‘I kept students safe.’ Central KY superintendent ousted because of COVID decisions.

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When Clark Superintendent Paul Christy’s contract was not renewed Monday by his school board in a 3-2 vote, he pointed to his decision to keep classrooms closed during the pandemic as the reason why.

The most recent school board evaluation for Christy, superintendent since 2013, said “Clark County was one of the last counties in Kentucky to get back to school in person. Mr. Christy did not make education a top priority as other counties did. We should never make education an option as we did last year.”

“At one point, we were asking parents to adjust their schedules week by week,” the evaluation read publicly at Monday’s meeting said.

Week to week decision-making “was the governor’s directive and KDE’s directive, (the Kentucky Department of Education),” Christy told the Herald-Leader.

He said if the number of COVID cases were at a certain point each Thursday, school districts had to continue virtual learning from home instead of in-person learning in school buildings.

“That’s what we did. I had some board members that didn’t like that. I kept us out,” he said. But Christy said Clark County students were back in school buildings before some districts around them such as Fayette County. After shutting down with other Kentucky schools in March 2020, Fayette began a gradual in person return in February.

Board vice-chair Bill Taulbee, who supported Christy, said at the meeting, that “I think Mr. Christy has done a really effective job in an unprecedented time.”

Board chairwoman Ashley Ritchie, who voted to keep Christy, told him “it’s been a good run.”

But new board members, Brenda Considine and Megan Hendricks, voted along with board member Sherry Richardson, who made the motion that Christy’s contract would not be renewed for 2021-2022.

“We were doing all we could,” Christy said of his efforts to get children and teachers back in the classroom and keep everyone safe. He said he brought a few children back a few at a time until the district started a hybrid plan of both virtual and in-person and then returned four days each week. Twenty-five percent of students have decided to remain virtual.

“If I had the decisions to make again I would do the same things,” said Christy. “I can walk away knowing that I kept students safe.”

When students should return to in-person learning in the coronavirus pandemic has been controversial nationwide.

Christy said he will probably retire from a 30-year career in education when the school year ends.

Taulbee said Christy’s decisions helped the community in the long run.

Taulbee said the nonrenewal vote does not represent the views of the community members who gave Christy an outpouring of support.

He said the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability had been asked to look into the vote.

Hendricks said Tuesday her decision not to renew Christy’s year to year contract was made for a variety of reasons and repeated concerns could be seen in his current evaluation and prior evaluations.

“As it relates to the pandemic, I think the biggest issue was his refusal to communicate with the public or the Clark County School Board on the issue,” Hendricks said. “I was disappointed by Mr. Christy’s failure to consistently communicate to the School Board or the public his re-opening plans, instead he insisted on providing his plans minutes before a scheduled meeting with no real opportunity for review or input.”

Considine said her non-renewal vote was based on a variety of reasons which didn’t necessarily include the delay of returning to face-to-face instruction.

“My concerns for the district center around a focus on academics and the potential for increasing the content gaps brought on by the pandemic. Developing extensive plans on how the district will recover academically should be the critical focus for the next three years,” she said.

Richardson said she had no comment regarding Christys non-renewal of contract.