The Carolinian Newspaper has broken two exclusive stories regarding the ouster of Wake School Board member Keith Sutton as chairman on Dec. 3rd.
PROF. JIM MARTIN
EXCLUSIVE
PROF. MARTIN BLASTS
SUTTON’S LEADERSHIP
By Cash Michaels
Editor
In the most
candid remarks yet about the ouster of Keith Sutton as Wake School Board
chairman, school board member Prof. Jim Martin says he voted against board
Sutton returning for a second term not only because “He never asked me for my
vote,” but also because Sutton made critical decisions Martin didn’t agree
with.
It has been
over two weeks since the seven white members of the nine-member Wake Board of
Education voted to oust their successful African-American board Chairman Sutton
for reasons that were cryptic at best.
Publicly,
new board Chair Christine Kushner, who served as board vice chair under Sutton
for the past year, and the six other members who voted with her to unseat
Sutton, would only say that there needed to be a change in “leadership style,”
that “the board is bigger than just one person” and that the leadership change
was an “internal board matter,” even though state statute doesn’t allow for any
such thing beyond employee and real estate issues.
Prof. Martin,
arguably the school board’s most outspoken member, even suggested to the press
that the 7-2 vote to oust Sutton was his fault because he would not go along
with a unanimous vote for Kushner.
The goal
was not to publicly throw Sutton “under the bus,” Kushner has insisted, but
rather immediately present an image of a united Democrat-led Wake School Board
that has “come together” to tackle the daunting issues of growing high poverty
schools, student assignment, and improving academic standards, among others,
with a minimum of controversy as possible.
But several
leaders in the African-American community, including Raleigh District C City
Councilman Eugene Weeks; Wake County Commissioner James West; and Rev. Dr. Earl
C. Johnson, president of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association; were not
satisfied with the reasons given for the ouster of, perhaps, one of the most
effective Wake School Board chairmen in the history of the school system.
Unless
there was some clear evidence of malfeasance, and there wasn’t any, it was hard
to understand, given the desperate and rudderless shape the Wake School Board
was mired in in December 2012 until Chairman Sutton took over, why a leader who
successfully achieved passage of a much-needed $810 million school construction
bond; the hiring of an experienced school superintendent; the adoption of a new
balanced budget that didn’t layoff any teachers; fought off Republican
legislative attempts to take control of school system properties; and
ultimately helped to rebuild community confidence in the school board’s ability
to function, would be then unceremoniously kicked to the curb by his colleagues
a year later.
One other
local black leader also had a hard time understanding what was done, and why.
Jannet
Barnes, chairwoman of the influential Wake African-American Caucus, an
auxiliary of the Wake County Democratic Party, wanted answers, so she invited
both new school board Chair Kushner, and Prof. Martin, to address the caucus at
its Dec. 11th meeting at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Raleigh.
Barnes also
personally invited The Carolinian
Newspaper to come and cover the event, in hopes of getting a better accounting
for the community.
Ms. Barnes
put no restrictions on The Carolinian,
and a reporter for the paper publicly identified himself when asked, so both
Kushner and Martin knew he was in the room when they spoke.
Sutton had
been invited, but did not arrive until after Kushner and Martin made their
remarks.
Then Barnes
made it clear in her remarks that the ousting of school board Chairman Keith
Sutton without “reasonable” cause, was unacceptable to Wake’s African-American
community, and unless it was satisfied shortly, it may have ramifications for
black Democratic support come 2016 when all of the school board seats are up
for re-election.
“I’m very
disturbed about some of the things that are going on, and this is to the two
Board of Education members,” Chairwoman Barnes told Kushner, Martin, and the
rest of the Democratic officials and members present. “You can say this is
personnel…it may be personnel issues to you, but it’s personal to the
African-American community, and we need some reasonable explanation, because if
you read what’s going on in the papers, there was politicking going before some
of our board members were even sworn-in, and even had a voice at the table.”
Barnes went
on to say that Sutton was the only Wake School Board member she saw during her
canvassing across the county actively promoting the school construction bond
referendum before civic groups and churches.
“We just
need a reasonable explanation, and if we can’t get a reasonable explanation
that satisfies us…,” Barnes warned before asking Kushner and Martin to explain
themselves, further challenging them to explain why, “…you felt you could not
comfortably sit under another tenure of Keith Sutton’s leadership.”
For her
part, Chairwoman Kushner, who later admitted that “it was tempting to stay
home,” cryptically said that, “…it…was important that we come together as a
board, and I don’t want to throw any of my colleagues under the bus or betray
any conversations I’ve had with them. My colleagues came to me and wanted me to
consider leadership. We have a great board of nine. We have to come together as
a board.”
Kushner
then immediately pivoted to assure Barnes and the rest of the Wake AAC that the
new board is just as committed to addressing the issues of school suspensions, improving
academic standards, etc. as Wake AAC was, and invited them to work together
with the school board, assuring all that Keith Sutton, who also represents
predominately black District 4, stills plays a vital role on the board.
Kushner
tried hard to be discreet and restrained in an effort not to antagonize. However,
Prof. Martin, as expected, went vigorously in the opposite direction.
Where the
new chairwoman only slightly defended Sutton’s ouster, Martin virtually made it
clear that it certainly had to happen in order for the school board to move
forward on the issues he cared about.
Martin
opined that “the leadership of any board was generally the board’s decision,”
and what the Wake School Board did was essentially no different from what
happens when other boards vote for a new direction without giving full public disclosure.
‘That is
the case here,” Prof. Martin added.
He said
that he found it “a little intriguing” that board members would be criticized
for “politicking” to oust Sutton prior to new board members being sworn-in,
saying, “It would strike me as being very unwise not to have discussions ahead
of time.”
“That is,
as far as I can tell, normal operation of any board,” Martin insisted.
As
Chairwoman Kushner cringed in her seat as Martin began his prolonged case
against Sutton, the vocal college professor then got into specifics, first by seemingly
backhanding Sutton, saying, “He never even asked for my vote” to continue as
chair.
“So I find
that a little bit intriguing, from a personal perspective,” Martin said, then
justifying his reasoning by confusingly saying, “You all want us to ask you for
our vote, and show us why we would do that, and it would strike me that that is
part of a leadership decision, and I can tell you that that didn’t happen,”
reiterating that through all of the conversations he’s had with Sutton, the former
chairman “never” asked Martin for his vote “for leadership.”
“And it strikes me that that is a fundamental
thing that any leader should ask,” Martin insisted to the audience.
But then,
prefacing his further remarks with, “The main reason for my vote [against
Sutton] is I look at where we are…,” Prof. Martin proceeded to criticize what
he felt were specific policy issues where he apparently strongly differed from
his board colleague.
Martin said
the board “worked really hard” to develop a new student assignment policy months
ago to alleviate some of the ills from the previous Republican school choice
plan. Martin said the new policies weren’t adopted until things were “nearly to
crisis level.”
“I believe
if we could have made headway earlier, we would have had less of a crisis,”
Martin said, suggesting that then Chairman Sutton didn’t move fast enough to
lead the overhauling of the failed school choice plan.
Martin
maintained that the most recent student assignment policy the board adopted is a
good policy, but that it has not been implemented as a plan, and he feels that
is a mistake. Saying the Republican school choice plan made the problem of high
poverty schools in the system “incredibly worse,” Martin said the school board
implemented a “stop gap measure” that has been in place for the past year, much
longer than he would have liked.
“We haven’t
seen that change. We need to see change,” Martin said.
On the
school safety task force which came about after the deadly Sandy Hook
Elementary School shootings a year ago in Connecticut, Martin said board
members had “no input” into Chairman Sutton’s decision of appointing Wake
Sheriff Donnie Harrison and former Raleigh Police Capt. Al White to co-chair
the ad hoc committee.
“As soon as
I heard about it, I gave Mr. Sutton a list of several people I wanted to see on
that task force,” Martin said. “I do not believe that task force should have
been chaired by Sheriff Harrison, I’m sorry.”
“When that
task force report came out,” Martin continued, “…what happened? Sheriff
Harrison disregarded the work of the entire task force, and called for the
creation of [a] Wake County Schools
police force. That was not the Board of Education’s decision, that was not the
Board of Education’s decision how to construct that task force.”
Martin went
to say that “a lot of really good work” came out of the task force that neither
he nor any other board member had any input in.
“I believe
the Board of Education should have helped select that task force. I don’t
believe it should have been formulated the way it was,” Martin said.
“It’s the
kind of leadership, the style of leadership that the board was not included,
and frankly those issues are issues that are important to me, and I believe are
important to you,” Prof. Martin said, adding. “And I believe we’re going to see
progress, because I believe there is a commitment on our board to improve
safety, to improve discipline issues, to improve assignment issues, and I think
you going to see this board moving forward, and I don’t think you’re going to
see that assignment policy sitting on the shelf.”
Realizing
that he may have gone way off the reservation of Chairwoman Kushner’s comfort
level, or revealed some of his deeper disdain for Keith Sutton’s leadership, Prof.
Martin then took on a patronizing tone.
“I hope I’m not giving too much
information, I respect Mr. Sutton very highly, I will work with him, and I told
him, however the vote would go, I will work with whoever becomes chair. He has
a lot to offer. We need him as a member of our board,” Martin offered.
After hailing Sutton’s call that
more school system business should go to “minority” businesses, Martin
continued, “Mr. Sutton brings a lot of value, he is a member of our team. This
is not “throwing under the bus.” This is not “stabbing him in the back.” He has
much value to bring, as does Monika Johnson-Hostler, another African-American
member of our board.”
“I don’t believe you see a
black-and-white board,” Martin said, referring to the fact that all of the
white board members voted against the board’s only two African-Americans to
oust Sutton.
“I don’t.”
When Sutton did arrive at the Wake
AAC meeting after the remarks, as The
Carolinian reporter was leaving, board colleague Jim Martin was laughing
and talking with Sutton, apparently not sharing the critical tone he publicly
took about Sutton before he arrived.
The Carolinian sent a digital recording
of both Kushner and Martin’s remarks to Sutton to listen to, and asked him if
he would like to respond.
After
listening, Sutton agreed to an exclusive interview to answer Martin and
Kushner’s allegations, along with others made by some of his critics. Part 1 of
the exclusive interview appears in this edition, and can be heard on the radio
program “Make It Happen” on Power 750 WAUG-AM, and www.mywaug.com this afternoon at 4 p.m.
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KEITH SUTTON
EXCLUSIVE
SUTTON RESPONDS;
REJECTS
“ELITIST” ATTITUDE –
PART 1
By Cash Michaels
For the
past two weeks since his Wake School Board colleagues voted 7-2 to remove him
as chairman, Keith Sutton has been stoic in his restraint.
He’s had to
tolerate remarks from his successor, Christine Kushner, that “The board is
bigger than one person,” and from board colleague Prof. Jim Martin that board
disunity in electing Kushner was Sutton’s fault, as if he was supposed to vote
for his own dismissal.
He’s even
had to put up with emailed personal attacks from the head of a local parents’
group who feels Sutton hasn’t been responsive enough.
But when
the former Wake School Board chairman heard a recording of remarks made by
Martin and Kushner at the Dec. 11th Wake African-American Caucus
meeting in his District 4 East Raleigh territory, Sutton decided he had
restrained himself long enough.
It had
become clear to him that while Kushner and other board members feared being
seen throwing Sutton “under the bus” by the public and the media, they had no
problem doing so one-on-one or in closed meetings with various people in the
community, thus attempting to undermine his notable accomplishments as chairman
for the past year.
Sutton told
The Carolinian Newspaper, which
provided him with the recording after attending that Wake AAC meeting by
invitation last week, that his side of his tenure should be told, not
necessarily to counter any one individual who has criticized him, but to
clarify the record.
In an
exclusive interview Monday, Sutton spoke his piece.
“I was
disappointed in the outcome of the vote,” the former chairman told The Carolinian Newspaper. “I certainly
would have liked to have served two terms as chair, “ Sutton continued, noting
that most Wake School Board chairmen in the system’s history have served the
maximum two-year term by tradition and practice.
Even Kevin Hill, who was board
chair for only six months in 2009 before the Republican majority took control
and immediately removed him, was given a year to continue when the Democrats
took back the board in 2011.
Sutton has
been the only chair in recent memory limited by the board to just one term (in
2009, Chairwoman Rosa Gill voluntarily left when appointed to fill out the
unexpired term of House Rep. Dan Blue, who had moved over to the state Senate).
“It was my
hope that we as a board could have gotten back to some of the continuity and
stability that we have had, particularly in the chair position,” Sutton said,
adding that he was grateful that colleagues had given him the opportunity to
serve at least one year as chair in December 2012.
Sutton saw
his role as school board chair as setting the tone, identifying the board’s
priorities, and then moving forward with the board to accomplish that agenda.
Sometimes,
certain situations and time restraints required the chair to use his best
judgment, and in crisis situations, that’s what Sutton did without apology.
One
accusation posited by a board member (who The
Carolinian agreed not to name) was that between Sutton’s job in state
government, being the father of two children, and other commitments, he just
didn’t have the time to fully serve as chair.
Given all of
the major challenges that Sutton took on and accomplished on behalf of the
board in the past year, he bristles at the accusation that his commitments kept
him from doing the important work.
“Like most
board members, I work a full-time job,” Sutton said, noting that most parents
in the county also work to support their families, so it helped him, as chair,
understand their challenges. “As most parents in this county and this system, I
work a full-time job, so that’s nothing different or nothing new.”
In that vain, Sutton had a pointed message for
his detractors.
“Because
the current chair [Christine Kushner] does not work, [it was suggested] that
she would have more time to commit to the position,” Sutton said. “And while
she may have more time, that’s certainly obvious, I don’t know if that’s a
requirement to be chair, or to be a member of the board.”
“And that
just strikes me as a bit of an elitist attitude to say [that] one has the
ability to stay at home and not work, and therefore have more time to commit to
the position,” Sutton continued bluntly. “The insinuation that [one] might be
able to do a better job or do things differently because of that, just strikes
me as being a little bit elitist.”
The
allegations that were made during the Dec. 11th meeting of the Wake
African-American Caucus, an auxiliary of the Wake Democratic Party, are of
particular interest to Sutton. He arrived at the meeting late, unaware that school
board Chairwoman Christine Kushner and fellow board colleague Prof. Jim Martin
would be there, let alone be asked to explain why was Sutton removed as chair.
In her
brief remarks to the Wake AAC – remarks that The Carolinian was invited to cover by Wake AAC Chair Jannet Barnes
– Kushner insinuated that the school board was not united under Sutton’s
leadership style, so much so that, “…my colleagues came to me and wanted me to
consider leadership.”
Compared to
Kushner’s brief and discreet remarks, Prof. Jim Martin virtually gave a
rhetorical PowerPoint presentation of how, in his opinion, Sutton failed to successfully
lead on moving new student assignment policies into implementation over the
past year, and how Sutton allegedly denied the board any input into the
formulation of the Schools Safety Task Force.
““It’s the
kind of leadership, the style of leadership that the board was not included,
and frankly those issues are issues that are important to me…,” Martin told the
Wake AAC.
Prof.
Martin then, in an effort to soften his tone, inexplicably said that Sutton,
“…has much value to bring, as does Monika Johnson-Hostler, another
African-American member of our board.”
Why Martin
deliberately singled out the board’s only two African-American members, as if
to say that contrary to popular belief, the seven other white members’ vote to
remove Sutton was not racial, is not clear.
But it
didn’t help.
Sutton
didn’t react to the racial aspect of Prof. Martin’s remarks, but he did take
umbrage with other remarks, without calling either Martin or Kushner by name.
Sutton is
on record as voting against the ill-fated Republican school choice plan in 2011
(before Martin got on the board) because he feared that it would create more
high poverty schools, which it did.
When the
Democrats took back the board majority, they tried to give the school choice
plan time to work in 2012 until it became clear that it wouldn’t. The plug was
pulled and then Supt. Tony Tata was fired.
Sutton says
in the aftermath, the board had few maps to work with to then develop a new
student assignment plan and policy that would ensure proximity and stability.
So a stopgap measure and new policies were adopted until a full plan could be
developed.
But there
were also more pressing priorities that the board was looking down the barrel
at that Sutton, as chair, felt had to be addressed immediately – namely the
filling of two vacated board seats left by Republicans Chris Malone and Debra
Goldman, and the process of hiring a new schools superintendent.
Add to
those trying to build bridges to a testy Republican-led Wake County Commission
Board which was threatening not to push for the $810 million school construction
bond; preparing for a new $1.2 billion budget with a $30 million gap that would
not cut teachers in a bad economy; and then dealing with two unforeseen
legislative challenges by the county commissioners to take control of the
school system’s properties and redraw the school board’s district voting maps,
and Sutton says, in his judgment, that with one major challenge after another,
something had to be left on the shelf for later attention.
Then there
was the recent staff recommendation that because there would be no new schools
opening soon, there was no need to reassign or move students. Instead, a new
three-year plan would be drafted, using the new policies, starting the 2014-15
school year with the CTE and other new schools coming on line.
So despite
implications expressed by Martin that not moving forward with a new student
assignment plan was a failure in leadership, Sutton says the record shows there
were vital priorities which had to come first.
Another
issue was the formation of the Schools Safety Task Force, an ad hoc committee
to study campus security Sutton says is in the purview of the chair to create
and appoint members to.
WCPSS staff
had proposed spending $2 million to $3 million on hiring unarmed security
personnel in the schools, especially in the 105 elementary schools. Sutton,
some on the board, and members of the community had problems with that, so he
decided the concern deserved expert study.
With the
support of the interim superintendent at the time, and head of WCPSS security,
Sutton created the task force.
He adds
that members of the board were involved, and did make recommendations as to who
should serve.
The former
chair says it made sense to appoint the highest ranking law enforcement
official in the county to co-chair the task force, namely Wake Sheriff Donnie
Harrison, not only because in case of a school shooting or emergency anywhere
in the county, his would be the lead local agency answering the call, but also
so that Harrison could bring Emergency Management and other responsible
agencies to the table for their considered analysis.
Plus, the
fact that Sheriff Harrison is Republican sent a strong message that school
security was a bipartisan issue, and should be treated that way, Sutton says.
And as for
retired Raleigh Police Captain Al White, Sutton felt that his current role in
administrative security at North Carolina Central University in Durham was a
needed element when it came to knowing how large school campuses are laid out,
and what the most effective ways of securing them would be.
Sutton said
he then carefully chose representatives of various disciplines, including
mental health, substance abuse, the law and even parents to fill out the board
so that a comprehensive set of recommendations would come forth.
“When we
came out with those names, I heard very few, if any complaints,” Sutton
recalls, saying that he wanted that bi-partisan task force to have credibility
so that both sides of all issues could be openly be discussed at the table.
The task force
did issue its final report of recommendations during the summer. Having WCPSS
create its own police force, as Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Moore county school
systems have, was not part of that report, Sutton said, primarily because of
the expense and practicality.
Sheriff
Harrison, however, felt compelled to personally give his own assessment that
Wake School System should develop its own police force because of the
importance of a centralized authority in times of crisis. Sutton reiterates
that that was the sheriff’s own opinion, but it was not part of the official task
force report.
Regarding
why he didn’t ask for certain school board members’ votes for reelection as
chair, Sutton said that with all the board had been facing this past year, it
would have been inappropriate to begin politicking before the school bond
passed and the October elections. But as soon as the elections were over,
Sutton was surprised to learn that Christine Kushner was already being touted
by a majority of the board to oppose him for leadership.
In the
weeks leading up to the December 3rd vote to remove him, Sutton had
several heated discussions with some of those who opposed him. But the
handwriting on the wall.
What has struck Sutton, and
observers of the Democrat-led Wake School Board for the past year as odd, is
that whatever disagreements of substance that some felt warranted Sutton’s
removal as chair, never really reared their ugly heads. Many of the very board
members who voted to oust Sutton, are the same board members who voted approval
when that same chairman brought issues to the table for their support and
ratification.
Indeed, if
there any strong differences of opinion with the chair, or strong feelings
regarding needed agenda items that should be priority, rarely was that made
known at the table, Sutton agrees.
“While I’m
chair, and have the ability to certainly influence certain decisions and give
some direction, there’s not a whole lot I can do by myself or on my own,”
Sutton says. “ I am one vote of nine…”
“At that
time, I heard very little concern, if any about these issues being raised at
this point. So if the criticism is about my kind of leadership, my style of
leadership, I make no apologies for that. It has given direction, it’s being
decisive, and being strategic in what we were doing, an if you look at this
past year and what we accomplished, as a board, in passing a bond, in hiring a
superintendent – and having an open and fair process in doing that – to getting
a good solid budget passed, in having some success with the Legislature to hold
onto construction and maintenance of our schools, and the community feeling
comfortable with that, and trusting us to not just continuing to build schools,
but with $800 million of their money to build sixteen more.”
“I think we
were able to reestablish some credibility in the community, establish some
confidence in this board and in the school district. So I make no apologies for
the kind of leadership I provided. Quite frankly, I’m very proud of it, and
proud of what we accomplished this year as a board.
In Part 2 next week, Sutton discusses why,
sometimes, he had to go it alone.
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