The day after Myles Wilson was dismissed as superintendent of Fayette County Schools, CORR (Commission on Religion and Race) organized a boycott at Fayette Ware High School and urged African-American students to walk out. They did. (Photo by Dr. Isaac Richmond)

Fayette County, Tennessee has had its share of racial problems in the past. But after a majority of the school board voted to buy out the contract of the school director, it seemed like deja vu all over again, an African-American school board member said.

An unresolved federal school desegregation lawsuit, filed in the 1969-70 school year, is another reason Marandy Wilkerson contends that race was a motivating factor in ousting Myles Wilson, an African American who had been director, or superintendent, of the district’s 10 schools since 2001.

Fayette County Educators Association President Ike Hentrel (left) meets with Fayette County Public Schools Superintendent Myles Wilson (center) and Osceola “Sonny” Hicks, principal of Fayette-Ware Comprehensive High School. (Tri-State Defender file photo by Earl Stanback)

After the board voted 5-4 along racial lines on Dec. 3 to buy out Wilson’s contract, Wilkerson resigned as chairman, but not from the board where she has served for 14 years.

It was clear, she said, that the white board members had usurped her authority as chairman.

“It appeared that they had contacted people and told them it (the ouster vote) was going to happen that night. We had more people at that board meeting than we normally do,” said Wilkerson. “They had to discuss it among themselves. This is a violation of the Sunshine law….It was a total surprise to the black board members.”

 School board member David Barnes said there was no secret meeting to remove Wilson. “Under the open meetings law, there was no way we could contact her (or anyone else) to discuss it,” he said.

Wilson said he now is contemplating legal action.

The move to oust Wilson boiled down to five bullet points – that he:

• Did not collect tuition money from 22 of 39 students and did not report a bonus to teachers;

• Violated federal law by releasing the Social Security numbers of teachers to a medical provider;

• Failed to reinstate some teachers’ union payroll deductions when the board directed him to;

• Violated board policy by paying Fayette County Schools’ director of transportation a salary after he was suspended for allegedly raping a 13- or 14-year-old East Junior High School student; and,

 • Enrolled students in the wrong school per the consent order, etc., which some items violate state law.

Wilkerson said Wilson was ousted by hotheads who rushed to judgment to make a name for themselves. She was incensed that Wilson was asked to vacate the office immediately after the vote.

“It was very denigrating. The more I think about it, the more I think the vote was racially motivated.”

Wilson is still being paid until his fate is determined at the next board meeting on Jan. 7 at Fayette Ware High School, where meetings are held the first Thursday of each month.

Meanwhile, the district’s top educator is not permitted to the board office or business office without being escorted by the board chairman or the pro tem.

Taking it to the streets

Barnes said the decision to buy out Wilson’s contract had nothing to do with race. “We took a vote and it happened that five whites voted one way and four blacks voted another way,” he said.

If there is any racial tension, “it’s because a small group of people in the community is causing it,” he said.

Barnes did not name a group nor any person. However, a civil rights and human rights group called CORR (Commission on Religion and Race) urged African-American students at Fayette Ware High School to walk out on Dec. 4 and each succeeding Friday until Wilson is reinstated as superintendent.

“Many of the students walked out or stayed at home for two consecutive Fridays,” said Dr. Isaac Richmond, CORR’s national director. “We’re boycotting on Fridays and calling for everybody in the black community to be at the next board meeting to paralyze that meeting.”

The superintendent is appointed by the school board to a four-year term. There are no term limits. Wilson was paid a salary of $108,000. The district could buy out his contract for $150,000 to $175,000, which is due to expire June 30, 2011, said Barnes.

After the initial vote, Wilkerson called a second meeting to try to get Wilson reinstated. “Ms. (Marandy) Wilkerson motioned twice to reinstate Mr. Wilson. To me, that is about race. And if I had changed my vote, it would be based on race as well,” said Bryon O’Brien, who voted to remove Wilson.

He said it is unfortunate that race is contributing to the fallout between blacks and whites on the school board and between Fayette County residents as well.

“It’s not that Mr. Wilson hasn’t done a great job, but Fayette County is growing. Mr. Wilson has been in the system for over 40 years. It was time for a change in leadership,” he said.

“I like Mr. Wilson. I (recently) sat down with him and talked to him about building unity on the board. I wanted to see if he had an answer for our racial differences on the board. He didn’t have an answer.”

Constituents, said O’Brien, didn’t elect board members “to fight about skin color.”

Order to desegregate

The Fayette County Board of Education has more problems to contend with than Wilson’s dismissal. The district still hasn’t complied with a decades-old desegregation order and applicable federal law.

“Frankly, this was before I was born,” said O’Brien. Nevertheless, he is hoping the school board, mayor of Fayette County and the County Commission resolve the matter as expeditiously as possible.

“One of the problems is that we were supposed to close both Somerville Elementary and Jefferson Elementary decades ago. But that hasn’t happened,” said O’Brien.

The federal court initially ordered Somerville and Jefferson to merge. Since that didn’t happen, a recent federal court ordered both schools closed and a new one built. The school board is still waiting on funding from the County Commission.  

The school system is divided into nine zones. Jefferson and Somerville are located in Zone III. Students in each zone must attend the school in that zone, with some exceptions, according to the Justice Department’s desegregation plan.

Another problem is that Oakland Elementary, a predominantly white school with a capacity for 600 students, had increased its enrollment to 900. And Southwest Elementary, a predominantly black school, has an enrollment of 119 students.

Southwest is located in Macon, Tenn., and Oakland, one of two elementary schools in Zone II (the other is Oakland Consolidated), is located in Oakland, Tenn., a growing populous bustling with new housing development.

As superintendent, Wilson said he eliminated the 6th-grade and added 8 classrooms to reduce overcrowding at Oakland. “Still the school was crowded. So now it’s K-3,” he said. “The residents in that area want their children to attend the Oakland schools and they want a high school in the area as well.”

With an influx of Memphians moving to Oakland, Wilkerson said the residents were unhappy because their children had to move out of Oakland to a nearby school because of crowding.     

“I think they are upset with the court order, because they want their children to attend the school of their choice,” added Wilson, an intervening plaintiff in the original desegregation court order for the 1969-70 school year.

“I was one of 13 single black males who filed a federal lawsuit to desegregate the schools in Fayette County for that school year,” he said. “We were successful. You couldn’t have a black school or a white school any longer.”

Barnes and O’Brien agree that the embattled Wilson played a role in improving the test scores of students in a system that the state listed as failing based on national norms for the No Child Left Behind Act.

Barnes said, “It’s more than the efforts of one man.”