Spotsylvania County Public Schools first-year Superintendent Clint Mitchell kicked off a series of listening sessions Tuesday night at Lee Hill Elementary School as part of his 90-day entry plan.
Mitchell’s appearance came four days after a former behavioral interventionist at Cedar Forest Elementary was convicted of misdemeanor assault and battery of a kindergarten student after striking him with a shoe.
The behavioral interventionist, Gloria Joan Jackson, testified that she had been elbowed, kicked and spit on by the 6-year-old student, and other adults in the room said they felt like they were in a helpless situation.
With that incident recently settled, it was expected that student and teacher safety would be a primary concern among community members who attended the listening session.
Mitchell addressed one man’s concerns that three current or former school employees testified during the trial that their calls for help to administrators were not met with urgency during the April incident.
The county resident also noted that no school board members or school officials attended the trial, which he said could’ve given them a glimpse into the conditions students and teachers face at school.
Mitchell said safety is “always a challenge,” particularly with the behaviors of some of the “most vulnerable” children in the division. He said procedures are in place for when teachers need to address safety concerns, and he promised that under his leadership, school administrators will be held accountable for their response.
“When there are concerns at the school level, the first responsibility is the principal because that’s the reason why we employ them is to run the schools on a day-to-day basis,” Mitchell said.
“It’s not me as a division superintendent. I’m not in the classrooms … the next level of support if they don’t address your issues at the school level, there are two executive directors whose primary responsibility is to support the 17 elementary schools, seven middle schools, five high schools and the technical centers that we have.”
Mitchell said if the principals or executive directors do not handle the situation, staff members should elevate their concerns to Deputy Superintendent Kelly Guempel before reaching out to him.
Mitchell guaranteed his staff will handle any issues since his start date of Aug. 1.
That response, however, irked Lee Hill District school board member Lisa Phelps, who introduced Mitchell at the listening session. Phelps requested a third-party investigation into the incident at Cedar Forest — especially the lack of response by administrators — but was rebuffed by Mitchell.
Mitchell wrote in an email to Phelps, School Board Chair Lorita Daniels and School Board Attorney Micah Schwartz Wednesday morning that although “unfortunate events” occurred prior to his arrival, SCPS did its part by alerting authorities including Child Protective Services. He noted that Jackson was charged and convicted, and that the teacher, Brandi Clark, who attended the listening session, no longer works for the division.
Mitchell alleged that Clark, who testified no administrators responded to her pleas for help in the classroom, provided videos to an online publication that were not shared with Human Resources, stating that suggests she “lied to HR when asked to produce evidence.” Clark shared with the Free Press text messages to HR Director Holly Boone showing at least 16 videos that she sent Boone, starting the evening of April 10, saying: “I gave her everything I had. I wasn’t hiding anything.”
Mitchell is not convinced.
“I have reviewed all the videos we have on file, and it is clear that some of them are missing … She only provided some of the videos during the investigation, which is concerning,” Mitchell wrote.
Mitchell went on to note that former Cedar Forest Principal Scott Orth is no longer with the division, and that although Assistant Principal William Kuhnert still works there, he is under new leadership. Mitchell said that two weeks into the school year, he has not received a complaint from Cedar Forest staff.
“The question now is: Why would I investigate a toxic culture when, after nearly a month of school, I have had no issues or complaints?” Mitchell wrote.
Mitchell stated in the email that his primary focus is on supporting teachers, students, staff and parents. He said the listening session showed that, while the division has “things to work on,” the positive attributes should not be dismissed.
“Unless directed otherwise by the entire board, this issue is closed for me,” Mitchell wrote. “It is time to heal and learn from this very unfortunate incident.”
The issue does not appear to be going away. The boy’s father said he plans to file a lawsuit against the division. Phelps said she will request Daniels add the possibility of an investigation to the board’s Sept. 9 agenda.
At the listening session, one former school employee said she expressed concern in the past about teacher safety to administrators who requested she keep it “in-house” and not alert parents. She said she then elevated the issue to HR and nothing was done. She alleged that HR routinely dismissed claims and punished teachers for bringing forth complaints, including termination.
“HR tells you, ‘If you don’t like it, please resign. Goodbye,’” she said. “If you’re not going back to the classroom and continue getting assaulted, there’s no place for you here. I think we need to fix that. We need to stop pushing the teachers out the door.”
Mitchell said he is unaware of past processes, but promised that while he’s at the helm “we’re not going to be punitive” when teachers make complaints about their safety.
“Our job is to make sure we keep our kids safe; we keep our staff safe,” he said.
There were five topics of discussion in the one-hour listening session — traditions and beliefs of the division; strengths; challenges; essentials the school system should maintain and ideas for improvement.
Some of the concerns of community members were chronic absenteeism, a method for underprivileged children to attend sporting events and other afterschool activities, outdated facilities and school funding, among other topics.
One employee praised division staff for “doing more with less,” before Mitchell commented, “I hope no board of supervisors members are here listening to that … we want the help with more staff.”
After a high school student opined that the availability of online coursework leads to chronic absenteeism and a lack of involvement in school life, Mitchell said that is his No. 2 priority behind school board governance.
He said one-third of the 34 schools in the county have established a chronic absenteeism task force, and the remaining schools should have one in place by next week. He is a member of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s task force on the issue and plans to make a presentation to school principals regarding best practices.
Mitchell scheduled eight more listening sessions over the next three months. One is upcoming Sept. 4 at 6 p.m. at Spotsylvania High School.
