West Memphis School Board fires superintendent

4-3 vote ousts Atwill, no reason given for dismissal at meeting

By Ralph Hardin

ralphhardin@gmail.com

The West Memphis school community is up in arms after the West Memphis School Board voted to terminate contract of school superintendent Richard Atwill Tuesday night at the board’s regular monthly meeting.

No cause for the termination was offered. The board voted 4-3 in favor of the firing, with board president Joann Faulkner and board members Joyce Gray, Anthony Hampton and Basil Joiner all joining in, while members Emily Scarbrough, Billy Thomen and Kimberly Wolfe voted to keep Atwill on the job.

Atwill had not yey completed the first full year of his contract. The board said it would pay him the full amount of his contract, more than $350,000, while installing and paying an interim superintendent.

At the same meeting Atwill was dismissed, the board appointed Willia Rhodes, a former assistant superintendent for the Memphis-Shelby County School District, to the interim role, despite not having mentioned Rhodes or even the possibility of replacing Atwill at any public forum prior to Tuesday night’s meeting.

As news of Atwill’s firing began to circulate within the community, questions were raised and teachers, parents and others in the community were quick to chime in supporting the ousted superintendent and expressing dismay at the board’s decision.

“The West Memphis School board just fired this year’s Superintendent tonight,” said Lisa Bodnar.

“From what I can gather, no reason has been given. I know he was very supportive to our teachers and extremely helpful in getting West Junior High open and ready on day one, which was no easy task. Here’s my issue with this: I think us parents need to ask ourselves these questions.

One, we have a newly elected school board — who exactly are they and what is their agenda? They hired this man and now fired him before the end of his contract therefore they will be paying him thousands of dollars, along with a new salary when they get around to hiring a new Superintendent. Was this really in our district’s best interest? Where is this money going to come from? Is this the best place to be spending money? Are they going to cut any programs to pay for this? Who knows, but I think we have a right to know. Two, where is the school board’s support for our school principals and teachers and all other school staff that are in the schools and classrooms each and every day with our children? Have they considered that these people are the most important people our kids have at school? These people need a Superintendent and Vice Superintendent and a fully staffed school district office to support them so they can teach our kids! Three, what can us as parents do to participate more in the decisions of our school board?

Is there anything we can do?”

Bodnar looked to the community for better awareness of what the school board does and who they are.

“Not many actually vote for the school board,” she said. “We don’t really understand it or who runs or what they stand for.

There is an election in May for one seat on the school board. Let’s spread the word to every parent who has kids in our district to start looking at our school board more closely and get out and vote.”

That lone race is between Joyce Gray and challenger Angela Eason for the Zone One school district seat Gray won last year.

See BOARD, page A3 BOARD

From page A1

Zone One is primarily the southeast quadrant of the city of West Memphis, including East Broadway and streets to the south, bordered by roughly Cornell Avenue to the west. “Just to clear up any confusion,” said school teacher Cana Able, “school board voting will take place on Tuesday, May 9, at the L.R. Jackson Girls Club, 405 S.

25th St.. Early voting starts May 2. If you are unsure where Zone 1 is in West Memphis see the map below. If you live in that area or know anyone in that area, please encourage them to vote on May 9.

Any parents or community members who would like to stand at the polls with signs, please feel free to do so but be sure to stay 100 feet away from the doors.

If you need a ride to vote, message me and I will make it happen.“ Hopes by many are that Eason will unseat Gray and swing the vote back in favor of the faction that did not support Atwill’s firing.

Gray and her bloc of votes have proven contentious over the past several months over other hirings and policies, such as turning down the recommendation to hire longtime dean of students and assistant principal Jimmy Sloan as the new Academies of West Memphis principal after principal Gary Jackson left at the end of the fall semester. As with Atwill, no reason for the denial was given and the application period was extended.

The board also passed a new year-round school calendar in another 4-3 vote earlier this year despite low support from the community for the move, pushing ahead with plans to enact the new calendar for the next school year.

The board’s decision to require clear backpacks as a safety measure was also not well received.

As for Atwill, there was a great deal of support for him and his tenure.

“I have been consistently employed for over 25 years,” said Brandy Sudbury. “The beginning of this school year was the most stressed I have been at a job. School was starting and we didn’t have a school. We found out after 5 p.m. on Friday that we could move into our new building over the weekend and be prepared to start school Monday. Our classrooms had 30 student desks and chairs, a table, teacher desk/chair and a podium.

That was it! We came together and got that school ready in two days. On Saturday of that weekend I had another teacher pull me because there was a man in the dumpster, turns out wood had accidentally been thrown in there and they wouldn’t take the over flowing dumpster until the wood was out. He was dressed nice and digging through a dumpster. We thought it was the maintenance supervisor. Later that same day, teachers are bossing this man around, asking for help, needing things fixed/moved, his sleeves were literally rolled up and he was working side by side, at the end of the day we discovered he was our new superintendent. He took the maintenance complaints, work orders, directions from teachers, and worked side by side with us. We were all shocked and impressed.

A few weeks later he was at our staff meeting asking about the building, the concerns and issues that any new location would have.

Bookshelves, I teach English Language Arts and have a classroom library and no bookshelves. Within a few weeks they were ordered. I remember being proud of WMSD and excited for things to come. I have no idea who this new guy is, I pray he is amazing. But I am utterly confused at what happened tonight. And why?”

One group of parents is launching an attempt to force a recall vote for the school board and remove them from office.

A petition on change.org was launched Wednesday morning and by Thursday morning had accrued more than 850 signatures.

Though not binding, the polls shows the leve of discontent in the community.

An actual recall would require a petition with voters’ signatures to be submitted to the county clerk.