Roy Exum
The Huntsville City School Board, in what is becoming an alarming trend, accepted the resignation of Casey Wardynski on Thursday, hours before the beleaguered Hamilton County School Board had its first official meeting since three new members of the nine-person panel were elected in August.
If you are keeping a scorecard, Nashville just hired a new superintendent, Knoxville and Chattanooga are being led by interim superintendents and now Huntsville’s leader has just quit after two major critics of the Alabama city’s system were elected to the City School Board last month. Wardynski, a 35-year Army veteran who taught economics at West Point for 10 of those years, said the reason he was leaving was his impending marriage to the principal of an alternate school under the school’s district’s contract.
But insiders say the former Army colonel just “out ran his coverage.” When he was first hired, Wardynski wasted no time in firing the district’s financial chief – this after many questionable decisions had brought due alarm. He also closed famed yet aging Butler High, sent another high school principal packing, and made a rash of “overdue” changes in “the central office.”
Wardynski announced text books would be extinct, with iPads taking their place, and the teachers all moaned and fretted. Then he tackled a desegregation lawsuit that had smoldered for years, and the black community, as well as a white crowd in north Huntsville, started smoldering instead.
Does all of this sound similar to a place you know? In 2011, when the retired Army colonel was chosen over two other finalists, he said at a community hearing, “I don’t see how you can make a lot of sweeping changes in just three years. But I plan to be in Huntsville a long time.”
Yet Wardynski did make a difference. In the last five years, up until his resignation, the hard-fisted, steel-eyed “dictator,” that comment according to one whiner, accomplished this:
* -- Raised graduation rate by 22 points from 66 percent in 2011-12 to 88 percent in 2014-15.
* -- Decreased the number of schools designated as failing schools by the Alabama State Department of Education from nine in 2011-12 to one in 2015-16. (When he was hired the state of Alabama was threatening to take over the school district.)
* -- Raised the number of Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence from zero in 2011-12 nine in 2015-16.
* -- After years of declining and or flat enrollments, grew enrollments by 6 percent from 22,783 in 2011-12 to 24,126 in 2015-16.
* -- Designed, established capital funding for, and built or reconstructed nine new schools including two high schools, a junior high school, three P-8 schools, two elementary schools, and the school systems’ sports complex with a value of $279 million.
And what? Huntsville’s “machine” just ran the guy off! Former Huntsville teacher Pam Hill was one of those elected to the school board and, if you care about children and education, read this excerpt from AL.com:
“Local talk radio personality Dale Jackson reported on his show that an anonymous source tipped him off to an incident from 2012 involving Hill and Appleton CEO Glenn Clayton. Appleton is an education company that maintains several contracts with Huntsville City Schools, providing technology and personnel services to the system.
“Clayton himself then went on the show and confirmed his version of events, but said he did not know who told Jackson about it.
“The incident, in a nutshell: In 2012, Hill was a teacher with Huntsville City Schools and also a representative of the Huntsville Education Association, a professional (union-type) organization representing a number of Huntsville City School employees. Hill met with Clayton to express some teachers' concerns about a new software program offered by Appleton that the school board was considering purchasing.
“According to Clayton, during the meeting Hill produced her resume and asked about the possibility of getting a job with Appleton. In an email he later sent to Wardynski, Clayton paraphrased Hill's request: ‘You need me Glenn. If you hire me, then you won't have any push back from teachers in Huntsville. If you don't hire me, you're setting yourself up for problems and you're going to run into a lot of push back.’
“Clayton sent that email to Wardynski in April 2012, but no action was taken against Hill. After Jackson discussed Hill and Clayton's meeting on his show last week, Hill released a statement, saying she did ask Clayton about a job but never threatened him: ‘The only real ethics violation to watch in Huntsville this week is the deliberate attempt by Mr. Wardynski and Mr. Clayton to damage my campaign with false allegations for their benefit.’
After Jackson asked Wardynski why he didn't pursue an ethics violation against Hill in 2012 for allegedly leveraging her position as a teacher to gain employment at Appleton, Wardynski responded via email, confirming Clayton had contacted him.
"I felt the matter Mr. Clayton raised with you was very serious and I was prepared to take the matter to the district attorney," Wardynski said in his statement to Jackson. "At that time, Mr. Clayton asked that I not involve him in pursuing the matter as it could harm his business. Without a witness and a complaint I had no basis to pursue the matter."
“Hill told AL.com there was nothing inappropriate about seeking employment elsewhere and that her critics were trying to twist an innocuous incident in order to damage her character in the days before the election.
“’I'm not against the board, but I don't see myself agreeing with everything,’ the former teacher said. ‘Do I think the superintendent should have become involved? No,’ she said, referring to Wardynski's note to Jackson. ‘But that is when we really felt we probably were going to win (the election). To me, that shouted, 'desperate.'"
* * *
Now do you see what really just happened in Huntsville? And now do you see why school boards in Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga and Huntsville are held in such contempt? Go back and look at Col. Wardynski’s record and then ask yourself how a newly-elected school board member seemingly brought him down.
I adored what Wardynski said as he announced his premature resignation -- “It's my intention to marry Ms. (Karen) Lee in December,” he said at the press conference before adding in a measured voice, “ … and have a life."
royexum@aol.com