Divorce, whether it occurs in one’s family or a school district, is always emotional, painful and leaves friends and acquaintances confused and concerned.
So it is with the divorce between the Indianapolis Board of School Commissioners and Superintendent Dr. Eugene White.
The reason for the divorce was simple. Dr. White no longer enjoyed the confidence and support of a majority of his board. When that happens in a school system, the position of the board’s sole employee, the superintendent, becomes untenable.
The seeds of this divorce occurred back in the summer when two of White’s strongest board supporters – Dr. Mary Busch and Marianna Zaphirou – said they wouldn’t run for re-election. Those two, along with incumbent board members Michael Brown and Elizabeth Gore formed a solid four-to-three majority for White’s initiatives.
Zaphirou’s leaving gave IPS reformers a clear shot at obtaining a majority. They found a strong candidate in Caitlin Hannon who, backed by $67,438 in contributions, sailed to an easy victory.
Gore decided to run for Dr. Busch’s seat and confronted another reformer, Gayle Cosby, who was backed with $78,326 in contributions, and easily won.
That created a solid five vote IPS board majority against Dr. White.
I’ve heard from folks upset that “big money” candidates won and precipitated White’s leaving.
But other than Gore, if Eugene White was the strong, excellent superintendent many in our community deeply believe he was, why didn’t strong pro-Eugene White board candidates step to the plate and run?
Why didn’t White’s supporters flood Gore’s campaign with contributions, the way ordinary folks did for President Barack Obama? Why didn’t they use social media and door-to-door campaigning the way Glenda Ritz did in her upset of Dr. Tony Bennett and his millions in the state superintendent’s race?
If the IPS divorce hadn’t occurred last week, IPS and our community would have faced constant battles and votes of 5-to-2 or 6-to-1 against White’s proposals and initiatives. The turmoil that would’ve occurred would have been harmful to IPS, its students, parents, taxpayers and employees.
So sometimes couples facing divorce reach an amicable settlement to spare children and family extended pain. That’s what happened to IPS.
I’m amused by the faux outrage among some local media, like Indianapolis Star columnist Matthew Tully, who criticized the board’s buyout of White’s contract. But Tully and those irked at the $800,000 settlement miss some facts.
While Indiana is an “at will” state, valid employment contracts must be honored. Unless White broke a provision of his contract, the board couldn’t fire him and not pay him what was owed. If the board tried to fire White unjustly or illegally, we’d have seen a big legal battle more expensive than the settlement.
Also Matt, when a couple divorces isn’t there usually a property settlement?
With White leaving April 5, the focus now is on the IPS board. Only Michael Brown has ever been involved in a superintendent search. The other six board members are rookies in a process complex at best and fraught with landmines at worst.
The IPS board must first search for an interim superintendent to replace White . Trying to find an individual with experience running a complex organization like IPS for a few months is going to be a Herculean task.
While they do that, the IPS board must begin a formal search process for White’s replacement. Sadly, I don’t get a sense that the new majority even agrees on what type of individual should succeed White.
Add to that fears among many in our community that the board will pick someone without education experience, a business leader perhaps.
While someone with experience running a business of $400-plus million with thousands of employees could run IPS; without an understanding of the complexities of running a school system in a geography where 50.1 percent of all children live in poverty and 27.7 percent of all households are single parents, the IPS board would be setting themselves up for disaster picking a businessperson with an insensitive ear and a callous countenance.
While Eugene White had great qualities, his biggest failing was a lack of understanding that in today’s society, openness, transparency and inclusion are critical hallmarks of successful institutional leadership in the 21st century.
Unfortunately, as they begin their search process, the newbies on the IPS School Board are starting to emulate the negative qualities of the superintendent they just cashiered.
The board must quickly tell the IPS community where they’re going with the school district and why. If they don’t, then they’ll have committed the same sins they disliked in Dr. White!
What I’m hearing
in the streets
Mayor Greg Ballard’s office, along with Roche Diagnostics, sponsored a robotics competition among the city/county’s high schools where students could create robots that moved, did things, maybe talk.
The mayor himself was geeked about the project; visiting every local TV station and the white-majority radio stations to hype it.
But the mayor’s PR mavens refused to have the mayor talk about this positive youth project on the two radio stations (Hot 96.3 FM, and Radio Now 100.9 FM) that reach 64 percent and 31 percent respectively of Indy’s Black youth. Stations that are Black-owned.
The numbers of African-Americans studying science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) remain low, the mayor could’ve helped inspire some of them. But the mayor’s PR folks continued bigotry against Black-owned media blew a great opportunity to highlight STEM opportunities to African-American youth.
See ‘ya next week.
Email comments to acbrown@aol.com
