Elk Rapids superintendent resigns

Mar. 6—ELK RAPIDS — The Elk Rapids Schools superintendent resigned during public comment at a regular meeting of the board of education, stating she felt unsupported by trustees and that the board had repeatedly overstepped during her tenure.

Julie Brown, superintendent of Elk Rapids Schools, asked the board to not renew her contract on Monday and, instead, tendered her resignation during the public comment portion of the meeting.

Brown, who had a three-year contract with the district and received a highly effective rating in her last evaluation, cited several incidents in which she felt the board overstepped its roles and responsibilities and failed to support her.

"While I love the work I do as superintendent and I know I do the right work in the right way, I will not continue to be in a position of breaching professional ethics and compromising my character and integrity," Brown said during public comment. "It is for these reasons and more that lead me to the conclusion that I cannot continue working for this board of education and do not wish the board to extend my contract."

The school board voted 5-2 to accept Brown's resignation. Trustees Martha McGuire and Scott Moore cast the two "no" votes.

Board President Jennifer Brown, who is not related to Superintendent Brown, said after the meeting that she felt the board had been misrepresented during the superintendent's statement.

She said the board has been transparent and professional.

"I do not think we have overstepped our role in any way," board President Brown said. "Policy is our job. Supervising the superintendent is our job.

"Sometimes, that involves asking questions and, if someone's not comfortable with questions, that's not a problem of the board, that's a problem of someone not liking the questions being asked."

During her few minutes in public comment, the superintendent detailed specific dates and incidents in which she said the board was unsupportive of her, failed to ask for her account before judging her actions and prevented her from effectively enforcing school policies.

The conclusion of the superintendent's public comment brought applause from the room, including from Trustee McGuire. The rest of the board members sat silent.

Members of the community, including parents, teachers and locally elected officials, filled the Elk Rapids High School cafeteria, where the meeting was held. Several spoke during public comment, expressing a range of sentiments.

Many spoke highly of Superintendent Brown, expressed disappointment that she had decided to leave and criticized the board. Some asked board members to resign and threatened a recall.

Others expressed genuine confusion over what had transpired between the board and the superintendent, and lamented further conflict in the Elk Rapids community.

Tom Stephenson, a resident of Elk Rapids and president of the Elk Rapids Library Board, said the library board went through "a lot of grief and a lot of issues," but always looked to the superintendent as a model for their next director.

"We wanted somebody just like Julie Brown," Stephenson said. "So after hearing what I just heard, I was hoping this day would be avoided, and the conflict in this community looks like it's going to start over again."

Some who commented thanked the school board and criticized the community for spreading rumors.

"These are members of our community that we have voted in," said Jenna Morton, parent and wife of board member Derek Morton. "They have helped Elk Rapids get a huge bond passed; they show support at athletic games and school functions; they are husbands; they are wives and moms who volunteer their personal time to these meetings and committees, which cause them to miss family functions, sports games and concerts. Yet they continue to be targeted if they do not do what you like."

Before the meeting, a petition was posted online, asking the school board to renew Brown's contract. It had garnered 600 signatures as of Monday evening.

Later in the meeting, President Brown stated that the board had received communication from the superintendent in November that she was "done" and the board should start its next superintendent search.

The board had heard from the community that Superintendent Brown had responded to inquiries about her application to the open superintendent position at Kingsley Area Schools in the fall by saying that the board would not renew her contract, even though no action had been taken on the superintendent's contract at that point.

"If the superintendent had concerns about her contract and wanted it renewed, the proper channels were available for her to address these points with the board," board President Brown said. "Instead, the superintendent elected to ignore the board and engage with the public about her contract, which was inappropriate."

After the meeting, Superintendent Brown said that, at that time, she was being open and honest with community members who asked about her application to Kingsley.

But board President Brown said she felt those actions were "inappropriate," that the superintendent did not express an interest in repairing her relationship with the board, and that her actions have prompted false accusations against the board from the public.

At the end of the meeting, when Julie Brown was giving her superintendent update, she replied to some of board President Jennifer Brown's comments, and there was some back-and-forth between the two and board Vice President Holly Spencer.

Spencer and Jennifer Brown disputed some of the superintendent's comments and, at one point, Trustee McGuire asked, "Why can't we try to fix things?"

Superintendent Brown said she had not felt supported by the board since spring 2021, which is why she did not seek to rectify the relationship. She said she was done with "backdoor politics" and she gave the board some suggestions on how to move forward in seeking a new superintendent and changing some of their operations.

In response to community allegations that the board has not been transparent, the board president said she felt the board's professionalism was, instead, being taken as a lack of transparency.

"The board has been very professional through this whole process." Jennifer Brown said. "The superintendent has been out saying things that just aren't true to the community ... and the board has taken a professional approach and not been talking out of turn, doing business and meetings as we should."

After the meeting, the superintendent said she would be more than happy to have the board lay out their grievances and concerns and let it be discussed publicly so the people could see that.

Board President Jennifer Brown said she is currently unsure how the board will move forward with the superintendent search process, as they did not know how Monday's meeting was going to go.