On Tuesday night, the Thomasville City School Board of Education made a motion to terminate the contract of Superintendent Raymond Bryant, Jr., which ended in a 4-3 vote during a regular board meeting. 

According to Board Chair Kejar Butler, Corey Sumner made the motion to remove Bryant as superintendent of Thomasville City Schools. 

“There was a motion to remove Dr. Bryant, or terminate Dr. Bryant, as superintendent of Thomasville City Schools,” Butler said. “There was a second and there was a 4-3 vote to remove the superintendent.”

She said that herself, Hazel Jones and Mary Scruggs opposed the motion, with the other four members of the board supporting it. 

“The board members supporting that motion were Sumner, Russel Beckham, Britney Glass and Karen Kelso,” she said. 

In regard to the decision, Butler said that the board had decided to go in a new direction and that they would be working out their next steps, including an interim superintendent, together. 

“The board has made the decision to go in a new direction and we will work to appoint an interim and discuss what our next steps our,” Butler said. 

This decision came at the conclusion of a board meeting where the board had heard from community members, including Stephan Thompson, Amy House, Curnell Henry, Kate Harden and Neal Ford. 

Thompson, a father of a child attending Jerger Elementary, spoke about Henry Flipper and the importance of education for all children, no matter their race or background. 

“Dr. Bryant was hired by the current school board and was directed to fix the Thomasville City School system,” Thompson said. “One of the major problems in the district was the poor academic performance of a large population of Black students caused partly by the segregation of schools that created four schools that are 95% Black. In that current system, a Black child starting at Harper or Scott’s School can complete high school and never sit in the classroom with their white counterpart.”

He continued on to say that said counterparts have access to better resources and that, after he began implementing new policies to spread resources more evenly, he was set upon by a campaign of rumors and lies. 

“All the while, their white counterparts have the best teachers, the best curriculum, the best learning atmosphere, the best everything,” he said. “As Dr. Bryant started to implement new policies to spread the resources to all of the students, many parents and some teachers felt like he was taking from the other children and started a campaign filled with lies, innuendo and rumors to get him fired.”

Harden, a mother of four, said that she and others have waited for the board for months to hold Dr. Bryant accountable for their many grievances, but said that her real concern was teachers. 

“For the past 18 months, the parents and teachers have waited for you seven hold one man accountable for the many grievances voiced here,” she said. “I could go over the litany of issues, but I won’t because they’re all a moot point if our school system fails to exist. Do you know what has to be in place for this system to exist? Teachers.”

She continued on in reference to the recent departure of several teachers and spoke of many that are sitting anxiously as their contracts come up for renewal, asking the board to not sacrifice the backbone of their school district. 

“At the precipice of contract renewals, they sit anxious and fearful that you will continue to allow him to stay in power,” Harden said. “Let me be clear here, this is not an attempt to promote segregation, that is not what I want and that is not what I’m fighting for. This is us asking you to not sacrifice our backbone, our teachers, just to keep one man in power.”

Beyond community input, the Board of Education approved motions to acquire stadium lights for Veterans Memorial Stadium and the replacement of exterior doors for Jerger Elementary School. 

The Board also unanimously approved the adoption of a proposed redistribution plan for the City of Thomasville school board election districts. 

A called meeting has been scheduled for March 2 at 4 p.m. within the Board Meeting Room at Thomasville City Schools.