It’s over. Danville School Superintendent Ed Newsome is no longer with the Danville Public School system. Let’s analyze what happened.
No one will know exactly what happened unless the code of silence is broken. I don’t expect that to happen because that invites lawsuits. this analysis article will be based on facts, investigation results, my opinions and common sense. It’s my analysis based on the work that I’ve put in on this story.
Let’s get it started with the Big Board…
- He didn’t “resign for personal and family reasons”. He resigned under pressure of the school board.
- Ed Newsome wasn’t fired because he was black. The Danville School Board didn’t fire him because him because they had a majority of white people on it. Get it? This wasn’t a racial issue.
- Newsome’s supporters were George Wilson, Renee Hughes and Philip Campbell. Yes, they’re all black. Newsome’s detractors were Ed Polhamus, Rebecca Bolton, Terri Hall and Cheryl Bryant. Yes, they’re all white.
- If we had a clear black/white split on the vote, how can it not be racial? Easy answer. The school board fired superintendent Ed Newsome. The school board did not fire Ed Newsome, the black man.
- Superintendent Ed Newsome had grounds to be fired. Morale was a problem in the schools due to some of Newsome’s policy implementations. Newsome clashed with the school board (his bosses) over the budget process and tried his best to muscle them into his way of doing things. The newer members of the board finally stood up against a superintendent, unlike how previous boards rubber stamped anything Sue Davis wanted.
- Yeah. those newer members of the board were white women. That doesn’t make them racist because they stood up against Newsome, as some of the people who are trying to fixate on racism think. I certainly hope and believe that they stood up against Newsome’s initiatives because they knew that they were bad ideas.
- Let’s get back to the people that fixate on racism. I stopped one of them in their tracks yesterday after they said “The school board is racist. All of the black members were sitting on the left.” My head exploded as I pointed out that Philip Campbell sits on the right side. Also, the rest of the positions were chosen by a random draw. I said “Unless you’re saying that a lottery draw is racist, you’ve got nothing.” I got silence after that. I hate stupid race-baiting comments.
- There was no government conspiracy in play when the fire marshals came in the enforce occupancy limits. Shelby Irving & Richie Guill were there to protect people’s safety and they were doing their job. I found it quite hilarious when one person decided to give Richie Guill a hard time, saying he was going to stay in the room. He folded quickly when Guill informed him that he would be subject to arrest is he didn’t follow the order to leave. That guy was the same one who tried to give me a hard time at the previous meeting because I was getting photos. He folded against me, too.
- I think it’s safe to assume that the supporters of Dr. Newsome didn’t really care about the school system’s business because they all rudely walked out once Newsome’s resignation was announced. It’s quite funny when you realize that 98% of them had never been to a school board meeting before, and I bet that they won’t be back to another one in the near future.
- Where’s the “outrage from the black community” that was said to be coming? Here’s my prediction. There isn’t going to be much. There probably isn’t going to be any. Danville’s race pimps rarely continue a battle once they’ve lost. There’s very little to get people fake-outraged now that Newsome’s gone.
- In an interesting event, Ed Newsome will be a special guest at Sunday’s Bibleway Church service. Hoo Boy.
- No, the new version of the school board will not re-hire Newsome. Not a chance in hell.
- Newsome was due $312,000 over the last 2 years of his contract. His buyout number of $160,000 was reasonable. He could have refused to resign and the board would have fired him, but Newsome was smart enough to know that a “resignation” looks a lot better than being fired.
- The school board will have to find a way to make this payoff work. No word on how that will happen yet.
I may add some things to this, but that’s my analysis on this story as for now. More coming up on SouthsideCentral!
I was hugely disappointed in the actions of Greg Hairston as head of the local NAACP. I had believed that Hairston was going to be a young and non-racist leader of this important group. Since you were there when Hairston suggested that firing Newsome would stir up old racial hostilities, do you think he was threatening? Or do you think he was merely stating what he believed was a fact. The NAACP has been an important part of our community. It was be too bad if Hairston’s behavior signaled a change in the wrong direction. I think many folks would value your opinion on this.
Greg Hairston has been President of the Danville NAACP since at latest 2007. For the past 7 or very likely more years, he is the one who has built the credibility of the organization because he is well aware that it’s all too easy for hateful people to marginalize a good organization. It makes me want to vomit that people have weakly attempted to do just that over what he indicated, which was that the black community would be up in arms over this. The room was full of people likely called to be there not by Mr. Hariston but by Bibleway. It is literally the only organization in town I believe has the ability to scale up a response from civic-minded black people on that type of notice. It is beyond obvious that this was no threat, and I say shame on the newspaper the most and shame on Bruce more than a little for vomiting out that bile. Since this is Bruce’s site, all you have to do is look at the above to see his view is that no white person had any race bias here but virtually every black person (at least those not on the board) did. That’s hogwash.
I must say Bruce, your logic in most of these are WRONG along with the facts, but I will just leave it at that…TRUTH MATTERS!!!
Proof Or Not Real. Tell me what is wrong specifically and show why.
SMH!!!!
Please David do tell the truth and facts as you see them and what is SMH?
Shaking My Head
SMH means “Shakes My Head”
It just amazes me how prior Superintendents were given the latitude they were given to make good AND bad decisions or policy, and our Board gave this gentleman less than a year to unravel the result of many bad decisions that were made before he even got here. A lot of the problems in DPS with teacher morale, overcrowding, student discipline, money, rampant disrespect were pre-Newsome; to dump it on him is really a stretch…I am far from saying that race had anything to do with him being gone now, but what is the main thing different between Dr. Newsome and prior Superintendents? The perception of it with very few concrete facts given from the Board to explain it leaves a bad taste in many peoples’ mouths. And yes I know it is only so much they can say but NOTHING?? I do agree with the point that Bruce made that it was a forced resignation………
It does seem that when these things(resignation/firing) happen there should be complete transparency from both sides on exactly what happen since it is a public issue. This should be made clear from the start in the contract.I do not believe it originally had anything to do with race.When Harriston showed up and said what he did it became more about race than the real issues we are not being told for whatever reason. You are correct in the fact that the DSP has for years done some pretty stupid things and it has not been as big of an issue as the ones Newsome created or inherited and then became a big issue.
But the fact now is that he is not here anymore and now it will be very interesting to see who will replace him.Maybe a group of teachers should take on the job as a committee that represents all the schools and their concerns for a while and see if they can fix the problems they personally are having within their jobs. That way the DPS board cam have some input in the whole thing and be first working board members now that they are being paid more. Divide the superintendent’s pay up between the teachers who want to take on the job for a year or two and see if they can come up with answers that work.
” Newsome clashed with the school board (his bosses) over the budget process and tried his best to muscle them into his way of doing things. The newer members of the board finally stood up against a superintendent, unlike how previous boards rubber stamped anything Sue Davis wanted.”
So the board is apparently learning from their past mistakes. Meanwhile, the Newsome supporters want to give him more time because Sue Davis had more time to run the district into the ground and they want to be able to repeat that same mistake?
That is a matter of opinion if his way of doing things would have been a mistake, we can clearly see the results of the past years if bad mistakes and who says the board itself had such good judgement on how things should go? Their track record is not impeccable…
I am thinking maybe some of us should attend Bibleway Sunday and we can all learn about the “white man’s game”. This is what I have been told has been said a lot at that church. Speaking of games-how about the seating arrangement in the church? Been told the highest tithers are seated at the front lowest at the back. Also been told if you can’t tithe then you are assigned jobs at the Chief Apostle Rev Bishop Lawrence G. Campbell, Jr of the world wide Bibleway Baptist Church’s home. Oh and if you need a dress to wear to church you can buy that in mother’s basement at that same house. When you see the $250,000. Burgundy Bentley pull up at the church that will be the reverend “beating the white man’s game” off of the backs of his church members who are good people and hard workers!
Newsome made some decisions that made the direction of danville schools much worse. He misrepresented the budget. He dismissed 6 additional teachers at gwhs after the budget was approved. This gave him additional funds to spend as he saw fit. Education was being dumbed down . He would speak at one school saying one thing and be totally different at another school. He told the public one thing, the teachers another thing. He was making things worse.
If this actually factual then this could have been give as a reason for them wanting him out and they could have said it, but that is a BIG IF…
You have failed to counter my logic or my arguments so far.
This comment was just ignorant…
IGNORANCE is speaking what you have heard from the mouths of others. And not actually what you have seen or heard with your own eyes and ears….Don’t believe everything you hear….
@I SEE SAID THE BLIND MAN-IGNORANCE is speaking what you have heard from the mouths of others. And not actually what you have seen or heard with your own eyes and ears….Don’t believe everything you hear…. You shouldn’t talk about what goes on in anyone’s church like Bibleway unless you have been there…
Southside Central I think it’s quite hilarious that you are fixated on “this guy” that gave Richie Guill a hard time about being able to stay in a public forum that could affect possibly his own children. I guess you also think it’s hilarious that Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of the bus, or the kids of the Greensboro sit-in at Woolworth wouldn’t move from the lunch counter. Might I add that “this guys” also gave up his seat in this school board meeting so that an elderly woman could sit down when there were no other seats available. Should I also mention that you were quite rude and obnoxious at the previous event that you had with “this guy”. Let’s remember there are people that see you for who you really are. So now you poke your chest out and boast about someone “folding” on your little blog…don’t make me laugh. Let me leave you with this….An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness and you are looking like Stevie Wonder. Please have several seats.
I don’t define “fixated” as less than 10% of an article on “this guy”. If this meeting affected “his own children”, then he must not have cared too much because he didn’t come back after the closed meeting. As for the rest of your comment, I’m not making an apology for doing my job and getting the coverage. I apologized for stepping on his shoes but explained that I was going to get my coverage. I’ll defer to Mr. Centurian regarding the Rosa Parks & Woolworth’s comments.
I don’t know if I could pull of the Stevie Wonder dreadlocks though. My name’s Bruce. First couple of beers is on me if “this guy” ever introduces himself to me.
Please tell me when any of you have been in any of the schools for any extended period of time. Unless you are in the trenches trying to get the job done day in and day out then you really have no clue what you are talking about. This was a personnel issue and as such the board is bound by law and any legally binding agreements as to what it can or cannot say. That is in no way a cop out it is a legal fact.
My sister taught in the Danville school system, retiring at the midpoint of the year.
well that does give you some perspective but what about some of the other commentators
Jaime you equate violating a fire safety law to Rosa Parks? You gotta be kidding me! That was the most lame statement I have ever seen. Wow….epic fail! Go back and read your history book if you feel the two things are the same. The guy was simply an obnoxious jerk nothing more.
I think it’s fair to say this — the School Board in meeting where it did was clearly seeking to limit the crowd gathered. They had their choice of other venues including large auditoriums at their schools if they actually wanted to allow the public to participate.
An apology with a rebuttal that follows isn’t really an apology and the fact that you have to defer to someone else is just simply laughable . I hope that you are just as passionate writing about how all this actually affects the children and less on gossip. The entire article seems a little right sided.
Yea,h you would look pretty hideous with dreadlocks
Let’s take it point by point:
1) He didn’t “resign for personal and family reasons”. He resigned under pressure of the school board.
Isn’t this one so obvious that we see “personal and family reasons” such as with Senator Phil Puckett and immediately assume it means ANYTHING but that. Weak point to start off on.
2) Ed Newsome wasn’t fired because he was black. The Danville School Board didn’t fire him because him because they had a majority of white people on it. Get it? This wasn’t a racial issue.
Dr. Newsome wasn’t fired, and he never would have been. If they had to pay him the whole balance of the contract, they would have worked it it out as a resignation. More on that later…
3) Newsome’s supporters were George Wilson, Renee Hughes and Philip Campbell. Yes, they’re all black. Newsome’s detractors were Ed Polhamus, Rebecca Bolton, Terri Hall and Cheryl Bryant. Yes, they’re all white.
If we had a clear black/white split on the vote, how can it not be racial? Easy answer. The school board fired superintendent Ed Newsome. The school board did not fire Ed Newsome, the black man.
This is completely ridiculous. It’s tantamount to saying that unless a white person makes note either orally or in writing that a person is black it can’t be a race-motivated incident but again only if it’s white on black. We’ll see Bruce’s standard when it’s different make ups shifts.
The reason for this split is that in local politics the people who get elected and particularly the people who get re-elected represent specific constituencies. Dr. Newsome included a too long marginalized black community in things and alienated a white community that didn’t want to see things change so much so fast. This is pretty obvious. I don’t think a single member of the board is racist, but they are all listening carefully to their voters and appropriately representing their interests. Danville is anything but United. That’s going to be the biggest challenge for the new Superintendent whoever it is of whatever race and religion. That person is going to have to do substantial outreach to both major part of a fractured community.
4) Superintendent Ed Newsome had grounds to be fired.
Horse puckey. If that were the case, the prior meeting would have been where it happened. We’ve seen the contract.
5) Morale was a problem in the schools due to some of Newsome’s policy implementations. Newsome clashed with the school board (his bosses) over the budget process and tried his best to muscle them into his way of doing things. The newer members of the board finally stood up against a superintendent, unlike how previous boards rubber stamped anything Sue Davis wanted.
That isn’t a valid reason for termination in the contract.
The reason the board didn’t stand up to Davis is that the black community was disaffected and felt marginalized. The white community was mostly happy with the status quo or at least happy enough. The big difference here is that Dr. Newsome actually energized a whole segment of the population who didn’t care about schools in his one year here. For that, Danville should be in his debt.
6) Yeah. those newer members of the board were white women. That doesn’t make them racist because they stood up against Newsome, as some of the people who are trying to fixate on racism think. I certainly hope and believe that they stood up against Newsome’s initiatives because they knew that they were bad ideas.
They weren’t bad ideas. They were ideas a working group developed carefully.They were just different.
7) Let’s get back to the people that fixate on racism.
You mean like the ones who foolishly labeled Greg Hairston a race baiter and tried to turn the whole conversation into how these black people haven’t ever been to meetings or hey I’m the only white guy here? No, of course you don’t mean that because you apparently have this view that race issues only go one way.
8) I stopped one of them in their tracks yesterday after they said “The school board is racist. All of the black members were sitting on the left.” My head exploded as I pointed out that Philip Campbell sits on the right side. Also, the rest of the positions were chosen by a random draw. I said “Unless you’re saying that a lottery draw is racist, you’ve got nothing.” I got silence after that. I hate stupid race-baiting comments.
You don’t hate them enough to refrain from making them.
9) There was no government conspiracy in play when the fire marshals came in the enforce occupancy limits. Shelby Irving & Richie Guill were there to protect people’s safety and they were doing their job. I found it quite hilarious when one person decided to give Richie Guill a hard time, saying he was going to stay in the room. He folded quickly when Guill informed him that he would be subject to arrest is he didn’t follow the order to leave. That guy was the same one who tried to give me a hard time at the previous meeting because I was getting photos. He folded against me, too.
This wasn’t a conspiracy on the part of the fire officials. It was on the part of the school system. They have plenty of larger venues for this type of occasion in their own buildings. They scheduled this at 4:45 on a Monday where they did because they wanted to limit response.
10) I think it’s safe to assume that the supporters of Dr. Newsome didn’t really care about the school system’s business because they all rudely walked out once Newsome’s resignation was announced.
I think you’re completely missing the statement of community outrage that represented. More on that in a few lines…
11) It’s quite funny when you realize that 98% of them had never been to a school board meeting before, and I bet that they won’t be back to another one in the near future.
They may not be at the next one, but I bet when it comes time to talk new Superintendent we see Bibleway mobilize people again.
12) Where’s the “outrage from the black community” that was said to be coming? Here’s my prediction. There isn’t going to be much. There probably isn’t going to be any. Danville’s race pimps rarely continue a battle once they’ve lost. There’s very little to get people fake-outraged now that Newsome’s gone.
The outrage comes in many forms. It came in walking out Monday. It will come in people being less engaged with the schools, particularly if the new Superintendent does not bust his or her butt to include this community. You people who want to try to make this into a race thing from that angle want to make it out that people were claiming there would be riots and cars burning in the streets. Nobody ever said that.
13) In an interesting event, Ed Newsome will be a special guest at Sunday’s Bibleway Church service. Hoo Boy.
My guess is that is going to be about how it was his choice to leave but hold the Board’s feet to the fire when it comes time for a successor. Essentially it will be a talk on how education is too precious for the black community to give up over this.
14) No, the new version of the school board will not re-hire Newsome. Not a chance in hell.
The biggest question on my mind is why did the old board do this. Was it a last gasp at doing something of note? Was it to give the new members the ability to say they weren’t involved? I agree this won’t be a re-hiring.
15) Newsome was due $312,000 over the last 2 years of his contract. His buyout number of $160,000 was reasonable. He could have refused to resign and the board would have fired him, but Newsome was smart enough to know that a “resignation” looks a lot better than being fired.
Newsome knows half that you don’t have to litigate is better than either staying on and hating life or having to litigate wrongful termination. It was a good settlement on both sides, and it was smart to get it negotiated first. Tazewell County paid a 50% premium over this ($180,000 on a $120,000 a year salary) because they weren’t so good at that.
16) The school board will have to find a way to make this payoff work. No word on how that will happen yet.
Whatever it is, it won’t be good news for the kids. I wonder by the way what this means for the facilities upgrade plan Dr. Newsome announced.
I’m not going to get into a flame war, but I take exception to your 5th rebuttal point. I don’t know who you were talking to, but I don’t know of many white DPS parents who were “happy” or “happy enough” with Sue Davis in the last couple of years. I know a lot weren’t satisfied.
Hey, that’s no fodder for a flame war. It’s a little hard to describe what I’m getting at. What I see in the community based on the people I talk to is that the dissatisfaction level before the last Superintendent was much higher among the black community than the white community. I take your point that plenty of people have felt things have been lacking a long while, but it’s just a whole different perspective on things between the two communities. What should happen and hopefully will is that both communities will end up on the same page about how things are under the next Superintendent and there won’t be this type of divide.
You are gonna have this divide until all parties sit down, talk, and take each other seriously on the issues they have. Hones dialogue has to take place no matter who it hits and then we must be man or woman enough to talk through our differences to find that common ground we need to move forward…
Isn’t it conflict of interest to vote on a board and influence your church members to mobilize on an issue. The superintendent is also speaking at the church……things that mms are you go hmmmmmmmm……..
Try to separate fact from fiction, because this is fiction!! Nobody mobilized anybody from any one particular church so give it up people…
I’m still waiting for you to correct my “facts” and tell me what I have wrong.
Tick tick tick…
I was responding to Tiffany’s comment Bruce, not the whole article! I knew a whole lot of people that were there at the meeting and most of them were NOT from Bibleway, so this mobilization conspiracy theory spoken against them is false…
Agreed.
FYI: Lawrence Campbell only came for the first meeting.
My thought is that Bibleway is the single largest organization of black people in town that involves weekly contact with its members, that is appears to me to have good relations with the other black Churches, and that there are several well connected black people who go there. Getting the message out to people who are willing to go out at the last minute for a civic cause is a big feat, and there has to be infrastructure out there to do it. I don’t see any shame in any of that. In fact I’d say just the opposite — if Bibleway was indeed responsible for the gathering of people at the first of the two meetings, good for them.
I agree Lee, just know it was not directed from there is all I’m saying…
This Lee Smallwood person is a very wise and well-grounded man, I give kudos to him for his thoughtful assessment of the “facts” or at least what you say are the “facts”!!!!! Shakes his hand…
Tiffany, people are taking issue with whether that happened or not (I tend to think it did and see nothing wrong with it), but if it did happen that way there isn’t a conflict of interest. There are plenty of times when political office-holders do exactly this. I get emails from various officials telling me to support this or that all the time, for instance. Politics is about persuasion. It’s about getting people to express their opinion and make the people who hold office start wondering if they need to listen or else they’ll be out of a job.
Great point Lee!