The following is the full editorial as published in the Indystar about the situation in Perry Township.
Our position: Students in Perry Township have been poorly served by ongoing feud among adults in charge.
In June of last year, the Perry Township School Board voted to extend Superintendent H. Douglas Williams’ contract and give him a pay raise.
That decision didn’t garner much attention outside of Perry Township in part because of Williams’ long tenure and his reputation for good work. Williams, who has led Perry Schools since 1993, was named the state superintendent of the year in 2003.
But the relationship between the School Board and the superintendent soon devolved. In July, three new board members were sworn in. By November, new board members Barbara Thompson and Nancy Walsh, along with Board President Susan Adams and member Rubie Alexander, voted to place Williams on indefinite administrative leave.
Three months later, Williams is still on indefinite leave, the School Board has sunk into utter dysfunction and a once-close Southside community is deeply divided.
The January board meeting ended with four members walking out as an angry crowd shouted taunts. Adams has launched her own Web site (www.perryschools.info) purporting to detail her reasons for relieving the superintendent of his duties. Williams’ supporters have created a blog, wesupportwilliams.com. But there’s little real communication between the two camps.
On Monday, the four board members who voted to place Williams on leave killed a resolution to reinstate him.
The adults responsible for this sad spectacle wouldn’t begin to tolerate similar behavior from students. Yet, no one seems able to rise above trading insults and innuendo to move toward a resolution.
School Board members, as elected leaders, bear responsibility for bringing facts, not hearsay, to the public’s attention. Much of the “evidence” put forward to justify Williams’ suspension fails to rise above the “he said, she said” variety of accusations. Unless board members can provide the public with more substantive reasons for requiring the leave of absence, the superintendent should be reinstated.
Board members need to set aside personal differences long enough to reach an equitable agreement that allows the school district to move forward. The fact this situation has been allowed to fester for three months, with still no end in sight, is inexcusable.
The real issue here really isn’t about Douglas Williams. Neither is it about the School Board nor the rival camps that have chosen sides in this dispute.
It’s about adults setting aside their egos and agendas to come together and provide the best possible education for the more than 14,000 students who attend Perry Township Schools.
It’s discouraging that so many would-be leaders have lost sight of that goal.
Excellent Editorial! It is definitly time for the board to gives some hard proof or listen to the majority and give us back our school district and our superintendent NOW! If the selfish 4 doesn’t like it then maybe they should walk off the stage and this time stay off!
“The January board meeting ended with four members walking out as an angry crowd shouted taunts. Adams has launched her own Web site (www.perryschools.info) purporting to detail her reasons for relieving the superintendent of his duties. Williams’ supporters have created a blog, wesupportwilliams.com. But there’s little real communication between the two camps…
It’s about adults setting aside their egos and agendas to come together and provide the best possible education for the more than 14,000 students who attend Perry Township Schools.”
I really like the editorial and agree with most of it. However, I would like to see Dennis Ryerson and his staff make an attempt to “come together” with these incompetent, vindictive women in order to settle this situation. Chances are that they would come away angry and totally frustrated — just like so many of us are!