ANN ARBOR, MI - A marathon Ann Arbor School Board meeting Wednesday produced extensive, impassioned public commentary and opinions about the job performance of Jeanice Swift, but no decision on the veteran superintendent’s future.
After receiving nearly two hours of public commentary focused on Swift during the more than four-hour meeting Wednesday, Aug. 23, several board members closed out the meeting by either rehashing their previous arguments for removing Swift or arguing the process to remove her has been flawed and should be rescinded.
Heated exchanges between trustees including allegations that the process to remove Swift hasn’t been done transparently resulted in the board calling for multiple recesses. The board ultimately adjourned without taking action on either of two motions it passed toward removing Swift at its previous meeting on Aug. 7, leaving the district in leadership limbo heading into a new academic year that begins in four days.
“I will continue to move my agenda, which is to serve these kids and families that need the support and their voices to be heard,” Board President Rima Mohammad said in response to allegations about the process she followed. “This is not political. This is for justice, so let’s focus on the little boy who was assaulted on the bus.”
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Board member Susan Ward Schmidt, on the other hand, asked that the board rescind the motions, arguing that she doesn’t believe the process leading up to the Aug. 7 meeting was handled properly by Mohammad. She alleges Mohammad contacted her a week earlier “to let me know that she had four votes to terminate the superintendent,” - an allegation Mohammad denied.
“It’s clear we have bungled this,” Ward Schmidt said. “It’s clear to me it was a forced resignation, but it was not authorized by this board. We had not met to discuss this. This could have been so different - we could have followed the evaluation calendar.”
Board discussion was preceded by public commentary that saw many of the 67 individuals speaking to support the actions of the trustees who voted to remove Swift.
Prior to the board’s discussion, many community members expressed their agreement with the board’s pair of 4-3 votes toward removing Swift, pointing to low achievement and outcomes for underrepresented minorities and the district’s struggles to properly address the needs of special education students.
Several parents and community members offering public commentary pointed to a 2021 school bus incident where an autistic student was abused by a school bus aide, citing a lawsuit that alleges the district did not review footage of the incident for five weeks for justifying Swift’s exit.
Daniel Adams called the bus incident an “abject failure” of district employees to properly respond, demonstrating “troubling leadership behaviors have deeply penetrated the organization.”
“We should all find it alarming that several current and former trustees have directed their outrage not at the acts and omissions that may have enabled the repeated and preventable assault of a vulnerable student, but instead at the very notion that district leadership might be accountable for an egregious failure to protect a student from harm,” Adams said.
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While Laura Houk thanked Swift for her service and positive contributions to the community, she said the school bus incident left a child brutally assaulted and traumatized while the incident was covered up.
“We have lost confidence in your leadership, and it is time for us to part ways,” Houk said. “I hope the community will come together to support each other, the victim and the family in healing and moving forward.”
Parent Laura Shue urged the school board to stand strong in facing criticism from the public and former school board members who have been critical of the board’s actions in attempting to remove Swift. She said Swift’s “skillful management of people and process” has over time come to include managing a school board that should be managing her.
“When a student can be abused in your care to the magnitude of a criminal conviction in court, and the (school board) only hears about it over a year later because it is ‘breaking in the news,’ either the channels and systems of ‘who you listen to’ failed, or worse, they produced the desired outcome,” Shue said. “Either way, it is time to disrupt these formal channels and processes, and build new ones.”
Supporters of Swift included district employee organizations who wore black in solidarity, holding up signs asking for transparency and due process while urging the board to be transparent in explaining and carrying out any process involving Swift’s future.
Ann Arbor teacher David Russell asked the school board to consider the message that is sent when an employee who has had solid evaluations for 10 years is terminated without cause.
“If Dr. Swift needs to be removed, it should be with cause or after the board has provided feedback and an opportunity to improve,” Russell said. “It should follow a process that assures the community that efforts have been made to develop or retrain the employee. It should follow a process that incorporates all of the stakeholders in the community. It should follow a process that gives confidence to the leadership that must follow Dr. Swift’s tenure. Or this board should show cause for removing Dr. Swift and show it is in the best interest of the community and students of AAPS.”
Former school board member Jessica Kelly said the current board’s “politically-motivated rush” to remove Swift could result in a significant financial settlement because the board didn’t follow a process for termination in Swift’s contract that would avoid a “huge payout.”
“Listen, I know being a trustee is hard,” Kelly said. “If you’re not up for it; if you can’t or won’t do your most basic duties you should resign.”
Sandwiched in between all of the discussion about her job performance and future with the district, Swift trudged through a pair of presentations with a focus on the upcoming school year with the same optimism she shared previously for a “smooth transition.”
“We face real challenges - nobody’s glossing that over tonight,” Swift said. “We have the components we need to sort this out and move forward.”
The first motion passed by the school board on Aug. 7 involved the board sending Swift a contractually-required pre-termination notice without cause. The letter set into motion a minimum of a two-week timeframe, during which the board can’t take action to remove her as superintendent.
With five days to respond whether she would like a hearing with the board to defend herself, Swift has expressed interest in having a closed session hearing, Mohammad confirmed. A date for that hearing has not been set and will be set at “the will of the board,” Mohammad said.
A second motion passed by the board allowed AAPS’ attorney to enter into negotiations with Swift on a separation agreement for a period to last no more than the next 30 days.
While Mohammad declined to offer details on progress toward a settlement due to ongoing negotiations, she did confirm those conversations are taking place.
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