Parent and community groups unhappy with Fairfax schools Superintendent Jack Dale are voicing their complaints more vigorously in the run-up to a vote on renewing his contract.
Fairgrade, a parent group founded around an effort to convert the schools’ grading scale to make an ‘A’ slightly easier to earn, sent out an email to its supporters last week informing them of the upcoming renewal.
“Fairgrade has legitimate concerns about Superintendent Dale’s leadership,” the note said. It went on to remind readers of Dale’s initial disapproval of the grade scale change, and of questions of transparency with regard to proposed renovations of a new and expensive administration building.
While the schools’ chief has received high marks from the school board and much of the community for overall student achievement levels, many criticize him for a reluctance to engage with less satisfied groups, like Fairgrade.
“There are things about Dale’s performance that are exemplary,” said school board member Martina Hone. “But if there’s an area where community and board members have legitimate concerns, it’s the multiple shortcomings we’ve experienced in his community outreach.”
Hone cited an e-mail sent to her by a parent member of the district’s advisory committee for children with disabilities. The writer complained that in all of her years on the committee, Dale had never attended a meeting.
A similar concern came from John Johnson, chairman of the education committee for the county’s NAACP, and a member of the district’s advisory committee on minority student achievement.
Dale “has not been great in terms of community outreach, and the school board has not been good at it, either,” Johnson said. “That has been a demonstrated weakness.”
Johnson said his advisory committee had been asking nearly for five years for a plan to increase minorities’ academic success, and a draft did not arrive until earlier this month.
And as the district has had to make program cuts to deal with tough budgets, Johnson said they’ve cut programs beneficial to minorities with less-than-adequate discussion or transparency.
The vote for renewal will likely take place in September, about one year before Dale’s four-year contract is set to expire. The early vote is typical in large districts to ensure adequate time for finding someone new, should a change be necessary.
School board members expect Dale will stay on, though there is debate over renewing the contract for three years, meaning the current board would vote for another renewal, or for four years. The next renewal would then come from a newly-installed board.
