[B]URLINGTON — The Burlington School Board has reversed course and voted Tuesday to approve the transfer of an elementary school principal and offer a two-year contract extension to the interim head of the high school.
The board originally voted not to accept Superintendent Yaw Obeng’s recommendations for the positions, leading community members and one school commissioner to question if racial bias played a role.
In March, the board had rejected Obeng’s recommendation to hire Noel Green as the permanent principal of Burlington High School and transfer principal LaShawn Whitmore-Sells from the Sustainability Academy, an elementary school, to Flynn Elementary School. Green and Whitmore-Sells are African American.
But after further discussion Tuesday night, the board decided to approve Whitmore-Sells’ transfer and reached a compromise of offering Green the two-year interim principal role, instead of the permanent position.
Board Chair Clare Wool said after more reflection, the board decided it could honor Whitmore-Sells’ request for a career move while continuing to prioritize the needs of the Sustainability Academy.
“The concern is always, we represent the entire district, and we take into consideration any faculty or administrator who want to have a career move, but our concern is the greater good of each of the schools and their well-being,” she said. “We wanted to make sure Sustainability is able to be successful and thrive and feel the support of the board and community, and we will do that with the support of the district providing candidates to replace Principal Whitmore-Sells.”
Wool said that Burlington High School has been “in crisis” for three years, and the school has continued to be successful due to the hard work of the faculty and staff despite leadership turnover.
Green became the interim principal during the summer of 2018. He replaced principal Tracy Racicot, who had served one year as interim principal and then one year as the permanent principal before being re-assigned to the Burlington Technical Center last summer.
“This year was an incredibly difficult year for him to surprisingly enter his role,” Wool said.
In September, the district suspended Mario Macias, who was director of guidance at BHS, after the Agency of Education brought licensing charges against him. His license was revoked in February after a hearing and Macias was fired in March.
Wool said a two-year interim position would allow Green to work with teachers and staff to improve the climate and shared governance at the school.
“I believe an interim allows the faculty and staff the opportunity to work with him,” she said. “I think that is very important to the health of this school.”
Wool said the district has lost diverse faculty and staff due to a lack of leadership at BHS and are vulnerable to losing more employees.
“It is my commitment to Principal Green that that doesn’t happen, and I look forward to working with him,” Wool said. “I’m dedicated to building the bridge between the faculty and staff at this school and the principal.”
Obeng said he was pleased the board was willing to reconsider their decisions after receiving input from the public.
“They felt it warranted some reflection, and I was pleased they were professional enough to take the opportunity to reflect on the decisions, and have the opportunity to talk to the candidates and take additional information and then come out the other side with a different recommendation,” he said.
Green and Whitmore-Sells declined to speak to reporters at Tuesday’s meeting.
The board voted unanimously in support of both moves. Commissioner Mike Fisher abstained from voting on the Whitmore-Sells transfer.
Commissioners Eric Gorman and Fisher said they thought Green should have been hired permanently, but voted yes for the interim approval in the spirit of compromise.
Commissioner Liz Curry was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.
Public Comment
About a dozen Queen City residents — many of them people of color — questioned the board’s principal hiring decisions and wider commitment to diversity during the public comment section of Tuesday’s meeting.
Ali Dieng, who works for the school district and is the only person of color on the Burlington City Council, said that his children are at the Sustainability Academy, and that he thought Whitmore-Sells was doing an incredible job there.
“If we have diversity as a goal, the people that we have, the assets we have, we have to keep it,” he said. “We should not let these wonderful people leave our district … I think you have a great and wonderful responsibility in making sure that the right folks we trained for years will stay in this wonderful district.”
Sherwood Smith, a longtime Burlington resident with a child in the district, raised questions about what the district is doing to retain and engage the staff of color it does have, and how the district engages with parents.
“Burlington, unlike the rest of Vermont, is listed as really only 93 percent Caucasian, or Anglo,” he said. “Looking at the board, I don’t see that representation in the board, in terms of the Burlington community.”
Local attorney Robert Appel read statements from Kiah Morris, the former legislator who resigned after being the target of racist harassment, and Tabitha Pohl-Moore, the president of the Rutland area NAACP.
Morris wrote that direct representation is one of the most straightforward ways to create equity in schools.
“The data is clear: when children and youths have teachers, staff and administrators that reflect their own identities, educational outcomes, college acceptance rates and hazing, harassment and bullying rates are all positively affected,” she wrote. “Youth of color look to see reflections of themselves in positions of power, influence and leadership in the communities they reside in.”
Pohl-Moore wrote that the board was rejecting qualified candidates of color, and that Vermont has a problem with race.
“It doesn’t look like hoods and torches or nooses,” she wrote. “It looks like rejected candidates and denial of bias. It looks like rationalizing behavior rather than introspecting about how decisions are made. It looks like going against every possible form of best practice without cause. It looks, quite frankly, just like what you are doing.”
Wool said that the board was accepting of and humbled by the public comment and was in constant communication with Obeng about the district’s efforts to recruit and retain employees from diverse backgrounds.
“We recognize our commitment is to a diverse student population,” Wool said.
Obeng said racism is prevalent in society, and the district is not untouched by it.
“As a learning organization, it’s our responsibility to continue to reflect on our own actions, and to continue to learn and engage ourselves in professional development to help make better decisions,” Obeng said. “I’m hoping the board heard that tonight, and I think they did pause and do some reflection on that, and I’m looking forward to engaging the board in education around implicit bias and issues of equity and inclusion.”
Earlier decisions
In March, the board voted 6-3 against approving Obeng’s recommendation to transfer Whitmore-Sells. Commissioners Stephen Carey, Mark Barlow and Gorman voted for the transfer. Commissioner Martine Gulick abstained.
“I just want to say I am concerned about moving administrators around in the district for climate purposes, and also I am not certain this is the best decision for JJ Flynn elementary school,” Commissioner Monika Ivancic said during that March meeting.
There were 13 applicants for the Flynn position and three finalists, according to Obeng’s memo. He described her as an exemplary employee.
“Ms. Whitmore-Sells’ student-focused approach to school leadership was evident throughout the hiring process, and she demonstrated evidence of culturally relevant pedagogy/equity in her leadership and understanding of the community,” Obeng wrote. “Her understanding of restorative practices in BSD, the uniqueness of Burlington student needs, community demographics, and the District’s curriculum goals allows her to be a contributor at the system leaders team-level immediately.”
At that same meeting in March, the board voted 6-3 to encourage Obeng to offer another year of interim principalship to Green. Obeng had asked the board to hire Green permanently.
The three commissioners who voted against the motion, Curry, Fisher and Gorman said they would have approved hiring Green to the full-time position.
In the BHS search, there were 16 applicants and four finalists, according to the hiring memo Obeng sent the board. However, three of these finalists either took other leadership opportunities or withdrew from the search, leaving Green as the only finalist.
Obeng wrote that Green would provide needed stability to the district, and that his in-depth knowledge of the high school renovation project was another asset. Obeng wrote that Green’s focus on equity demonstrated his commitment to all BHS students.
“Finally, his acknowledgement of climate issues and willingness to take on reculturing a positive and supportive climate within all aspects of the Burlington High School community was extremely encouraging,” Obeng wrote.
Curry said that she was troubled by the board’s decisions, according to the minutes from the March 21 meeting.
“This continues, in my personal experience, the legacy of certain district constituents of holding people of color to a higher standard that sadly can rarely be met,” Curry said, according to the minutes.
Just last year, race became a major point of discussion among the board when then-board chair Mark Porter alleged now-vice chair Jeff Wick had asked him if the district had “gone too far in hiring district leadership of color?” Wick denied making the statement.
The board hired a private investigator, who was unable to determine if Wick had acted with bias.
