School board fires former West High principal, offers no info on superintendent resignation

West High School Principal Ford White paints alongside volunteers from Fidelity Investments at the Salt Lake City school on April 27, 2019. | Silas Walker, Deseret News

Ford White says he isn’t sure if he’ll appeal decision

SALT LAKE CITY — A popular principal at West High School was fired by the Salt Lake School District Thursday, the same day its board met behind closed doors regrading the abrupt and unexplained resignation of Superintendent Lexi Cunningham and business administrator Janet Roberts.

“Earlier today, the Salt Lake City School District informed Principal (Ford) White that it was terminating him,” said his attorney Michael Teter in a prepared statement. “This action stems from events that occurred during the morning of Nov. 14, 2019, when Principal White encountered three female students who appeared to be sick on campus. Once Principal White determined that they were likely intoxicated, he addressed the matter without resorting to involving the police.”

The district placed White on leave the following day, and students staged a walkout in support of him. Teter said after White was placed on leave, district officials “warned him about speaking publicly about the matter while the district spent the next two months investigating.

“The district’s investigation never involved meeting with Principal White, however.”

Teter said that while the district “demanded” White’s silence, it distributed “numerous” public releases and statements and went “so far as to send multiple alerts to West High School parents via text, email and robocalls whenever it makes an announcement on the matter.”

While White’s attorney said he was still “carefully considering his next steps,” district officials said White’s status hasn’t officially changed with them.

Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Bradley Thornton holds a sign as he and other West High School students protest the suspension of Principal Ford White in Salt Lake City on Tuesday Nov. 20, 2019. Salt Lake City School District officials placed White on paid administrative leave for an undisclosed reason.

“Mr. White was made aware today that the investigation on the school district’s end has concluded, and that meeting took place earlier today,” said Yándary Chatwin, director of communications and government relations. “Currently his status is on administrative leave. He has a small window of time to be able to appeal any decision. So for the time being, his status is still on administrative leave.”

Chatwin confirmed the district’s decision after the Salt Lake City Board of Education met in a short executive session late Thursday afternoon and emerged to briefly address the recent resignations of Cunningham and Roberts.

Board President Tiffany Sandberg gave a statement but it shed no new light why Cunningham and Roberts suddenly stepped down or whether, as some media have reported, they were forced out of their positions.

“Superintendent Cunningham and business administrator Roberts resigned. We want to thank them for their service to the Salt Lake City School District and wish them well in the future. We will continue to work together in a collaborative manner throughout the rest of this school year. We will not be making any comments to the press at this time,” she said.

Sandberg did not reply to reporters’ questions.

When asked if the board voted in executive session in a meeting Jan. 21 to end Cunningham’s contract or ask for her resignation, Chatwin said she was not in the board’s executive session and had no personal knowledge what occurred in the meeting.

Cunningham’s current contract runs through June 30, 2020.

“In the contract it does says there isn’t guarantee of renewal but if the board intends to not renew that contract they have to provide written notice by Jan. 31, which is tomorrow,” she said. To Chatwin’s knowledge, that has not occurred, she said.

Roberts’ contract also ends June 30 and both plan to stay with the district until the end of their contracts, Chatwin said.

Roberts has worked for the school district for 27 years, in recent years as its business administrator.

Cunningham was appointed superintendent of the Salt Lake City School District in 2016 after a nationwide search.

In November, she was named a finalist for the superintendency of Peoria Unified School District in Arizona, where she taught and served as principal for 17 years. She also has family in the area. Another candidate was ultimately hired.

Earlier this month, Cunningham was selected as a finalist to lead the Hillsborough County Public Schools in Tampa, Florida, but was not selected for the position, according to press accounts and the district website.

In her resignation letter to the board, Cunningham wrote that she planned to pursue “the next adventure” in her career but did not elaborate.

Regarding White’s termination, Teter said the events involving the intoxicated students at West High School are more complicated than the school district has led the public to believe.

“They involve real crises and emergent concerns that the district, in its letter terminating Principal White, nonchalantly labeled ‘fairly routine and typical.’ When the public learns more of the day’s context, they will be surprised, if not disturbed, by the district’s view that it considers the events ‘fairly routine and typical’ within its schools,” the attorney said.

White was put on leave at the same time the principal of Uintah Elementary School was put on leave. A message was recently posted on the elementary school’s website that introduces Bruce P. Simpson as the interim principal for the remainder of the year. There has never been an explanation from the district about why the principal was placed on leave.

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