The Lowndes County School District board decided not to renew the contract of Business Manager Kenneth Hughes as the district remains caught up in the middle of a third-party audit of its finances.
Hughes’ name was one of 13 submitted for non-renewal in the agenda for the school board’s meeting Friday at its central office. The board moved to discuss Hughes’ non-renewal in its executive session, and his name remained on the list subject to non-renewal.
LCSD Superintendent Sam Allison said he could not comment on the reasoning for the decision to not renew Hughes’ contract, which expires June 30, as it is a personnel matter. Allison told The Dispatch that Hughes will not be part of the district’s current financial review process.
The district had to borrow money to make its December payroll the past two years, borrowing roughly $4 million in 2018 and authorizing the borrowing of up to $2.6 million in 2019. According to previous Dispatch reporting, Hughes said the district’s operating fund was negative-$305,000 in mid-December.
In February, CPA Charles L. Shivers found a range of paperwork and other errors while auditing six months’ worth of LCSD statements for Fiscal Year 2019. Shivers noted that the district had paid a $52,000 buy-out for copiers, but the board had never approved the termination of the contract because Hughes had not presented it to them.
Hughes did not return calls and messages from The Dispatch seeking comment.
Suddith’s contract non-renewed
The district also included Melissa Suddith, an English and science teacher at Lowndes County Alternative School, in its list of non-renewed contracts.
Suddith is one of three former Caledonia High School teachers who filed a petition in chancery court in February claiming the LCSD board did not adequately deal with their allegations of bullying by district administrators.
Suddith told The Dispatch on Friday that she was not formally notified of the non-renewal, saying she only found out when fellow teacher Anne Richardson told Suddith on Wednesday that her name was listed in the board meeting agenda posted online.
“I didn’t know anything about it,” Suddith said. “I had no clue.”
She believes the reason for the district’s decision not to renew her contract, which expires on May 22, dates back to her suit and her original 2018 complaint against Caledonia High assistant principal Robert Byrd. In a December 2018 meeting between Byrd, Caledonia principal Andy Stevens, Richardson and Norma Sanders — the suit’s other two plaintiffs — Byrd made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature about third parties not present.
Byrd was forced to resign in February 2019 for “insubordination and releasing confidential information,” according to LCSD board attorney Jeff Smith.
“They blamed me for him having to resign and leave, and then they pulled two of my very good friends into it who had nothing to do with it,” Suddith said.
Richardson and Sanders, who were transferred along with Suddith to New Hope from Caledonia, were not among the district employees subject to non-renewal Friday.
Suddith said she arranged a meeting with Allison for Monday and will present him with a letter from her attorney, Preston “Bo” Rideout of Greenwood, challenging her non-renewal and requesting a due process hearing.
“I think this is just another attempt to discredit me,” she said. “… We’ll see how it turns out.”
As of Friday, Suddith said, her petition against the district remains ongoing, as she, Sanders and Richardson are “waiting to see and to hear” what will come next.
“Eventually, everything that happened is going to come out,” Suddith said. “We’re just trying to be professional about it. We don’t want to cause the district any embarrassment. We really do not. At this point in time, it looks like we may not be left with a choice.”
Current Caledonia High School assistant principal Gregory Elliott will become the school’s new principal as of July 1, replacing Stevens, who is retiring.
The LCSD board recommended Elliott to fill Stevens’ position in its agenda for Friday’s meeting and listed Elliott’s resignation from his assistant principal position effective June 30.
Former superintendent Lynn Wright placed Stevens on administrative leave without pay for a week after Suddith, Sanders and Richardson discussed allegations of inappropriate comments by him and Byrd in their first grievance to the board. The teachers’ grievance in February 2019 asked the board for Stevens’ removal, but the board took no action at that time.
Stevens’ retirement, effective June 30, was listed on the board’s agenda for its Feb. 14 meeting.
District to tie West campus to Prairie Land sewer service
The board also unanimously approved on Friday an estimated $122,000 project to allow the Prairie Land Water Association to take care of sewage treatment at the district’s West Lowndes facility.
Joey Henderson of JBHM Architects proposed several options to the board, which was in favor of spending up front rather than being on the hook for potentially larger sums later on should the Prairie Land system fail.
“This is an investment we need to make,” Allison told the board.
New pumps and wet wells comprise roughly $107,000 of the cost, while the other $15,000 would go to installing a new type of meter specifically for wastewater.
The cost for the project will be included in the Fiscal Year 2021 budget, the board said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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