Opinion | The Montgomery school system is in a self-made mess

Who would want to take on the job of overseeing Montgomery’s public school system? 

That’s a legitimate question.  

Because the way outgoing Superintendent Melvin Brown has been treated – pushed out the door, belittled, insulted publicly and defamed by members of the school board – what qualified, experienced, worthy candidate would ever dream of stooping to accepting this job? 

Brown was forced Tuesday to release a video, with an assist from the Alabama Education Association, in which he refuted degrading comments made about him and his family by MPS board member Lesa Keith. Those comments dealt with Brown’s personal life and were made by Keith, for some reason, on a local Montgomery radio talk show. 

Brown asked that Keith retract the comments – a move that seems to be the first step in a lawsuit. 

But lawsuit or not, what are we doing here? 

Do public schools in general, and public schools in Montgomery specifically, not have enough problems and face enough challenges in this state that there’s really no need to create more? Especially this sort of embarrassing, nonsensical problem that serves only to damage the reputations of all involved, and certainly cannot aid a district in attracting a new, quality superintendent. 

 To that end, I called the superintendent of another school system near Montgomery – a person who makes substantially less than what Brown was being paid – and asked if he was going to apply. 

The phone went dead. 

A few seconds later, the person called back and said, “Sorry about that, but I just wanted to make a point about how absolutely certain I am that no amount of money is worth dealing with that drama.” 

And really, there is no better description than “drama” to explain what has occurred in Montgomery over the past few weeks – where four people have driven out a superintendent who seemed to be well liked by pretty much everyone. 

Having covered the Montgomery school system for years, and paid attention to it from afar for the past several years, I can’t express to you how rare that is. A superintendent who was moving the district in the right direction and had the backing of teachers, local leaders and the business community was considered a unicorn – a mythical creature that people had been told existed but that they’d never experienced. 

Brown was that guy. Until he got crossways with a couple of board members over unbelievably petty issues. 

And the bickering behind the scenes began. Sometimes the friction between Brown and a handful of board members would spill out into the public view at meetings, where snide comments or unnecessarily sharp remarks would be made, but mostly the problems remained behind the curtain. Which is why so many people were surprised when they heard the board had voted not to renew Brown’s contract. And then learned that Brown was going to resign. 

Somewhere along the way, someone should have backed down. Maybe Brown could have done more to squash the beef. One of the four board members – that’s a majority on a board of seven – should have allowed common sense and a consideration of what’s best for the district and those thousands of children it serves to be a guide. 

But as often the case with rulers of tiny kingdoms, the power was worth more than the chaos. 

So, here we are, with yet another mess within MPS. And by extension, a mess for the city. 

Already, there is a movement to identify candidates to run against the four board members who pushed Brown out. And there’s talk of a write-in campaign against board member Arica Watkins-Smith, who is on the ballot unopposed in a few weeks and who is seen by many – rightly or wrongly – as the one who led the charge against Brown. 

But none of that will matter much unless some attitudes change in Montgomery. Until some people grow up and stop with the absurd name-calling and public spats, it won’t matter. Until some people learn how to treat others in the workplace and learn what it means to be part of a team, it won’t matter. 

And until grown folks set aside the pettiness and egos and put the system and the students above all else, it won’t matter. Not even a little.