Investigation of racial harassment complaint clears school superintendent
September 22, 2020 | By Lisa Scagliotti
Brigid Nease. File photo by Gordon Miller.
UPDATE: This story has been updated since its original post.
An independent investigation into how the Harwood Union School District superintendent handled a racial harassment incident in 2016 has cleared the school’s top administrator, according to school board leaders.
The Harwood Union School Board chair and vice chair shared that information in a brief email announcement to local news media on Sept. 18.
The message states: “The Board learned of allegations that … Superintendent [Brigid Nease] failed to properly respond when she learned of an incident involving use of racial epithet by one student directed at another. We concluded that the seriousness of the allegations warranted an external and independent investigation. The investigator issued a report on September 11, 2020 finding that the charges were unsubstantiated and that there was no wrongdoing by the Superintendent. We now consider the matter closed.”
When asked for more details about the investigation including whether the report would be released, board Chair Caitlin Hollister said Burlington lawyer Ellen Coogan conducted the inquiry. Hollister cited state statutes regarding privacy that would prevent the district from sharing the report with the public as it “contains confidential student information.”
The Valley Reporter and Waterbury Roundabout have requested the investigator’s report on the matter with names withheld if necessary to protect privacy. Hollister said the district’s legal counsel would review to redact student and employee names in order to release the report. She said it contains details that can clarify the circumstances around the incident, particularly involving the response at the time it occurred.
The incident in question came to light last spring in a Front Porch Forum post by a parent. It referenced an interaction between elementary school students that happened in 2016. The school board addressed the issue at its June 10 meeting. “We will be proceeding with an investigation conducted by an impartial third party,” Hollister said at the time.
Nease on June 7 responded to the complaint and its allegation that she mishandled an incident involving racial harassment: “I abhor racism and racists, and have never spoken in an ambivalent way about institutional racism.”
The public mention of the incident came just as national attention was focused on racial injustice following the death of George Floyd, a Black man in Minnesota, at the hands of Minneapolis police. That incident touched off protests around the U.S. including Vermont where there has been a growing call for attention to anti-racism actions, discussions, and training including within school communities.
In the Harwood Union district, Nease later in June announced the creation of an advisory task force to focus on issues of racial discrimination, harassment and awareness. That group is to be led by two principals -- Tom Drake, principal at Crossett Brook Middle School, and Sarah Schoolcraft, assistant principal at Thatcher Brook Primary School. It is to include 12-16 members including students, staff and community members.
Drake this week said the focus on reopening schools given the COVID-19 pandemic has been the priority for school administrators and staff in recent weeks and that the anti-racism group has not gotten started in earnest yet. He said he expects it will begin in the near future. The principals suggested soon after the task force was announced that the district raise Black Lives Matter flags on school campuses but after discussion with the school board, that step was put on hold given that school was not in session.
“The raising of BLM flags at our schools will be on our early agendas, I would think,” Drake noted in an email reply to the Waterbury Roundabout this week.
The school board has also discussed prioritizing incorporating anti-racism efforts into its work for the coming year. The board recently decided to invite Hal Colston to help initiate those steps. Colston is a Democratic state representative from Winooski who works as a facilitator with the Snelling Center for Government and Burlington’s Peace and Justice Center on social and racial justice issues.
The timing of the 2016 incident and complaint against Nease also came as community members in late spring discussed the school board's consideration of Nease’s employment contract. The school board in June conducted Nease’s job review and deliberated on the status of Nease’s contract which was to expire at the end of June 2021. The board approved a two-year extension of Nease’s contract with the new agreement running through June 2022. It called for a 3 percent salary increase for Nease for the current school year, bringing her salary to $148,567, with a provision for a raise next year of the same percentage teachers’ salaries will increase for fiscal year 2022.