COMMENTARY: Oh Captain, My Captain
Trying times call for tested leaders unafraid to face difficult personalities and take bold steps.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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“It’s unfortunate that board member Phelps and board member Gillespie are not present for this portion of the meeting because it is at this time, and the next few topics, where we get the opportunity to really talk about why all of you are here to govern, which is to do what’s best for kids and do what’s best for the staff members….”
Spotsylvania County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Clint Mitchell
For the better part of four years, the Spotsylvania County School Board has been unmoored, drifting from one port of complaints to another with little concern for finding a safe harbor to tie into.
The Board itself must shoulder a good deal of the blame. But it has not acted alone.
The “parents’ rights” movement over the past three years has infiltrated not only the minds of Spotsylvania citizens, but the halls of power in central office, and is spreading apocalyptic tales of Biblical proportions — furries, books, pornography, and communists, so the thinking goes, are greeting your children at the school door each morning and whisking them along a Highway to Hell during the day.
Political groups — both Democrat and Republican — have turned School Board seats into battlegrounds, where the end goal is not education but strengthening the agendas set by state and national political parties to further their agendas. Precisely what school board seats were never intended to be.
And in the middle of it all are teachers. For one shining moment in a time that does in fact seem “long, long ago,” they were seen as heroes during a pandemic.
Today, they are too often seen as the spawn of Satan and a whipping board for anyone who has any complaints about public education.
It is vital that people in our region not forget what we have seen in Spotsylvania County these past years (and which is now making its way into Orange and King George).
Nor should we forget what transpired at the September 9, 2024, School Board meeting.
Following the now-all-too-predictable antics from board members Lisa Phelps and April Gillispie, who broke every rule of professional courtesy by calling members on the board and school personnel “liars,” Superintendent Clint Mitchell did what has long been needed.
He didn’t take their bait.
Instead, he grabbed the leadership wheel, spotted a safe harbor, and set a course for it, even as Phelps and Gillespie boarded a dingy and abandoned ship to go and, presumably, plan their next boat-rocking stunt.
“I had a chance to listen and reflect a little bit while sitting here listening to all of the comments that have been made by a very small sector of our school community,” Mitchell began.
“And I was going to deviate from my comments I wrote tonight, but I’m not going to give them that time and energy, because they don’t deserve my time and energy because of the fact that we got to focus about kids, and we got to focus about our staff. … I’m going to stay on queue and just focus on the positive things that are happening in our community.”
From there, Mitchell began by acknowledging some serious issues and allegations that have emerged over the past few weeks, and said the division will continue to collaborate with authorities.
“Since my arrival,” he reiterated, “we will not tolerate or condone any issues affecting the safety of our kids.”
He then turned a spotlight on the people who have endured in spite of those who wish only to undo public education — the teachers and staff.
Specifically, he mentioned a parent who sent him a note of thanks because a nurse, principal, and an ECSE teacher at Riverview Elementary School facing a serious medical emergency acted professionally and in a timely manner to save the life of this parent’s four-year-old daughter.
From there, school staff presented the findings from the recently released SOL results. Of particular note was the news that many subgroups — Whites, Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, Multiple Races, Economically Disadvantaged, English Learners, and Students with Disabilities — all realized gains.
Teachers Have Held the School System Together
This achievement cannot be attributed to the leadership in central office.
Over a period of just three years, Spotsylvania County’s school board fired a superintendent without cause in a script taken straight from Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre, endured a scandal over payment to an interim superintendent that resulted in a prosecution, hired a superintendent with no credentials or experience in public education, and only recently hired Mitchell.
No superintendent over the past three years has been in place long enough to leave a definitive imprint on the educational system in the county.
For that reason, the SOL results rightly celebrated last week are owed to one group of people, and one group alone — teachers.
Despite absurd charges of promoting all kinds of social ills among the students they lead; despite being the target for everything parents and citizens perceive to be going wrong at school; despite overwhelming turnover in central office that saw highly experienced leaders head for financially greener pastures in districts where educators are valued and respected; despite all of that, teachers on the front lines endured and did their job.
Mitchell knows and understands the Herculean task these teachers have achieved because he has taught, he has led schools where he empowered teachers to succeed (and they did in record-setting ways), and he understands that teachers more than anyone are missional. They are there because of the students they serve.
It’s too hard a job to survive without that focus.
At last … Spotsylvania has a leader who gets it and pours his energy into what matters.
As for the rest, let them abandon ship. The crew moving this ship — from the superintendent on down to the students — can no longer afford to be distracted by people and issues not critical to this district’s success
Nota Bene: The issues that sparked Phelps’ and Gillespie’s explosive behavior are currently being investigated by the Advance. Because of the intricate details involved, we are being intentional about not jumping to conclusions. Our reporting will be coming in the weeks ahead.
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"Political groups — both Democrat and Republican — have turned School Board seats into battlegrounds, where the end goal is not education but strengthening the agendas set by state and national political parties to further their agendas. Precisely what school board seats were never intended to be."
Once again, this blanket notion that they all do it. Then the rest of the column is spent listing the outrageous acts of one.
Is there really such a fine line between equivalency and equivocation?
Thank you, teachers! Thank you, Dr. Mitchell, for steering SCS in the direction that helps our students most!