ROBERT WILLETT-rwillett@newsobserver.com
Wake County School Board chair Ron Margiotta reads a statement announcing that Wake Superintendent Del Burns has been placed on administrative leave effectively immediately on Tuesday March 9, 2010 in Raleigh, N.C.. Margiotta said that interviews Burns conducted on Feb. 18, 2010, where Burns voiced his opposition to certain recent and proposed initiatives by the school board was a poor decision and inappropriate.
RALEIGH -- Superintendent Del Burns will serve out the rest of his tenure with the Wake County School System on administrative leave for making what board members said were “totally inappropriate” public statements critical of the new school board’s direction.
Members announced after a closed meeting Tuesday night at school system headquarters that Burns will remain available for consultation and will be paid until his previously announced resignation date of June 30.
The move leaves the system without a seasoned chief executive as Wake schools face a fiery community debate over the system’s direction as well as a funding gap of at least $20 million for the next school year. Wake’s Donna Hargens, Wake’s chief academic officer, will become acting superintendent, said board chair Ron Margiotta, who began a brief statement by praising Burns’ long service to the system.
“However, on Thursday, February 18, Dr. Burns held a series of media interviews where he voiced his opposition to certain recent and proposed policy initiatives by this board,” Margiotta read in a prepared statement . “His choice to conduct these interviews was a poor decision and totally inappropriate in the opinion of this body.”
The session was the third secret meeting that board members had held on Burns’ tenure since he abruptly announced his resignation on Feb. 16 and his intention to remain in the job until June 30. Burns said during a packed meeting that he was resigning because he could not in good conscience stand behind the new school board majority, which is in the process of ending Wake's longstanding commitment to mandated diversity in schools.
Two days later, he gave pointed media interviews objecting to the majority’s plans to make extensive changes in Wake County’s diversity-based assignment patterns and other policies including mandatory year-round schools.
Among other things, Burns, in charge of the 140,000-student system since 2006, said the new board was engaging in political partisanship. Another sticking point was the new board majority’s opposition to one of his favored initiatives, the extra training time Wake schools built into teachers’ schedules this school year, resulting in early dismissal days opponents criticized as “wacky Wednesdays.”
