BURLINGTON — Citing a culture of antagonism, all three members of the Burlington School District’s interim leadership team announced their resignations on Friday. They said continued disrespect by school board members makes it impossible to accomplish their goals.
“We have made this decision because the political climate and turmoil exhibited by this Board make it impossible for us to undertake genuine efforts to rebuild and restore the district,” they said in a letter to School Board Chair Patrick Halladay.
Interim superintendent Stephanie Phillips, assistant superintendent Paul Irish and chief administrative officer Nikki Fuller signed the letter jointly.
“We are not quitting on this District,” they said in a simultaneous statement to the district’s principals and staff. The three will retain their current positions as senior directors of curriculum, infrastructure and technology, and human resources and equity affairs. They will stay in their leadership roles until Nov. 10.
The school board has called a special meeting Sunday evening at 6:30 p.m., at the district’s administrative office building at 150 Colchester Ave.
Phillips, Irish and Fuller had taken on the leadership roles in the summer, after then-superintendent Jeanne Collins agreed to resign when a $2.5 million budget deficit was uncovered.
At a hastily arranged press conference at Edmunds Elementary School Friday afternoon, Halladay cited the behavior of individual board members as having tainted the relationship between the board and interim leaders. He did not name the individuals.
Halladay and school board clerk Liz Curry were the only two board members in attendance at the press conference. They said they were responding to the resignation only in their individual capacities, because the board had not had time to craft an official statement.
Halladay said the board had been working to make the interim team’s tenure permanent. He pledged to fill the leadership positions before Nov. 10.
In their joint resignation letter, Phillips, Irish and Fuller called out Halladay’s leadership. The team had made several requests to Halladay to support stated goals, but to date had seen “no improvement.”
State Education Secretary Rebecca Holcombe responded to the news by saying her office is monitoring the situation to ensure appropriate processes are in place.
“The Burlington School District Board needs to put aside any individual agendas, and put the focus back on kids and putting in place the people and processes that will enable the schools and students to thrive,” Holcombe said.
Mayor Miro Weinberger said in a statement Friday afternoon that the breakdown in leadership is “unacceptable.”
“Within my authority as Mayor, I can offer no easy answers – the School Board is independently elected and selects our superintendent,” Weinberger said. He said his offer last spring to assist with the leadership transition was declined.
“We are part of a shared community, and the City is here to provide any reasonable assistance it can to the Board in accomplishing the immediate tasks before it: recruiting and appointing an interim superintendent and selecting the next superintendent,” Weinberger said.
