The Escambia County School Board will hold a special meeting at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, May 30 to determine what to do after it terminated Superintendent Tim Smith’s contract last week. Note: The original post had the date as May 22.
Why this matters: In the termination motion, Paul Fetsko, Kevin Adams and David Williams named Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Keith Leonard as interim superintendent, skipping over Deputy Superintendent Shenna Payne.
Payne would have been the first female and first Black school superintendent for the Escambia County School District.
Buzz: Former School Superintendent Malcolm Thomas has been pushing behind the scenes for months for this coup. undermining Tim Smith. Shades of George Touart regarding County Administrator Randy Oliver a decade ago.
What’s next: The special meeting will take place at the J.E. Hall Center, 30 Texar Drive.
Dig Deeper:
Grover Robinson has some ideas:
Has there been Sunshine Laws violations as suggested by Board member Slayton and, or Ethics Violations? Are Ethics even considered in a coup? The tail wags the dog…
Just FYI, state law is silent on who becomes the Acting Superintendent if the Superintendent is fired, quits, dies, etc. The board’s Policy Manual specifically provides that if the Superintendent becomes “incapacitated” the Deputy Superintendent becomes the Acting Superintendent. In the absence of any other guidance, I think the Policy Manual should be read to infer that the Deputy Superintendent becomes the Acting Superintendent if a vacancy is created in the office of the Superintendent appointed or elected. This may be an areas where the Florida Legislature needs to expand Section 1001.463 Vacancy in Office of District School Superintendent, Florida Statutes to expressly state that if a vacancy is created the Deputy Superintendent becomes the Deputy Superintendent. In this case, that might have been a “poison pill” Chairman Fetsko could not have swallowed and may have preempted the hanky-panky we saw on May 16th.