The Benton Harbor Area Schools Board of Education has voted to notify three three administrators that their contracts may not be renewed when they run out in June.
At a meeting this week, trustees were told Superintendent Simone Griffin would like the non-renewals for Student Support Services Director Cleather Nichols, interim Athletic Director Danny Jennings, and Facilities Director Josef Bullocks to be formally considered at the board’s next meeting. The employees had to be notified first.
Trustee Reinaldo Tripplett objected to having the specific name of the employees in the resolutions.
“So this is inappropriate in my professional understanding of what it was that we’re doing,” Tripplett said. “I thought the resolution would say that we were going to take into consideration those recommendations from the superintendent, all personnel, so they could be notified in the proper time, not that this individual person’s name should be on there.”
After the board previously discussed the matters in closed session, President Dashuna Robinson said the district’s attorney drafted the resolution.
“At this position, I’m at a loss for words because I tried my best to understand and gave concessions for additional closed sessions that aren’t necessarily standard so that everyone would have a clear understanding of where we are at this point,” Robinson said. “And so I am not sure what it is that is the board’s pleasure, but the language of the resolution was drafted by council, and so that would be our surety that what we are doing is legally sound.”
Trustee Elnora Gavin said she needed more information.
“If something like this comes to me, there’s a certain level of information that needs to be provided in order for me to support, considering a non-renewal, and I haven’t seen it,” Gavin said.
In the resolutions, the stated reason for the non-renewal of Nichols was a lack of progress toward goals. The reasons stated for Bullocks were performance issues and misconduct. The reasons for Jennings were a lack of progress toward goals, concerns related to money collections and inventory, complaints from parents, and the cancellation of games.
The votes on each resolution were mixed, but they were all approved, eventually. It took more than one vote for the resolutions on Jennings and Nichols to be approved because they initially failed.
The contracts for the affected employees expire in June.
