Duval school board member: Chair wants to fire superintendent

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A member of the Duval County School Board said he is trying to call the public's attention to a special Friday morning meeting that is scheduled for the purpose of taking a vote to terminate Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

Related: Duval schools superintendent says he will not resign

"Chairman Ashley Smith-Juarez had contacted him and asked him to resign, made it conditional that if he didn't resign, she was going to set this meeting and call for his termination," said Scott Shine, who represents District 2 on the school board.

Action News Jax Larry Spruill sat with Shine on Monday to talk about an email Shine sent Sunday night to Smith-Juarez.

Scott Shine (pictured above) represents School Board District 2

Shine accuses her of taking action on matters that should come before the full board and using coercive tactics to intimidate Vitti into resigning.

“Chairman Ashley Smith-Juarez had contacted him and asked him to resign, made it conditional that if he didn’t resign, she was going to set this meeting and call for his termination,” Shine said.

Shine said Smith-Juarez is planning a meeting with the other board members for Friday, hoping to get rid of Vitti. The uprising comes just weeks after the board rated Vitti as “effective” in his annual review on Sept. 8.

“I know there’s tension. I can see the tension in some of the board meetings between, Ms. Smith-Juarez and the superintendent,” Shine said.

Action News Jax spent months investigating the tension between Vitti and board members. We were the first local station to uncover text messages sent by board member Connie Hall to other board members saying of Vitti "Special Ed in action." Vitti himself called his relationship with the board toxic.

“There’s a Florida statute that limits how much can be paid to any public employee like Dr. Vitti. That’s 90 days,” Shine said.

According to Vitti’s contract, Action News Jax received through an open records request, the board agreed to pay him $275,000. Vitti's three-year contract extension was approved by the board on March, 3, 2015 and his initial contract was approved by the board on Oct. 22, 2012.

Shine said the board chair is now having second thoughts and wants to terminate Vitti’s contract, but he strongly believes firing Vitti would be a mistake for many reasons.

“If you look at the statistics on the superintendent’s performance from the past year, the numbers have been very good,” Shine said.

According to Vitti’s contract, if the board fires him without cause, he would get paid either way. That’s because the taxpayers more than likely would split the bill.

“I don’t think it’s fair and I’m not going to support termination,” Shine said.

Newly elected board member Warren Jones also sent Smith-Juarez an email, asking that no action be taken on Vitti's employment until he's sworn into office.

Monday night, the board met to approve the budget. Smith-Juarez was not able to be at the meeting due to a prior commitment, but released the following statement to members of the board and the superintendent:

We have spent extensive time examining student achievement data and the Superintendent's projections for proficiency growth moving forward. At the last workshop we agreed that there was not a clear path forward for our district and I was deeply troubled by both the results and the lack of an aggressive, effective plan for student achievement.

I called a Special Meeting for Friday to give the governance team the opportunity to deliberate a path forward that is best for children. I intend to discuss how we can do better for the children and the city we serve."

The special meeting is scheduled for Friday at 10:30 a.m.

FULL TEXT OF SHINE'S EMAIL TO MEDIA ABOUT POTENTIAL VOTE TO TERMINATE VITTI:

9/18/2016  Statement of Position

RE: Chairman's Action to Terminate Superintendent Vitti

It has come to my attention that DCSB Chairman Ashley Smith-Juarez has scheduled a noticed meeting on Friday, September 23 of 2016 for the purpose of taking a vote to terminate Dr. Vitti's contract with the school district.  Only a week ago, Dr. Vitti's performance evaluation by the collective board described him as an "effective" superintendent.  With this, as well as his accomplishment in improving school grades as documented by the Florida Department of Education, 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.

I have also learned Ashley Smith-Juarez has been acting unilaterally on matters that should come before the full board, and has been using coercive tactics to intimidate Dr. Vitti into resigning his position.  Not only is this inappropriate, but is in violation of the policies and procedures of the Duval County School Board.

It is my opinion Smith-Juarez's desire to terminate the Superintendent is based on her personal issues with Dr. Vitti and is unrelated to his actual work performance.  It would be a tragic mistake to terminate Dr. Vitti in the middle of the comprehensive school reform work we are currently undertaking.  In addition, termination in the middle of the school year would send a shock wave through the school system and likely damage students' academic achievement.  I can, in no way, find any cause to terminate Dr. Vitti at this time.

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, 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. 

It is important that members of the public be aware of this significant, pending action and have the opportunity to state their opinion before this action is swept to conclusion in absence of public input.  In what I believe is an attempt to minimize public input, the meeting to terminate Dr. Vitti has been scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Friday.  This means even teachers and school employees would be unable to participate, much less members of the general public who work jobs during normal business hours.

Members of the public from the Mandarin/Baymeadows area (District 7) are particularly marginalized as they do not currently have representation on the board, due to Jason Fischer's resignation in order to run for a seat in the Florida House of Representatives.  Warren Jones was elected to the District 5 seat and will take office in November, as will the new representative for District 7 who will be elected in the upcoming general election.  I am concerned the vote is being pushed at this time to prevent the matter from being considered by the new, incoming elected representatives.  With one district not represented and two of the seven school board seats about to be filled by new board members, the timing of this action could not be more inappropriate.

I stand by my support for Dr. Vitti's continued employment with the district and will vote against termination, if this meeting takes place.

Scott Shine
Board Member - District 2

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