Colleyville Heritage principal requests hearing before school board to discuss contract
James Whitfield, the first Black principal at Colleyville Heritage High School, has asked for a hearing to appeal the possible nonrenewal of his contract.
Last month, the board voted unanimously to authorize the superintendent to notify Whitfield of the proposed nonrenewal of his contract.
On Monday, Whitfield’s attorney David Henderson sent a copy of the appeal letter to the Star-Telegram. The letter requested that Whitfield have an open hearing in front of the school board.
Henderson said in an email that the hearing will likely be on Nov. 9. Although the exact date hasn’t been set, he said there should be a decision by the end of the week.
Kristin Snively, a spokeswoman for the school district, said the appeal request was received on Oct. 4, but no hearing date has been scheduled.
In July, Whitfield came under scrutiny when former school board candidate Stetson Clark called for his firing over accusations that he taught and promoted critical race theory which Whitfield denied.
Shortly after the meeting, Whitfield wrote in a lengthy Facebook post that he had been the target of racial attacks since posting about the death of George Floyd. He described how he was asked to remove from social media anniversary photos he and his wife, who is white, had taken on the beach.
Whitfield said school officials were using his race as reasons for not renewing his contract, but school officials said the nonrenewal notice had nothing to do with race or the photos.
During the Sept. 20 board meeting, Superintendent Robin Ryan and the district’s human resources director listed some of the reasons why the district was notifying Whitfield of the possibility that his contract wouldn’t be renewed. Some of the reasons included lack of communication, email communications with a party outside the district and accusations of hiding public records from discovery by deleting them from sent items and trash folders.
But Whitfield also stated that he was not given a chance to defend himself at the school board meeting and that he was only given 60 seconds to speak. The district countered that Whitfield had the same amount of time allotted to other speakers because of time constraints.
The Grapevine-Colleyville district is also facing a federal lawsuit from Mitchell Ryan who alleged that his constitutional right to free speech was violated during an Aug. 23 meeting when board president Jorge Rodriguez repeatedly stopped him from speaking when he said Whitfield’s name. The suit alleges that Rodriguez allowed others who spoke in support of Whitfield to use his name.
The school district has a policy prohibiting people from publicly naming employees during public comment portions of board meetings.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman did not grant Ryan’s motion for a temporary restraining order against the district enforcing its speech policy because he wanted proof from Ryan that his constitutional rights were being violated.
Pittman also said in his ruling that he was concerned about the district’s uneven implementation of the policy and that it merited review. An evidentiary hearing is scheduled at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Pittman’s court.