MESSAGE
| DATE | 2022-12-17 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] turmoil in education
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School Boards With New Conservative Majorities Make Changes, Including
Firing Superintendents
Ben Chapman
8–10 minutes
Some decisions come at panels’ first public meetings and prompt teacher
walkouts, lawsuits
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Conservatives who won school board elections with campaigns vowing to
change what students learn about race, sex and gender—or who opposed
Covid protocols—have acted swiftly since November, replacing
superintendents and overhauling policies at their first public meetings.
Conservative activists and organizations made a concerted effort to win
control of local school boards in many parts of the U.S. during the
midterm elections, citing issues such as declining academic performance,
increased disciplinary problems among students, masking policies and the
teaching of critical race theory and other topics that provoke debate.
The outcome of those efforts in the normally sleepy local races was
mixed. But in Florida, South Carolina and other states where
conservatives won new school board majorities, they are taking immediate
action to shake up school districts as they said they would.
“I think every superintendent has been put on notice,” said Tiffany
Justice, the co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a Florida-based education
nonprofit that has grown to 42 chapters since it was founded last year.
The group advocates for the rights of parents to determine rules for
their children in matters such as Covid precautions and gender identity.
The moves to replace established school superintendents and make other
immediate changes are prompting pushback from some residents, who worry
the new boards are more concerned with politics than education.
“We just elected members from the new Republican Party—that Trump
group—and that’s what they came in and did,” said Justin Cody Willis, a
Republican father of five from Sarasota, Fla. who voted for a slate of
conservative school board candidates who won seats last month but now
has regrets. “It’s a distraction from the real issues.”
Mr. Willis said he thought the candidates would best address falling
test scores and rising behavior problems in his district. But he said
the board lost his support when it pushed out the superintendent.
Conservatives in Sarasota, like others across the country, campaigned on
commitments to make changes. They criticized the district’s leadership
over Covid policies including mask mandates and quarantines, and blamed
leaders for falling reading scores, poor communication with parents and
the board along with issues regarding services for students with
disabilities.
At its first meeting Nov. 22, the new board moved to fire the
superintendent, Brennan Asplen. At a board meeting the following week,
dozens of residents spoke against his departure during the meeting’s
public comment period, which lasted hours. Dr. Asplen, who resigned this
week in a separation agreement with the board, said he thought his
ouster was motivated by “politics and nonsense.”
Bridget Ziegler, a founding member of Moms for Liberty, won the board’s
chair in November. Ms. Ziegler said the board was right to change the
district’s leadership because it was unable to communicate effectively
with Dr. Asplen, whose relationship with the board she said was beyond
repair.
“I don’t particularly love the unrest,” she said. “I’m concerned about
the current relationships, the lack of trust and faith.”
The election of new school board members in Sarasota was part of a
movement that emerged this year, as the nation saw unprecedented funding
and attention lavished on local races to elect school officials, who
typically wield power to determine what and how students learn.
The conservative 1776 Project PAC spent nearly $3 million on education
races since its founding in 2021. Moms for Liberty endorsed 270
candidates in school board races this fall. In 2020, the group made no
endorsements.
Conservatives in November won a new majority of the school board in
suburban Brevard County, Fla., southeast of Orlando, and within weeks
moved to replace that district’s superintendent, Mark Mullins, citing a
rise in disciplinary issues in schools.
Brevard’s new school board chair, Matt Susin, stood in front of the
county jail with the sheriff in a news conference last month and vowed
to overhaul school discipline. At a public board meeting held in the
county this month, residents expressed mixed feelings, with many making
positive statements about the superintendent.
Brevard County School Board member Megan Wright, who was elected in
November with endorsements from Moms for Liberty and Florida Republican
Gov. Ron DeSantis, proposed to review Dr. Mullins’ contract at the new
majority’s first board meeting Nov. 22 and said the community there was
“calling for a strong leader.”
Jennifer Jenkins, the self-described sole liberal on the board, said
Brevard would have trouble finding a superintendent to replace Dr.
Mullins, who has worked in the district as an educator and administrator
for nearly three decades. “I don’t think you’re going to find another
person with that kind of a commitment,” she said.
A newly elected conservative majority of the school board in Berkeley
County, outside Charleston, S.C., at its first meeting, on Nov. 18,
voted to replace the superintendent there, Deon Jackson, and ban the
teaching of critical race theory, which argues that white supremacy is
embedded in American society through laws and institutions.
Berkeley County School Board Chairman Mac McQuillin Nov. 23 issued a
statement explaining the decision to terminate the superintendent,
saying the board “lacked trust and confidence” in Mr. Jackson. Mr.
McQuillin in his statement said under Mr. Jackson’s leadership the
academic performance of the district declined, the district leadership
failed to cooperate with law enforcement in an investigation into the
alleged sexual exploitation of a student and failed to cooperate with
the South Carolina Department of Social Services in investigations of
alleged child abuse and neglect.
Mr. Jackson has filed suit against the Berkeley County School District
and Mr. McQuillin, claiming several current Berkeley board members
conspired to fire him in a breach of contract.
Kathleen Low, a high-school teacher and president of the local teacher’s
union, said many educators in Berkeley were rattled by the board’s swift
decision to change the district’s leadership.
She said the district, which already has dozens of vacant teaching
positions, could now have more difficulty attracting workers amid
nationwide shortages.
In Douglas County, outside Denver, a new, conservative school board
majority, which was elected last year, in February voted to replace the
superintendent, prompting opposition from the board’s more liberal
minority and school walkouts by teachers who opposed the decision.
Members of the school board said they since have come to focus on
operational matters, but navigating controversy, and finding a
replacement superintendent, consumed valuable time and resources. The
district is still facing lawsuits over the move to replace the
superintendent, the school board members said.
Daniel A. Domenech, executive director of the American Association of
School Administrators, said the influence of politics on school boards
over the past year has been damaging.
“It’s one of the reasons we’ve seen so many superintendents leave their
posts in the last couple of years,” he said. “They’ve been fired by the
board, or they’re just totally frustrated by what’s going on, and they
walk away.”
Ms. Ziegler said Sarasota’s new board members are fulfilling their duty
by doing the bidding of the voters who elected them to office, even if
their decisions are controversial.
“Some superintendents may not be responding very well to the new
changeovers, and that’s resulting in bad outcomes,” she said. “So it’s
going to be an interesting moment, but it is certainly a moment of
change.”
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