School Board postpones decision on interim Superintendent to November 4

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At their October 21 Special Meeting, the School Board of Alachua County voted unanimously to postpone their decision on an interim Superintendent to a November 4 Special Meeting. The October 21 meeting was scheduled last Tuesday after the board suddenly terminated Superintendent Shane Andrew.

After public comment, Member Sarah Rockwell said she did not want to move forward with appointing an interim Superintendent because Deputy Superintendent Cathy Atria “is fully capable of serving as Acting Superintendent.” She suggested choosing someone from a Florida School Board Association list of retired Superintendents to “keep things steady while we conduct a search… If we’re going to do a search, we need to do that search without any appearance of bias toward an internal candidate.”

Member Tina Certain agreed and said she preferred waiting until Member-Elect Thomas Vu’s first meeting on November 19, with Atria as Acting Superintendent between Superintendent Shane Andrew’s last day on November 15 and Vu’s first meeting.

Member Leanetta McNealy said she did her best to bring in two names as requested, but everyone turned her down. She said they need Atria to stay in her current position and added, “I truly believe, as we embark on the national search – unless we do some things differently, it is going to be the same way as people saying no for the interim, they would say no for the permanent.”

Member Kay Abbitt said it didn’t make sense to her to bring in someone from outside the district while doing a search and suggested appointing Kim Neal, the current Director of FTE and State Reporting, to the position. 

McGraw: “Mr. Andrew decided he no longer wanted to serve in that capacity.”

Chair Diyonne McGraw said the last time she met with Andrew, “he indicated his professional career is what he’s concerned about, and that’s the concern that everybody else had that I called to ask if they wanted to come in and be Superintendent. Until we learn to treat people with respect and learn to sit down with one another and be kind to one another, whether you agree or not – that is why you have seven to eight Superintendents… Because of our behaviors as board members and other people in this community, that is why Mr. Andrew decided he no longer wanted to serve in that capacity.”

McGraw said two people told her they would be willing to serve in an interim position: former Transportation Director Dontarrius Rowls and former Executive Director of Secondary Curriculum Wanza Wakely. 

Abbitt said she didn’t want someone who would just be a “placeholder” and preferred someone who would “get in there and do something differently than what’s been done in the past years.”

Rockwell: “Even the appearance that board members may have terminated him in order to allow him to take a 20-week severance… is exceptionally concerning”

Rockwell said that if Andrew does not want to do the job anymore, he can resign and give 90 days’ notice: “It is extremely concerning to me – even the appearance that board members may have terminated him in order to allow him to take a 20-week severance rather than him resigning, even the appearance that might have happened is exceptionally concerning.”

McGraw: “I have the right to meet with the Superintendent, and I have the right to vote how I want to vote.”

McGraw retorted, “I am not going to sit here and allow people to act like you’re going to attack my character, which is done on a regular basis, with insinuating – I have the right to meet with the Superintendent, and I have the right to vote how I want to vote.”

McNealy said they went through the resignation of Superintendent Owen Roberts in 2016, and “that is not what we should be asking for.”

First motion

Certain made a motion to table the discussion until Vu is sworn in, and Rockwell seconded the motion. The motion failed, 2-3, with only Certain and Rockwell voting in favor of the motion.

McGraw asked Board Attorney David Delaney whether Atria could serve until a Superintendent is hired (whether interim or permanent), and he said that by statute, she can legally fulfill the duties of the Superintendent until another person is installed to act as Superintendent. He said the board could also hire someone on a short-term contract to be Superintendent until the search is complete.

McGraw said it was her understanding that Atria “did not want to be in that role.” Staff Attorney  Will Spillias suggested a 10-minute recess, and McGraw agreed.

When they returned, Certain said she thought the board should see resumes for any candidates for an interim position and the new board should make that decision, with Atria serving as Acting Superintendent between November 15 and their decision.

Certain: “I think we should table this… until the new board comes and we sit down”

Certain added that she believes a Superintendent needs “a special skill set,… and I think tonight, the name that was thrown out, I can’t support that person, because I don’t feel that she has the skill set to be able to do the work – that’s just my opinion, now. So I think that we should table this and let the Deputy work in the Acting position until the new board comes and we sit down.”

Rockwell: “But we voted, and that was not the vote”

Rockwell said she agreed, “but we voted, and that was not the vote.” Of the three names that were mentioned, she said she was concerned that Wakely could “jeopardize” her retirement, and Spillias said Wakely could not return to work for the district for some specific period of time after retiring, but he wasn’t sure what date that would be. Rockwell also said Neal’s job in state FTE reporting “is absolutely critical. If that is not done correctly, we lose money, and it’s not just state money. It can be federal money, like our Title I funds, our ESE funds. So that makes me very nervous.”

McGraw said Rowls was willing to come back from Texas and that he may want to apply for the Superintendent job; she also mentioned Scott Snyder from Jacksonville as a possibility. She suggested having another Special Meeting on November 1 to give candidates the opportunity to decide whether they wanted to serve in the interim role and allow school board members to look at their resumes. 

Second motion

Rockwell made a motion to table the discussion to a Special Meeting in November, and Abbitt seconded the motion. After some discussion, the meeting was set for 6:30 p.m. on November 4. The motion passed unanimously.