Jonathan Jackson
The Union-Recorder
October 14, 2008 11:48 pm
—
The Baldwin County Board of Education accepted the resignation of Dr. Troy Journigan Tuesday night after a marathon executive session at the end of the regularly scheduled board meeting.
The board conducted its usual business, then board member Mark Archer, District 4, moved that the board enter into executive session along with its legal counsel. Board chairman Harold B. Simmons, District 2, briefly appeared in the board’s auditorium where around 20 people waited for the session to end, took his briefcase and re-entered the executive session. After an hour and 15 minutes, the board reappeared and Archer moved that the board accept Journigan’s resignation.
Board members Jeff McAfee, District 5 and Becky Brock, District 3 voted along with Archer to accept the resignation, while Simmons and board member Wilbur Manson, District 1, voted nay.
After the vote, Simmons expressed surprise and disappointment in the board.
“I really hope this decision will not divide this community,” Simmons said.
The vote to accept Journigan’s resignation followed racial lines. Simmons, Manson and Journigan are black. Archer, McAfee and Brock are white.
“The governor needs to step in now,” Ben Quinn, candidate for the board of education said. “We have a corrupt board.”
“I’m appalled, utterly appalled,” Dianne Lucette said after the vote. “The schools are failing, but they haven’t just started to fail.”
Lucette is a volunteer with Parent University, a popular outreach to parents based at Baldwin High School.
“It’s sad that an inexperienced board member could get on the board to help make this decision,” Simmons said after the meeting. “You give one man 12 years then give another man 90 days, plus, two of these board members are leaving the board.”
“This puts our SACS accreditation at risk,” Donna Hurt, executive director of the Alliance for Excellence in Public Education said. “It doesn’t look good because it was along racial lines. There have been so many infractions to this point, how do we know that it is legitimate?”
“The concern about splitting the community — I hope the entire board shares [Simmons’s] concern,” Archer said. “The board owes it to this community not to go out to the community and divide it. We are supposed to be uniters.”
“I agree totally,” McAfee said. “As a board, we agree to disagree, but in the public, you don’t carry this outside to divide the community.”
Simmons, Archer and McAfee all declined to comment as to specifically why Journigan was asked to resign as the discussion happened behind closed doors in an executive session, but Archer did cite growing dissatisfaction from those who work in the system.
“The morale in this system is lower than at any time I can remember,” Archer said. “When things get to that shape, you have to make changes for the good of an organization. In this organization, there are only two places to make changes — the superintendent and the board. Dr. Journigan decided it was in the best interest of everyone to move on. Two members of this board are moving on. Hopefully an interim can come in and bring some stability.”
Archer and McAfee said they were part of bringing Journigan to Baldwin County but recalled that District 3’s opposition to Journigan dated back to former board chair Judy Ivey’s nay vote to hire Journigan in the first place.
Journigan appeared visibly distressed and suprised after the meeting. He said he had no inkling that the board would ask for his resignation.
When asked how he would approach the community to avoid racial tension, Simmons said he couldn’t control anyone, but would urge positivity.
“I can speak to the people I know and tell them to move forward and stay positive,” he said.
Journigan’s resignation takes effect Nov. 1.
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