The Queen City’s high school, which lost its building earlier this year, now no longer has a principal, either.
Burlington High School Principal Noel Green has resigned effective immediately, Superintendent Tom Flanagan said Friday evening.
In a brief, two-paragraph statement, the superintendent’s office said Green had quit via email shortly after 5 p.m. that day.
“The announcement comes as a surprise as Superintendent Flanagan had planned to nominate him for the Principalship at this Tuesday’s board meeting,” the statement said. “We have no further details at this time. The Superintendent wishes to thank Principal Green for his steady leadership of BHS over the past three years and wishes him the best of luck moving forward.”
In an email sent to BHS staff, Green reportedly cited his long-term interim status as a chief reason for resigning, according to Seven Days.
“On numerous occasions, I sought an audience with the board to determine why my situation had been decided as such and was never given the opportunity, which in my opinion was highly disrespectful,” Green wrote. “As such, I determined that I would certainly have to look out for my own interests.”
Green added that “significant external pressure this year to run BHS in a way not consistent with my beliefs in regard to leadership has left me with no choice.”
He did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Neither did Burlington school board chair Clare Wool.
The district has struggled to recruit and retain administrative leaders in recent years. Green was appointed BHS’s interim leader in 2018 after an administrative shakeup. In April 2019, the board extended his contract another two years – though still on an “interim” basis.
At the time, Green had come under fire for publicly supporting a guidance counselor under licensing investigation by the state, and censoring a student newspaper article on the matter. But board members were also accused by progressive community members and civil rights leaders of repeatedly undermining Black administrators in the district, including then-superintendent Yaw Obeng, who had recommended Green be awarded the post permanently.
The news appeared to take many in the district entirely by surprise. Andrew Styles, a teacher at Edmunds Elementary and the president of the teachers union, said Friday evening that he had only just heard the news through social media.
“I’m not really sure what’s going on,” he said.
Before Green’s resignation, BHS students and staff were already navigating unprecedented upheaval. The discovery this fall of PCBs – carcinogenic chemicals – has permanently shuttered the campus, and the school’s roughly 1,000 students have been learning nearly entirely remotely since March. Work is underway to convert the old Macy’s location downtown into a temporary campus.
