When the Columbus Municipal School District Board of Trustees selected Dr. Philip Hickman as superintendent in July 2014, the job came with a $175,000 salary and benefits. Lots of benefits.
In fact, now halfway through Hickman’s four-year contract, we have lost count of all the benefits.
When, in his first school board meeting as superintendent, Hickman embraced nepotism as district policy by recommending his wife for a job, we gave him the benefit of the doubt.
When, in that same August 2014 meeting, Hickman announced the creation of a new position, director of schools, and — rather than opening the job to candidates — recommended his uncle, Leslie Smith, for the job, we gave Hickman the benefit of the doubt.
When Hickman announced he never to intended to hire Smith, that the move was intended to expose leaks in his administration, we gave Hickman the benefit of the doubt. And when, a year later, Smith filed suit against the district saying the district had reneged on the employment offer, we gave Hickman the benefit of the doubt.
When, in that same infamous first board meeting, Hickman recommended the purchase of $600,000 worth of textbooks just a few months after the district had spent $500,000 on textbooks, we gave him the benefit of the doubt, especially after Hickman assured everyone the supplier of the old books would refund the full value of those books to the district.
When the book supplier disputed that claim and the district ultimately lost about $180,000 in that exchange, we again gave Hickman the benefit of the doubt.
In April, when Hickman recommended Frederick Hill to be principal at Columbus High School just a week after Hill had been fired as superintendent at the Natchez-Adams School District for embroiling the district in costly lawsuit, we gave Hickman the benefit of the doubt after he relented under pressure from a school board member.
A week ago, when confronted with a serious budget deficit facing the district and Hickman chose to assign blame to others rather than embrace the issue as his responsibility to correct, we gave him the benefit of the doubt.
When in April Hickman made a rumor about his private life a public matter — issuing a statement claiming that a sexually explicit text message exchange alleged to be between the superintendent and another man was a hoax, we gave Hickman the benefit of the doubt.
Finally, on Thursday, when that man confirmed that a recording of him and another man discussing The Dispatch’s reporting of the matter was he and Hickman and went on the record with his identity, we found that we have simply run of out benefits to offer the superintendent.
All people are entitled to privacy in their personal lives, but when a person chooses to put a private matter before the public and is dishonest in doing so — as seems obvious now — no benefit of the doubt is warranted.
When we consider all of Hickman’s errors and lapses in judgments over the past two years, we are dismayed to realize that none of these missteps were simply the matter of being confronted with a tough decision and making a choice that turned out poorly. No, in every case, these were deliberate, needless choices.
Now there remains only one benefit worthy of consideration:
For the benefit of the students, parents, teachers, staff and taxpayers of the district, the CMSD Board must fire Hickman immediately.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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