Hearings for former Willow Run Superintendent Doris Hope-Jackson to stretch into August
Hearings into whether Willow Run school district administrator Doris Hope-Jackson “defrauded” the district and violated her contract will continue into August, six months after she was placed on administrative leave.
School board members have been conducting the hearings since the middle of June. The hearings have been closed to the public at the request of Hope-Jackson. State law allows her to choose whether she wants the hearings in closed or open session.
Doris Hope-Jackson
Both sides have been calling witnesses and presenting various documents as evidence.
The due process hearing is the end of a long road for the school board in its attempts to fire Hope-Jackson, who was demoted from her position as superintendent in December and was placed on paid administrative leave in February.
Hope-Jackson has also filed a lawsuit against the district, saying she is being fired in retaliation by the board after she filed a police report alleging verbal assault from board President Sheri Washington. Her lawyer recently said all the claims by the district are false.
The hearing schedule calls for the board to spend the bulk of today and Monday in the hearings before taking a break until Aug. 3. The last scheduled hearing at this point is set for Aug. 6.
Hope-Jackson is being paid her $122,000 salary while on leave. If she is fired with cause, the district doesn’t have to buy out the remaining two years on her contract.
Parent Claude Terry, who has two high school sons in the district, said he's upset the hearings are taking so long.
“I think she’s just dragging her feet to get more money out of them," he said. "They need to get rid of her fast.”
Parent Ericka Melton, who has a daughter at the middle school, said she’s glad the board is holding the hearings.
“(Hope-Jackson) and (Washington) have been fighting for a while," she said. "I hope the board takes its time to get the whole story and doesn’t rush into firing her and then running into problems with lawsuits and having to pay out more money.”
David Jesse covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at davidjesse@annarbor.com or at 734-623-2534.
Comments
15crown00
Wed, Jul 21, 2010 : 11:23 p.m.
pay the loser off and get rid of her.
krc
Sun, Jul 18, 2010 : 11:24 a.m.
"Because a sentence against a bad work has not been executed speedily, it becomes fully set in the heart of a man (or woman) to do bad." - Ecclesiastes 8:11. Applies here, don't you think?
stunhsif
Sat, Jul 17, 2010 : 10:52 a.m.
This school board is getting what they deserve. Proper vetting to begin with would, and this problem would never have come to fruition.
scooter dog
Fri, Jul 16, 2010 : 3:25 p.m.
and when the district loses,they get to pay ALL of her attorney costs also
CountyKate
Fri, Jul 16, 2010 : 3:17 p.m.
Mikey2u, I agree with you, to some extent. I still see a lot of good administrators. Unfortunately, I also see a lot of the Hope-Jackson type. And I see a lot of school boards that can't seem to tell the difference between a good administrator and one who gets along on smoke and mirrors. I think a lot of school board members could benefit from some training in hiring skills, so they aren't taken advantage of so often. If we had more people who knew how to "take the measure of a man," school districts might prove to be less of a refuge and these miscreants would have to find different professions.
Mikey2u
Fri, Jul 16, 2010 : 1:53 p.m.
Doris Hope-Jackson is emblematic of an educational system that has incorporated social-promotion as a tool used to reduce a perceived achievement gap. Public schools administration has become a refuge for the incompetent and unqualified.