Parents, pastors, NAACP members and an attorney protesting to keep Dr. Evelyn “Bonnie” Gamble-Hilton as principal of Langston Chapel Middle School prompted the Bulloch County Board of Education to restructure its Thursday night work session.
But nothing had been resolved when the board adjourned and the crowd went home nearly three hours later. The board did not override Superintendent of Schools Charles Wilson’s decision to reassign Gamble-Hilton to Southeast Bulloch High School as an assistant principal, and her supporters left promising a court challenge and protests at future board meetings and calling for Wilson to be fired.
The Bulloch County Branch of the NAACP had announced a 6 p.m. press conference, held in front of the Board of Education’s office building, before the board started its 6:30 p.m. regular monthly work session.
“We’re here today with a broad coalition of citizens of Bulloch County,” announced Gamble-Hilton’s attorney, Francys Johnson. “We’re here to address their concerns with information they are recently receiving about the demotion and the transfer of Dr. Gamble-Hilton from her current position as principal of Langston-Chapel Middle School.
“This action is not a new action,” Johnson said. “It was an action that was tried and failed three years ago. It was discriminatory, it was unjust then, and it’s discriminatory and unjust now, and make no mistake about it, it will not stand. Charles Wilson, as superintendent of this school district, has lost the confidence of the members of this community.”
The board had previously voted to renew the contracts of all principals, but Wilson exercises administrative authority to reassign principals to different schools. He had asserted that the reassignment to assistant principal brought “no change to Dr. Gamble-Hilton’s salary, responsibilities and prestige,” an emailed statement from the board office stated.
After remarks by Bulloch County NAACP President Pearl Brown and others, the group of more than 50 citizens proceeded into the boardroom, where their number grew to about 70. The board gave leaders of the group a little over 15 minutes to make public comments.
Besides calling Gamble-Hilton’s reassignment a demotion, those who spoke in her support said it fits a pattern of actions to push out or diminish black female administrators and influential teachers.
A motion by the two black board members to “intervene” in the decision was tabled by the white board members present.
Postponing open discussion of things such as the budget, the board went into closed session to discuss personnel actions early, and stayed behind closed doors for an hour and a half. Meanwhile, testimonials in support of Gamble-Hilton, along with some singing and a prayer, were voiced and broadcast through social media by citizens who remained in the boardroom.
At the end of the evening, the board had a written statement, not explicitly put to a vote, supporting “the superintendent’s roles and responsibilities to make administrative decisions, including internal transfers.”
A more thorough story will appear in the Statesboro Herald this weekend.