ANN ARBOR, MI - Two paths toward potentially removing Superintendent Jeanice Swift were approved by the Ann Arbor School Board Monday, with some trustees saying it’s time for a change while others suggested the actions felt “rushed.”
The Ann Arbor School Board approved both motions by a pair of 4-3 votes during the special meeting on Monday, Aug. 7, one day after the meeting was added to the board’s schedule. The first motion involves the board sending the 10-year veteran superintendent a contractually-required pre-termination notice without cause.
The pre-termination letter is a “statement the board is considering” according to AAPS General Counsel David Comsa and does not constitute a formal action to terminate the superintendent.
Instead, the letter sets into motion a minimum of a two-week timeframe, during which the board can’t take action to remove her as superintendent. Swift has five days to respond to the letter and to determine whether she would like a hearing with the board to defend herself in open or closed session before any final board decisions are made on Swift’s employment status.
A second motion made by trustee Ernesto Querijero was subsequently approved by the board to allow 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 Swift did not explicitly share how she plans to respond to the letter or a potential settlement agreement, she said she will be “dedicated to move forward from this evening to a strong transition.”
“This is what we owe our team, our students and our families,” Swift said following the votes on both motions Monday. “I want to believe that that’s the case for the trustees and I want to believe that in good faith (we can) work together to ensure a strong transition.”
AAPS Board President Rima Mohammad, who made the motion to submit the pre-termination letter, said she felt it was the right decision to move forward without Swift based on feedback she had received from the community. Mohammad was supported in the motion by trustees Jeff Gaynor, Ernesto Querijero and Jacinda Townsend Gides.
The board’s actions Monday were precluded by some Ann Arbor parents asking for Swift to resign in connection with a lawsuit alleging a special education student was abused on a school bus in 2021 and the district did not review footage of the incident for five weeks.
The online letter dated Aug. 5 and signed by nearly 100 Ann Arbor parents stated that “many of our special education families have not felt safe in our district for some time” while asking for a change in leadership to move the district forward.
The lawsuit by parent Jamie Nelson-Molnar alleges the school district, Carpenter Elementary School Principal Michael Johnson and Durham Transportation sent her child onto the bus where he was assaulted by bus aide Rochanda Jefferson.
The lawsuit alleges that surveillance footage of the abuse was immediately available to AAPS and Durham, but for reasons unknown, the footage was not reviewed for five weeks. Nelson-Molnar only learned of the physical abuse through a teacher who “broke ranks to tell the truth,” the lawsuit states.
Board member Jeff Gaynor spoke highly of Swift’s accolades as superintendent at AAPS, but ultimately voted in favor of both motions. He shared that his decision was based on an “accumulation of issues, of information and decision-making,” noting that he has had concerns about AAPS’ special education department that has not been “up to satisfactory levels for many years.”
“There’s a culture on the board that says let’s just keep things as they are, let’s protect the district from liability, let’s keep the status quo,” Gaynor said.
Veteran board member Susan Baskett described the board’s decision to move toward removing Swift as a “rookie mistake,” pressing Mohammad and other trustees to share why they felt it was the best path forward for the district.
“This happened out of the blue,” Baskett said. “I do not know why we are meeting Monday. I don’t know why we are rushing on this topic. Are we trying to meet to cover up actions that were out of process or (meet an) arbitrary deadline ahead of school? I question what we’re doing tonight.
“I cannot feel but a great gray cloud over the opening of our school district. This is not a good way to start the school year. This is not a good way to end someone’s career of 10 years, of (Swift’s) caliber. This is not a good way to try to find someone else at this particular time.”
Board member Susan Ward Schmidt agreed with Baskett’s sentiments, adding that she felt the activity among some board members supporting the removal of Swift “has not felt very comfortable to me.”
“To think that we’re going to take (some) letters and some comments at a board meeting to dismantle 10 years of high quality service and continuity for our district - all of that’s out the window because of that small sample when we know there are thousands of families across the district that have benefited from her work seems short sighted,” Ward Schmidt said.
“Unfortunately, what I know is happening here is the urgency to get (Swift) out as soon as possible seems to be the prevailing wishes of a subset of this board.”
Swift was supported by a number of former school board members in attendance who lauded her performance as superintendent from their time on the board, while also criticizing the current school board for not understanding “how to achieve legislative transparency, effective meeting management, or due process.”
Former board member Simone Lightfoot said some of the board members responsible for Swift’s potential ouster have only been on the board for seven months and haven’t served long enough to know “the destruction that you are in line to cause” the district.
“It’s irresponsible, it’s not good stewardship, it doesn’t provide the oversight that voters expected you to bring to the table, it’s disrespectful to every process we’ve got going,” Lightfoot said. “... I hope our city brings the wrath of Khan down on this board for the destructive behavior you all are embarking upon.”
Parents attending the meeting, on the other hand, said the rally to save Swift from being terminated was another example of the district rallying around its administrations, rather than its most vulnerable students like the one abused on a school bus.
“The conversation tonight should not be about loyalty to this administration,” Ann Arbor parent Erich Zechar said. “It is about assault on a 7-year-old boy on AAPS property and the subsequent response once it was reported.
“This could have been my son on this bus. I don’t trust this administration to tell me in this moment that my son was assaulted and that means a lot - a lot more than loyalty to one person.”
Ann Arbor Public Schools hired Swift in 2013. She previously served as assistant superintendent of instruction, curriculum and student services for Colorado Springs School District 11.
During her time as superintendent, Swift led the school district through successfully passing a $33 million bond in 2015, an increase and extension of the district’s sinking fund millage in May 2017 and a $1 billion capital bond in 2019.
Swift has been a finalist for superintendent positions in recent years, including this past spring, when she was one of three finalists for the superintendent job with Northshore Public Schools in Bothell, Washington. In 2018, Swift was a finalist for the Seattle Public Schools position. A year later, Swift was named as one of three finalists for Michigan’s superintendent of education position.
Swift was named Michigan’s 2018 Superintendent of the Year by the Michigan Association of School Administrators.
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