The Sunflower County school board is giving former Rosser Elementary Principal Angela Winters another job after she contested her termination.
The board voted unanimously following a July 20 hearing to authorize Superintendent Miskia Davis to execute a one-year employment contract. It’s left up to Davis to determine the position, but the board confirmed it can’t be a downward move.
Davis said Tuesday it hadn’t been determined yet what Winters will be doing but that she planned to meet with Winters Wednesday.
The superintendent had informed the longtime principal, who had led the Moorhead school for 22 years, in February that her contract would not be renewed because of “incompetence, neglect of duties and a decline in school accountability levels,” according to a March 21 letter drafted by Davis and read in part by Board Attorney Carlos Palmer during the hearing.
Rosser fell from a D to an F in the latest state ratings.
The district has hired Geneva Benson as principal for the upcoming year. Benson is the former principal of Ida Greene Lower Elementary in Belzoni, which is also rated an F, whose contract was not renewed in Humphreys County.
The board met for roughly three hours last week to consider Winters’ appeal. Board members listened in open session to opposing arguments from Palmer and Winters’ attorney, Willie Griffin of Greenville, and then deliberated in closed session before emerging to make the announcement.
Griffin constructed his argument around three points. First, he asserted that the board voted to put someone else in Winters’ position before they rendered a final decision on her employment, which he called “a violation of her constitutional rights.”
Winters had requested a hearing and appeared before a hearing officer of the board’s selection, but apparently there was a delay in getting the transcript to the board. But on June 22, the board accepted Davis’ request to hire Benson.
Palmer maintained that Winters did not have a constitutional right to employment within the district because her current contract ended June 30 and no new one was issued and the district has the right to reassign any person.
Griffin’s second point was that Winters wasn’t notified within 30 days of the hearing of the board’s decision as required by law and then alluded to a recent case before the board where another principal’s hearing – Ruleville Central High Principal Cassandra Winters — was cancelled because certain requirements were not met within the required time frame.
“A technicality,” he called it, and asserted that because the board didn’t notify his client within the legally required time constraints, it should grant Winters the same consideration. “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” he said.
He reinforced his argument by stating, “You must act within 30 days of the hearing, or she’s entitled to a contract. The statute is mandatory; the word ‘shall’ is mandatory.”
Palmer said the board couldn’t make an informed decision without the hearing transcript and it was not totally its fault that the transcripts were not available in a timely manner.
Griffin emphasized that the superintendent can’t remove anybody from a position, only the board can. He said the decision the board made in June to accept the superintendent’s recommendation prejudiced the board against Winters. He said it created a predisposition because they’d made up their minds already. Board President Edward Thomas denied that claim.
Griffin’s third point was there was no documentation to substantiate not renewing Winters’ employment. He read from a transcript of a conversation with Davis that revealed no evaluations, written observations or an improvement plan had been issued to Winters since 2015. He revealed that there was only one evaluation done on Winters and that was in the fall of 2015 and her score was 3.17, which according to Griffin is satisfactory.
He chided the board for taking the word of the superintendent to not renew, especially because the superintendent had only been in office for a month and a half. He said the only thing available to judge Winters’ performance was a required portfolio, and Davis allegedly admitted in the transcript that she hadn’t reviewed it because she has until the end of the year to do so by statute.
Palmer contended Rosser’s ratings have declined for the past three years. In 2013-14 and 2014-15 the school received a “D” and in 2015-16 an “F,” plus its overall score declined each year: 382, 326 and 248, respectively.
Palmer said that was sufficient cause and a valid reason, stating that Davis “in good conscience” couldn’t keep Winters over the school and children. He also said the prior superintendent, Debra Dace, had evaluated Winters during the 2015-16 term and that once a year was all that was required.
At one point Board Member Debra Johnson said she felt Griffin was trying to confuse the difference between an observation and an evaluation and that he was accentuating the fact that the portfolio wasn’t reviewed as if that was “the most horrible thing in the whole world.”
“That’s not an uncommon thing for someone to wait until the end of the year,” she said.
Griffin said there was not evidence to support the non-renewal and extolled on Winters’ worth as a principal, teacher and member of the community.
Davis and Board Members Daisy Morgan and Emma Golden were not present at the hearing, although Golden and Davis joined in by telephone.It began as a closed session, but after several minutes Winters and Griffin asked that the proceedings be opened to the public.
Before going into closed deliberation, Thomas assured Winters that the board had nothing personal against her.
“We love her dearly. Nobody questions her love for this district,” he said.
