In surprise move, Phenix City board spares superintendent job talk — ‘for now’
The Phenix City Board of Education and embattled superintendent Janet Sherrod were scheduled to discuss her job performance and contract during Thursday night’s meeting.
That didn’t happen.
In a surprise move, board member Florence Bellamy opened the meeting with a motion to amend the agenda: Delete the item about discussing Sherrod’s job performance and contract.
The seven-member board approved the motion — without public discussion — with five yes votes. Brady Baird voted no, and Elliott Patrick abstained.
The discussion was delayed from Tuesday to Thursday night after board attorney Bob Meadows told the board “new information … came to my attention within the last hour and a half, and I need to fully develop that in order to properly present that to the board.”
After Thursday night’s meeting, Sherrod and board members the Ledger-Enquirer approached either didn’t stop to answer questions or declined to answer them.
“All I can say is she’s still the superintendent for right now,” Meadows told the L-E.
Asked whether he is negotiating with Sherrod’s lawyer, Meadows said, “I can’t tell you that either.”
How Janet Sherrod became Phenix City Schools superintendent
Randy Wilkes ended his eight-year tenure as Phenix City Schools superintendent in June 2022, when he resigned to become the first superintendent of a new school district in Orange Beach. After a yearlong search, the PCBOE voted 4-3 in May 2023 to hire Sherrod from Tuscaloosa City Schools, where she was executive director of learning support.
During that meeting, the board emerged from a closed session of approximately 15 minutes and, without public discussion, appointed Sherrod in a split vote. Katrina Collier-Long made the motion, seconded by Elliott Patrick. Board chair Yolaunda Daniel and Florence Bellamy also voted yes. Brady Baird, KeAnthony Brooks and Jonathan Taylor voted no.
Janet Sherrod’s contract with Phenix City Board of Education
Sherrod’s three-year contract, with an annual salary of $185,000, runs through June 2026. The contract may be terminated at any time by mutual agreement of the parties. The superintendent may unilaterally terminate the contract for any reason if she gives the board written notice at least 90 days in advance.
In such circumstances, the board must pay Sherrod any compensation due until the effective date of the termination. The board may fire Sherrod without cause if it gives her written notice at least seven days in advance after voting at a public meeting.
In such circumstances, the board must pay the superintendent the compensation she is owed through the entire contract. The board also may fire Sherrod for cause “but not for political or personal reasons,” the contract says.
The contract defines cause as “incompetency, immorality, misconduct in office, insubordination, neglect of duty, or a conviction or plea of guilty or nolo contendere to a felony or a crime involving moral turpitude or other good and just cause.”
In such circumstances, the board must notify Sherrod in writing the intent to fire her for cause and the specific rationale. Upon notification, she would be placed on paid leave and entitled to a hearing before the board. The board must wait at least 30 days to conduct the hearing.
During such a hearing, Sherrod may be represented by legal counsel and would have the right to present testimony, cross-examine witnesses and call her own witnesses. At the end of such a hearing, if the board votes to fire Sherrod, the board’s obligations to her cease, and the contract is terminated
Previous time PCBOE met to discuss superintendent’s job performance
One year into her Phenix City tenure, rumblings about Sherrod’s job performance came to a head at a standing-room-only meeting July 1, 2024.
The board met in closed session for approximately an hour to discuss what was described as “pending or threatened litigation.” Then, following a contentious discussion in open session about two undisclosed personnel items (identified by only numbers), board member Jonathan Taylor made an announcement when the agenda item titled “superintendent’s contract” came up.
“I asked this to be put on the agenda,” Taylor said. “And I’m requesting that, after further thought and consideration, this item be removed. We’re going to begin to strategize and set goals for Dr. Sherrod at our soon-to-be-scheduled retreat. The future is bright.”
The crowd applauded that news.
After the meeting, Taylor declined to specify to the Ledger-Enquirer any details about the dispute, citing what he said was advice from the board’s attorney, Bob Meadows.
The Ledger-Enquirer asked Sherrod for her reaction to the support as she was surrounded by well-wishers.
“My work speaks for itself,” she said.
Evaluations of Phenix City superintendent Janet Sherrod
According to the June 13, 2024, PCBOE meeting agenda, the board’s seven members rated the superintendent in 10 categories. On a scale of 1-4, their average rating was a 2 in all the categories, assessing Sherrod in:
- Being the CEO of the school board
- Educational leadership of the school system
- Personnel management
- Community relations
- Management of pupil and personnel services
- Communication, interpersonal relations and partnerships
- Professional development and leadership
- Technology management
- Facility management
- Financial management.
Fast-forward to July 17 of this year, when the board’s second evaluation of Sherrod was presented. Her overall average score slipped to 1.7. But another evaluation of the superintendent presented during that meeting, this one from 17 of her direct reports in the administration, shows a different opinion. Sherrod’s overall average score from that assessment is a 2.9.
Current issue with Accelerated Academy
The current conflict between Sherrod and some board members is about the PCS Accelerated Academy, which invites the top 180 qualified students coming out of elementary school, starting in sixth grade, to take courses at higher grade levels after showing mastery of the content at their current grade level.
Baird told the Ledger-Enquirer this week that he and some other board members are upset with Sherrod’s “failure to effectively plan” for how the state’s curriculum changes would affect the the Accelerated Academy,
Despite the Alabama State Department of Education announcing its new curriculum standards “years and months prior to the changes being implemented,” Baird said, Sherrod didn’t provide the state proper documentation to continue the Accelerated Academy this year.
“Our system was completely unprepared to incorporate these changes into a program that has served academically motivated students and families for over 11 years,” Baird said, “and I cannot, for the life of me, understand how we would allow that to happen.”
Sherrod hasn’t replied to the Ledger-Enquirer’s requests to respond to that criticism.
This story was originally published August 21, 2025 at 9:12 PM.
