Critisism For GCPS Board Over Watts’ Firing.

Elliott Brack is a longtime Gwinnettian, former General Manager of the Gwinnett Daily News, and for several years now, editor and publisher of the Gwinnett Forum. Brack has some harsh words for the Gwinnett County School Board after they fired Superintendent Calvin Watts last week.

Last week a minority of the Gwinnett School Board gave Gwinnett a black eye, as it unceremoniously fired its school superintendent after hiring him four years ago.  Essentially, the three minority board members realized that Calvin Watts would not allow these three women to delve into school operations, so they got rid of him.  In effect, these three ladies would not follow normal school board guidelines, and provide policy to the school officials. 

Hats off to the other two members of the school board, Steven Knudsen and Steve Gaspar, who voted against dismissing Calvin Watts.

The three members who voted to fire the superintendent include Chairman Dr. Adrienne Simmons, Dr. Tarence Johnson-Morgan, and newly-elected Rachel Ruffin Stone. 

Now comes the major question: would you, if in education, want to become Gwinnett school superintendent after learning that the board has not worked with its previous superintendent?  Experienced and highly-regarded professionals will shy away from the job, meaning that Gwinnett could get a far lesser individual to come to administer this sprawling system.  Would you take the job knowing what has just happened?

A search of Gwinnett Schools’ Facebook page and website yields no statement from Board Chair Dr. Adrienne Simmons about the reason for the dismissal, nor any announcement of a search for a new Superindentent.

Developing…