Inglewood School Chief Suspended--but Is It Legal?

The new majority on the school board says it intends to name an acting superintendent at a special meeting Monday night, but state officials and attorneys on both sides say they aren’t sure whether the suspension of Supt. Rex Fortune at a chaotic meeting this week was legal.

Susan Lang, a spokeswoman for the state superintendent’s office, said state officials are examining the legality of the new majority’s actions and expect to decide by the end of this week whether to intervene.

Trustees William Dorn, Caroline Coleman and newly elected member Ernest Shaw voted Monday night to suspend Fortune with pay and to rescind a recent extension of his contract approved by the old majority on the board at its previous meeting.

The suspension, together with a 3-2 vote by the new majority to depose board President William (Tony) Draper and Vice President Rose Mary Benjamin, has left attorneys scrambling to determine who is in charge of the district and the school board.

Not on Agenda

At issue is whether the majority acted legally, first because the two items were not on Monday’s agenda, and second because state law requires that the full board be seated before a new president and vice president can be elected, according to board attorney Audrey Oliver. While Shaw and Coleman were sworn in Monday night, Benjamin still faces a June 4 runoff election for her seat.

Oliver said the board could not legally take either action. An attorney advising the new majority, Ralph Nutter, could not be reached for comment.

Lang said the state is trying to determine “whether they were a legally constituted board when they took their actions.”

The vote to elect a new board president and vice president came after Draper refused to allow the majority to introduce an agenda that included Fortune’s contract. Anarchy erupted when Dorn, in an attempt to wrest control of the meeting from Draper, called for an immediate vote to remove Draper from the board presidency.

While sections of the audience alternately booed and cheered--and one audience member rushed up to Dorn and threatened him with his fist--the new power bloc pushed through both the elections and the suspension as Draper pounded his gavel and claimed that the actions were illegal. Then the new majority scheduled the special meeting next Monday and immediately left the room.

At a meeting Tuesday, another school board attorney, Howard Knee, and Nutter, representing the majority, failed to work out a compromise.

In a letter delivered to Fortune on Wednesday morning, trustees Dorn, Shaw and Coleman said they intend to vote Monday on the appointment of an acting superintendent and the reassignment of Fortune’s executive assistant, Barbara Cohen, who also acts as public information officer for the district. Cohen, like Fortune, is employed under a contract with the district.

Fortune said the special meeting will be held at Crozier Junior High School at 8 p.m.

Majority members have not laid out specific objections to Fortune’s performance as superintendent. As recently as the last board meeting, when asked to state her objections to Fortune, Coleman said she had not come to a conclusion about Fortune’s tenure, and said she was “still willing to work with him if he meets the criteria the board originally set up.” She has not been available for comment since Monday’s meeting.

When contacted Tuesday, Shaw said only that Fortune is “trying to hide the fact of what he’s doing in the district, which is nothing.” Dorn has declined to comment on the issue to The Times.

The district’s teachers union, which supported Coleman and Shaw in the election, has complained that Fortune has not been responsive to teachers and has not sought their advice in running the school system.

Fortune’s defenders say he is the victim of an attempt by Inglewood Mayor Edward Vincent to gain political control the school board.

Fortune himself said he is in trouble for refusing to appoint friends of Vincent to principalships. Vincent, who backed Coleman and Shaw in the election, has denied both charges.

In an interview Wednesday, Fortune called the Monday meeting “a total fiasco,” and said he intends to carry out his duties as usual.

“I’m assuming that all actions taken Monday night are void because they were taken illegally. I’m not going to change my behavior based on illegal actions.

“I don’t know what reason they have for this action. There was no due process here. It certainly is extremely damaging to my career.

“I don’t know where things will go from here, but I have no reason to believe that simply because the majority vote shifts from one group to another that that in itself is grounds for butchering an administration that has a proven track record.”

Shaw countered that the attempt to oust Fortune was legal. “We can do anything we want to,” he said. “If it’s illegal, let him take it to court.”

While it would cost the board about $200,000 to buy out Fortune’s extended contract, Shaw said that if attempts to suspend Fortune and rescind his contract extension fail, “we will do whatever is necessary to get rid of Dr. Fortune.”

Draper said he, too, intends to finish out his term as president, which ends June 30, and he decried what he called the “blatant political jockeying and collusion” attempted by the new majority.

Draper noted that on a resume Shaw gave Cohen shortly before Monday night’s meeting, Shaw listed himself as vice president of the Inglewood school board--hours before the vote that was to take place later that evening.

“What does that tell you?” Draper asked. “Obviously they collaborated far in advance on exactly what they were going to do.”

Shaw said later that the item was “an error,” and said he had been vice president of another school board. When asked which one, Shaw replied, “I don’t remember.”