Superintendent Eric Gallien has joined a recent wave of superintendent suspensions, having been placed on leave by his school board just a few months after he took the helm of Charleston County School District.
When Charleston, the second-largest system in South Carolina, hired Gallien in May, he was serving as superintendent of Wisconsin’s Racine Unified School District, a post he had held since 2018. A narrowly divided school board voted 5-4 to place Gallien on leave due to an undisclosed complaint that was made against the superintendent, The Post and Courier reported. Audience members accused the board of “racism” and acting without justification, the newspaper added.
Gallien thanks the community for its “overwhelming support ” in the wake of the school board’s decision. according to Live5News .com.
High-profile resignation in a small district
A political uproar appears to have quieted down in Idaho with Branden Durst announcing plans to resign from the West Bonner School District. His hiring by a 3-2 school board vote in June was controversial because Durst, a former Democratic state legislator, had never worked in K12 education and his political views had, according to some, shifted over to the far right, The Spokesman-Review reported.
Last month, the Idaho State Board of Education ruled Durst was unqualified to serve as superintendent, according to KHQ.com. In his resignation letter, Durst touted a slate of achievements during his single-summer-long stint as superintendent, including restructuring the district office and launching a strategic planning process and a forensic audit.
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“Throughout my short tenure, I remained cognizant of the fact that not everyone in the community welcomed my hiring, and there were those who hoped to see me fail, and did everything in their power to try to make that so, even if it meant hurting the very students they claimed to support,” Durst wrote. “I was undeterred by the naysayers and their negativity only strengthened my resolve to do what needed to be done to put this district on a path toward success.”
5 new superintendent hires
In Pennsylvania, David Christopher is relocating, having been chosen as the new leader of the West Chester Area School District after having served as Cumberland Valley School District’s superintendent since 2019. Chip Mehaffey, a former superintendent of Loogootee Community Schools in Indiana, has been picked to be the next superintendent of the nearby Southwest Dubois County School Corporation, the Dubois County Free Press reported.
Elsewhere, a handful of districts hired first-time superintendents:
- Amanda Ganey, Lebanon CUSD #9 (Illinois)
- Steve Hall, Elkin City Schools (Minnesota)
- Angela Hensley, Natrona County School District (Wyoming)
Superintendent suspensions result in departures
A trio of superintendents who had been placed on leave have resigned in recent days. Adam Hathaway stepped down from Tift County Schools in Georgia about a week after he was suspended, WALB reported. In Texas’ San Benito CISD, Theresa Servellon is resigning, saying she intends to retire after having been placed on leave by the school board, according to myRGV.com. And Kathleen Dawson, who was hired in spring 2023, is leaving the Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical High School in Massachusetts, Boston.com reported.
On this week’s list of retiring superintendents are Richard Loeschner, who left Brentwood Union Free School District (New York) on Sept. 30, and Billy Harlan, who has set Dec. 31 as his last day at Academy ISD in Texas.
