A.G. Gancarski
The Duval County School Board has a special meeting slated for Friday morning; the topic, broadly, is “governance and administration.”
What does that mean?
School Board member Scott Shine believes this could mean the end of the tenure of Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.
The board member who called the meeting, Ashley Smith-Juarez, has been a critic of Vitti’s communication and administrative style. And Shine, a Vitti supporter, took issue with the special meeting in a blog post (“Action to terminate Superintendent Vitti”) Sunday.
“It has come to my attention that DCSB Chairman Ashley Smith-Juarez has scheduled a noticed meeting on Friday, Sept. 23 of 2016 for the purpose of taking a vote to terminate Dr. Vitti’s contract with the school district,” Shine wrote.
This vote would seemingly, asserts Shine, contradict the board’s performance evaluation saying that Vitti was an “effective” superintendent; with this in mind, “calling this meeting is without any merit and is unwarranted. I support Dr. Vitti’s continued employment with the district and will vote against termination of his contract.”
Shine asserts Smith-Juarez has been acting “unilaterally” regarding board matters, “using coercive tactics” to compel Vitti to resign.
Shine believes that, given Vitti’s reform efforts and given that the school year is in full swing, terminating Vitti’s contract would be a “tragic mistake.”
“It is important to consider that the notice for the meeting on the 23rd makes no mention of its actual purpose. However, it is known by her spoken word to the superintendent the purpose of this meeting is his termination. Clearly,” Shine adds, “Ashley Smith-Juarez has acted in an attempt to hide the true intent of this meeting and not been open and transparent with the public. This action disenfranchises the general public and their ability to make comment on the matter.”
Shine believes the timing of the meeting is purposefully designed to disenfranchise those previously represented by Jason Fischer, who resigned his spot during his successful campaign for State House.
As well, he believes the meeting is timed to ensure Warren Jones, elected in August but taking over in January, is not able to vote.
We have reached out to Smith-Juarez for her take, and will update when we hear back.
Vitti is popular with Jax Chamber types and members of what is sometimes pejoratively called the “downtown establishment.”
However, his time as superintendent has seen him attempting to be an agent of reform, which has met with mixed results from some board members, especially those representing North and West Jacksonville.
