Matter of PrincipalÂ
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Burlington High School’s former leader blames the school board for his abrupt departure
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hortly after Burlington High million project to transform the former16t-vcam-weekly2021.indd Say you 524-3769 1 saw it in... 1/19/21 16t-vcam-weekly.indd 1 11/2/20 12:08 3:07 PM School interim principal Noel Macy’s department store into a downCurbside pick-up available Green suddenly resigned on Janu- town campus. That work is set to wrap ary 8, both the superintendent and the up at the end of February, and students sevendaysvt.com RAILC IT Y M ARK E T V T.CO M school board expressed shock about his will return to some in-person learning decision. there in March. In fact, the Green says those issues weren’t a factormini-sawit-white.indd 1 11/24/09 1:32:18 PM 12v-RailCityMarket060320.indd 1 6/2/20 board wrote in in his departure. What drove him out a January 10 were his long-term interim status and the statement, Superintendent Tom Flana- board’s unwillingness to meet with him gan had planned to recommend Green to explain why members rejected recomfor the permanent principal mendations to make his position position at an upcoming permanent. board meeting, something In his resignation email school commissioners to Flanagan, published last supported. week by the high school Yet last week, Green, newspaper, the Register, who quit without Green went even further. another job lined up, told “I have spent a significant Seven Days that the board amount of time being had strung him along for disrespected and not being Introductory nearly two years, and the supported by the board,â€? he trust between the sides wrote. “The job is difficult had been irrevocably enough and dealing with broken. In a district that an overbearing board and No balance transfer fee! has emphasized hiring manipulative board-chair and retaining educators makes it almost an imposof color, he is the second sible job.â€? Black administrator to Green arrived in the leave in the last seven district as a high school assistant principal in 2016 months; former superintendent Yaw Obeng and was named interim principal in 2018. At a departed at the end of June for a job in Kansas school board meeting in City. March 2019, then-superNo exercise! No pills! No counting calories! “I think the board intendent Obeng recomshould look deeply at the mended Green for the Move your balance to NorthCountry’s Visa Platinum Rewards NOEL GREEN question: Are we truly permanent principalship. credit card. You’ll be showing off your smaller waste line in no time. supporting leaders of After a national search, 2.99% annual percentage rate (APR) for six months on balances transferred from external sources color to be successful long term?â€? city three other finalists had dropped out. only. APR will then range from 7.45% to 16.95%, depending on your qualifications. Balance Councilor Ali Dieng (I-Ward 7), who Members of the school board, known transfer offer may end at any time. Rates are subject to change. The total of your transferred balances and any additional charges, including purchases, may not exceed your credit limit. works for the district and whose kids as commissioners, talked it over in execuattend its schools, wrote in an email to tive session. When they emerged, they Seven Days. recommended that Obeng offer Green Green’s departure creates a leader- another year as interim principal without ship void at a trying time for the high providing any public explanation. The school. Its 970 students have been learn- board voted 6-3 in favor. ing almost entirely remotely since last The board’s rejection, Green said, March, first because of the pandemic, “completely blindsided me.â€? then because the district discovered “I was the only remaining candidate airborne cancer-causing chemicals that www.northcountry.org Insured by NCUA forced the closure of the school. (802) 657-6847 (800) 660-3258 The district is in the middle of a $3.5 MATTER OF PRINCIPAL Âť P.16
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MY FATE HAD ALREADY BEEN IN THE HANDS OF THE BOARD BEFORE. I DON’T THINK I WAS WILLING TO DO THAT AGAIN.
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