at the ReBuilding Center, including students wearing loose clothing around band saws and drill presses, being allowed to put their fingers too close to saw blades and a lack of ReBuilding Center volunteers supervising the children.

Tyvoll’s complaint alleged she and Crelier repeatedly saw similar unsafe behavior and staffing from the summer of 2016 through the fall of 2017. Tyvoll said she and Crelier would even have to intervene when they witnessed unsafe behavior.

Tyvoll recalled on instance where she instructed a student who was being supervised by a ReBuilding Center volunteer and working with a nail gun to place the guitar he was working on upon the table to keep from shooting himself in the foot.

She and Crelier submitted their concerns to various district officials.

Tyvoll claimed Jeanne Yerkovich, the district’s director of career and technical education, and Kehaulani Haupu, then the interim director of the Office for Teaching and Learning, told her to stop documenting those concerns.

Haupu has since become assistant principal at Astor School. Crelier remains in charge of risk management and Yerkovich remains director of career and technical programs.

Yerkovich insisted the district’s risk management department should take over monitoring shop practices, Tyvoll wrote in the complaint. She tried to appeal the directive, elevating it to Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero.

Tyvoll’s appeal was ignored at every step of the way, she said.

On Nov. 14, 2017, she suggested Jackson Middle School Principal Kevin Crotchett, whose students were scheduled for a class at the ReBuilding Center, might wish to choose an alternative job site, given her safety concerns. Crotchett agreed.

Tyvoll then emailed Yerkovich about the arrangement. The next day, Tyvoll said, she was placed on administrative leave for insubordination.

District officials called her claims of unsafe woodshop practices unsubstantiated. She appealed the decision on Dec. 20. And on Dec. 29, Tyvoll was fired.

The district does not have a current contract with the ReBuilding Center. In a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive, Werstein, the district spokeswoman, said Portland Public Schools refutes Tyvoll’s claims.

“Our first and most essential responsibility is to safeguard all of our students. While we are settling this case, we stand by denial of the allegations in the complaint and other court documents,” Werstein said.

Tyvoll’s settlement is among the largest the district has paid out in recent years.

In September, Portland Public Schools settled a wrongful termination suit filed by one-time acting Superintendent Yousef Awwad for $675,000, who was ousted in 2017 after being accused of having an illicit relationship with a subordinate.

And in 2016, the board approved a $250,000 settlement with an employee who claimed longtime coach and athletics administrator Mitch Whitehurst had poked him in the anus while clothed.

--Eder Campuzano | 503-221-4344 | @edercampuzano

Do you have a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email Eder at ecampuzano@oregonian.com or message either of the social accounts above.

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.

Oregon’s education reporters are looking for parents who would like to speak with a journalist about the effects coronavirus is having on families across the state. Would you like to chat with one of us? Fill out this form.