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Susie King Taylor S.O.S.

Contact:
Leona Cruse Humphries
Susie King Taylor S.O.S.
leona.humphries@gmail.com
912.661.3017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


April 15, 2019

Families and Teachers of Susie King Taylor Community School Demand


Immediate Resignation of School Leadership

SAVANNAH, Georgia—Susie King Taylor Save Our School (SKT S.O.S.), an advocacy group made
up of families and teachers of the Susie King Taylor Community School (SKTCS), has called for the
immediate resignation of the SKTCS’s Governing Board clerk and school director. In an April 1, 2019
letter submitted to the school’s Governing Board, the group cited a history of SKTCS leadership’s
bullying and retaliatory practices against teachers, parents and community whistleblowers, and called
for the SKTCS’s governing board to immediately: 1) offer renewal contracts to every current member
of the teaching staff; 2) issue a written apology and written retractions of any negative references given
to any current teaching staff member; and 3) accept the resignations of the persons currently holding
the positions of School Director and Governing Board Clerk. Susie King Taylor S.O.S. is also
circulating a petition with the same demands. The petition and its list of signatories, which to date
number at 123 and represent over 40% of the school’s families, was presented to the Governing Board
at its board meeting on April 10, 2019.

“In a three-week period, Susie King Taylor Community School’s Governing Board and school director
has fired or compelled the resignations of nearly 70% of our exceptional teachers,” said Leona Cruse
Humphries, a spokesperson for Susie King Taylor S.O.S. “This cruel process has torn our community
apart and is making it hard for our students to learn and thrive. We ask the Susie King Taylor
Community School Governing Board to do the right thing to save our school: rehire our teachers and
fix the school’s leadership.”

Starting in November 2017, SKTCS community members have made repeated formal and informal
complaints about administrative and board leadership, as well as requests to the SKTCS Governing
Board for mediated dialogue and other assistance. The SKTCS Governing Board has consistently
ignored these requests. In March 2019, in response to ongoing requests for mediation by families and a
large majority of teachers, the Governing Board implemented a “Recommitment Process.” All jobs
were posted as open, and all teachers were required to re-interview for their existing jobs. As a result of
this process, as of April 12, 70% of teachers had resigned or been fired, with the possibility of many
more leaving before school-year’s end. The loss of so many teachers suggests the school is not in
compliance with its charter, which requires that “90% of teachers will indicate that they are at least
‘satisfied’ with the overall quality of their job as measured via an annual survey conducted at the
conclusion of the school year.”

Susie King Taylor Community School is a community charter school formed in 2017 as a member
school of the Savannah Chatham County Public School System. Susie King Taylor S.O.S. is a large and
diverse group of SKTCS’s families and teachers that formed in March 2019 to advocate on behalf of
teachers and students to ensure SKTCS fulfill its mission and comply with its charter.

The April 1 No Confidence Letter is attached, and the SKT S.O.S. petition can be found here:
http:tinyurl.com/SKTCS
Susie King Taylor Stakeholders Organizing Group

April 1, 2019

Susie King Taylor Community School Governing Board


1709 Bull St.
Savannah, Ga. 31401

Re: Loss of Confidence

Governing Board:

We are writing this letter on behalf of a substantial and diverse group of deeply concerned stakeholders
and parents who have entrusted the education of their children to the Susie King Taylor Community
School. We first want to say that we are passionately dedicated to the SKTCS mission as set out in its
Charter, and to the aspirations expressed on the SKTCS website (Our Culture):

We seek to build partnerships between the community, school, staff, parents where all parties
are stakeholders in the educational process.

It was these aspirations that enticed us to commit our families to the SKTCS community. And, in our
experience, every member of the current SKTCS teaching staff has consistently demonstrated a loving
commitment to these core values. Our only interest is for this school to become all that it espouses to
be. Unfortunately, a number of recent actions by the School Director and Governing Board have
brought us to the unavoidable conclusion that we no longer have confidence in the school’s leadership
to meet these aspirations.

It is particularly disturbing that last Friday, March 29, SKTCS leadership forced out six (nearly half) of
the thirteen current teaching staff members as a result of firings and resignations out of fear of
retaliation. These actions occurred following the Board’s conducting a “Recommitment Process” as a
condition for renewing teaching contracts. This process was communicated to be a condition of
continued employment, a way of eliminating disloyal staff (to paraphrase language used by leadership,
according to firsthand accounts), and an intentional obstacle to any form of meaningful staff-leadership
dialog.

It is also a most serious concern that the School Director may have (if reports are accurate) given a
retaliatory negative employment reference on the professional performance of one of the departing
teachers, resulting in the withdrawal of a pending job offer.

We are concerned that these actions have unnecessarily created an environment characterized by fear
and intimidation, inconsistent with the school’s core values, and they have exposed SKTCS and school
leadership to legal and financial risks that could potentially jeopardize continuation of the Charter.
Under these circumstances we suggest that the Board needs to clearly demonstrate its commitment to
the values espoused in the school’s foundational documents by taking immediate and substantial
remedial actions to mitigate these exposures.
Susie King Taylor Stakeholders Group
April 1, 2019
p. 2 of 2

To be specific, we conclude that the Board must, at a minimum, take the following actions no later than
4:00 PM, April 2, 2019:

1. Offer renewal contracts to every current member of the teaching staff;

2. Issue a written apology and written retractions of any negative references given to any current
teaching staff member; and,

3. Accept the resignations of the persons currently holding the positions of School Director and
Governing Board Clerk.

We sincerely hope that this is the beginning of a process that will result in a substantial restructuring of
the SKTCS leadership team and its recommitment to the school’s core values.

Sincerely,
Tia Brightwell (SKTCS parent)
Susan Falls (SKTCS parent)
Leona Cruse Humphries (community partner)
Amanda Jamerson (SKTCS parent)
Bob Matyjasik, Esq. (SKTCS grandparent)
and the entire Susie King Taylor Stakeholders Organizing Group

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