Superintendent: Kellis was a popular music teacher at Highland

Supt. Clair Garrick talks about Timothy Kellis' time teaching in the Craigmont School District.

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Story Published: May 13, 2008 at 10:10 PM PST

Story Updated: Nov 20, 2008 at 6:48 PM PST

By Matt Loveless

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CRAIGMONT - Craigmont School District officials say a man now facing child sexual abuse charges was a good teacher while working for the district.

38-year-old Timothy A. Kellis plead not guilty Monday afternoon to multiple counts of Lewd Conduct with a Minor Under 16 and Sexual Abuse of a Child. A Latah County grand jury indicted Kellis, who faces trial in September. The charges are related to his time in 2007 working at Camp Grizzly, a Boy Scout camp in northern Latah County.

Kellis' former employer Tuesday said Kellis did a lot of good things for the school's music program.

"There weren't any quality indicators of complaints,” said Clair Garrick, Superintendent for Craigmont and Nezperce School Districts. “Obviously you can't make everybody happy. Maybe they would have rather played this instrument than that instrument, and those kind of little things. But I had no complaints forwarded to me about Mr. Kellis."

Kellis left the school in September of 2006 for a job in Tumwater, Washington where he currently resides. At that time, Garrick says district patrons seemed generally unhappy that he was leaving.

"There were some people that would say, 'Why are we getting rid of this good music program?' And some comments that I heard were that well now music is going to go down the tube so to speak," said Garrick.

Garrick said, with regard to his own personal interactions with Kellis, their only problems or disagreements were regarding funding issues for the music program.

"I think he was pretty much an advocate of his program, and I appreciated that."

Kellis' trial is set for September 15. He is being held in the Latah County Jail on a $100,000 bond.

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