Susan Johnson, assistant superintendent of Lowndes County School District, is suing the district for gender discrimination in the selection of its superintendent in November 2019, court documents show.
Johnson, who filed the lawsuit in federal court in Aberdeen on Oct. 14, alleged in the complaint she was passed over for the superintendent position because she is female, despite her doctoral degree and her experience “at the district level.” She stated the school board also handpicked a panel of community members who knew Sam Allison — who was selected as superintendent — to offer recommendations on the hire and therefore help with his appointment.
“The real reason that (Johnson) was not selected was her gender, female,” the complaint states. “(LCSD) preferred a male in the position and, therefore, arranged for persons who were likely to support the far less qualified male applicant, Allison.”
School boards are required to appoint their superintendent after a state law took effect in 2017. LCSD began its search in 2019 for a new superintendent to replace Lynn Wright, who had served in that role for eight years. After several rounds of interviews between the candidates, board members and a 15-member citizen panel, the board selected Allison in November out of three finalists, including Johnson and Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District Deputy Superintendent Christy Maulding. Allison began as superintendent in January.
School board members told The Dispatch in November one reason they selected Allison was his performance as the principal of New Hope Middle School. Allison, a New Hope native who began his teaching career in 1993, had been principal at the school since 2006 following two years serving as assistant principal there. During Allison’s tenure as principal, the school’s Mississippi Department of Education’s accountability rating — which measures student performance on state benchmark exams — improved from a C to a B.
However, Johnson said in her complaint Allison’s experience as principal alone should not have made him the best candidate, because Maulding had similar experience as principal. Maulding joined SOCSD in July 2017 after serving eight years as a “building level” principal and seven years as assistant superintendent of Rankin County School District, according to SOCSD’s website.
The board members chose Allison, Johnson argued, because they preferred a man in the role. Allison, she said in the complaint, lacked work and educational experience compared to Johnson and Maulding, both of whom hold doctoral degrees.
“(Allison) was substantially less qualified because he only had a master’s degree, and, furthermore, had no experience at the District level,” the complaint says.
Johnson received a doctoral degree in educational leadership from Mississippi State University in 2013 and began serving as the district’s assistant superintendent in 2017, according to her LinkedIn page. In a charge of discrimination she filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in January, Johnson said she had more than 35 years of experience in education, including 11 years at the district level.
“(Johnson) was the most qualified candidate, because she not only had a Ph.D., (she) had substantial experience at the District level serving the previous superintendent and providing advice to the former superintendent, Lynn Wright,” the complaint states.
Allison told The Dispatch on Friday he received his master’s degree from MSU in 1999 and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree. He declined to respond to any of Johnson’s claims or speak on how the lawsuit affected the work relationship between them.
Additionally, Johnson argued in the complaint the board favored Allison by handpicking community members to sit on the 15-person citizen panel and offer advice on the matter.
“(LCSD) chose persons (who) were likely to know the male applicant, Sam Allison, who had resided in the New Hope community and served as a principal at a New Hope school for a lengthy period of time,” the complaint states.
School board members each chose three community members from their respective elected districts to sit on the panel, The Dispatch reported at the time.
In her EEOC charge, Johnson said that school board attorney Jeff Smith asked both her and Deputy Superintendent Robin Ballard to remain in their roles after Allison was hired, which she believed to be proof that the district needs her expertise.
“The logical reason … was because the board knew the new superintendent would not know how to do the job without either me or (Ballard) being there,” Johnson said.
Johnson, who says she has suffered “lost income and mental anxiety” after Allison was hired as superintendent, is asking for monetary damages as well as “reasonable” attorney fees in the case.
Jim Waide, Johnson’s attorney, told The Dispatch he has confidence in winning the case if it gets a jury trial. He declined to comment further on the details of the lawsuit but said the hiring of Allison was damaging to Johnson.
“It’s very devastating to a person to work as hard as Ms. Johnson has and gather the qualifications that she had, and then have somebody (else) hired as superintendent,” Waide said. ” … It’s not in the best interest of the school district.”
Smith declined to comment on the case. Neither Johnson nor any of the school board members could be reached for comment by press time.
Yue Stella Yu was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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