MCSD board member, superintendent in contentious exchange over recommended hiring

District 8 representative Frank Myers and Superintendent David Lewis engaged in a contentious exchange Monday night as the Muscogee County School Board considered the recommendation to hire a new student services chief.

Lewis has recommended hiring Angela Vickers, the supervisor of educational leadership development for the Hillsborough County in Tampa, Fla. She would replace the retired Melvin Blackwell, who was MCSD’s student services chief for the past six years.

The board is scheduled to vote on the recommendation during its June 19 meeting, starting at 6 p.m.

Myers said Vickers’ original resume that board members received Friday didn’t include the names of the institutions from where she earned her degrees. The resume available to the public Monday on MCSD’s website was updated with that information: She earned a doctorate of education in organizational leadership with a specialization in conflict resolution from Nova Southeastern University in 2006, a master’s degree in educational leadership from Nova Southeastern in 1993 and a bachelor’s degree in special education from South Carolina State College in 1987.

But the updated resume still doesn’t have the names of all the schools where Vickers has worked. District 5 representative Laurie McRae asked for that information, and Lewis said it will be provided.

Vickers, according to her resume, has 29 years of experience as an educator. She has been Hillsborough’s supervisor of educational leadership since February. Her previous positions include:

▪ Technology supervisor of professional development in students services from December 2015 to January 2017.

▪ Principal of traditional, magnet and alternative schools in Tampa from April 2000 to November 2015.

▪ Adjunct professor at Nova Southeastern University, Hillsborough Community College and University of Phoenix from April 2006 to July 2012.

▪ Middle school assistant principal for student affairs and curriculum, from December 1994 to April 2000.

▪ Special-education teacher in Hillsborough and Chatham County schools from August 1988 to December 1994.

Lewis, whom the Muscogee board hired four years ago from Polk County, Fla., where he was an associate superintendent, said he doesn’t personally know Vickers but she comes highly recommended, has a “wealth of experience” and is “the best fit for our needs right now.”

Vickers is among more than 30 applicants, Lewis said, and he interviewed three of them, one an internal candidate and the other two from outside the district.

Myers complained that board members don’t get to meet the recommended candidate before they are asked to vote.

“This is a $122,000 position,” Myers said. “Unless something’s going to change … we have to take people’s words for it, and what Dr. Lewis just said, I feel sure that in his heart he believes what he’s saying, and he’s a great salesman – and I mean that in a very complimentary fashion. But the problem is — I guess this might be the lawyer in me — you’ve got to look at the evidence. … The evidence, in terms of her resume, is troubling, is amateurish and it’s embarrassing.”

Myers said his objection isn’t personal against Lewis or Vickers.

“She could have been the greatest thing since slice bread,” Myers said, “but it is time to start hiring from within. We have a morale problem in this district that gets lip service at this table tonight. … People want to believe that they can move up the chain, that they don’t have to be in the right clique. They can do the right thing, they can work hard, and they can get ahead. And people in this school district don’t believe that, and the way to bring that to an end is to send a message through Dr. Vickers that we’re not going to put up with is anymore. I’m going to vote no.”

Lewis responded, “First of all, I’m not a salesman. I’m a 38-year professional educator, and I’m a professional superintendent with a doctoral degree. … I will stand up for my constituents and my recommendations. … She’s absolutely qualified, or she wouldn’t have been considered to begin with. And finally, Mr. Myers, I want to ask you: Do you want the best person for our children in the job or just anybody?”

Myers: “I absolutely want the best person, but …”

Lewis: “Thank you.”

Myers: “You’re welcome. … The evidence doesn’t point us in that direction.”

Lewis: “That’s why you hired me, to make that decision.”

Myers: “But what you’re saying is completely contrary to what I’m reading. … This is her resume, and it is a disaster.”

Williams interjected to remind Myers that the Georgia School Boards Association training “rather strenuously” insists that the board hires only the superintendent.

“This form of micromanaging by a board member could threaten even accreditations,” Williams said. “… Although I wish we could promote from within more often, I still have to believe that he has done his work that we have tasked him to do and he is bringing forward the best candidate for this position.”

Green added that the district’s human resources department screens the candidates and it’s the superintendent’s responsibility to “build his own team. It’s his responsibility to articulate his vision and implement it, and it’s our responsibility to evaluate him. … His team members will affect his evaluation.”

Myers asked, “Then why do we vote?”

Nobody answered that question.

Questions about the resume of a candidate to be transportation director led to his resignation one day after the board voted to hire him in September.

This story was originally published June 12, 2017 at 11:14 PM with the headline "MCSD board member, superintendent in contentious exchange over recommended hiring."