Updated at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday with more details.
In a vote Monday night, Grapevine-Colleyville ISD trustees set into motion a process that could lead to the nonrenewal of Colleyville Heritage Principal James Whitfield’s contract.
In the nearly five-hour meeting, the seven-member board voted unanimously in a procedural move to “hear Dr. Whitfield’s side,” board president Jorge Rodríguez said.
Whitfield, the first Black principal at the high school, has been at the center of a two-month critical race theory controversy that began at a GCISD board meeting July 26 when a former school board candidate accused him of teaching CRT.
District officials said, however, that the reason Whitfield was placed on administrative leave Aug. 30 had nothing to do with the accusations. Superintendent Robin Ryan said that Whitfield had exhibited “insubordinate” behavior and that he attempted to hide public records by deleting emails and was dishonest with the news media.
The vote moves the district one step closer to not renewing the administrator’s contract next year.
Whitfield has 15 days to respond to the vote indicating that he would like to appear before the board in a hearing. He told reporters after the meeting adjourned that he plans to be at the hearing, according to KERA-FM (90.1).
“The attacks from people outside is one thing, but the outright silence and direct actions taken towards me by the leadership team are what’s absolutely heartbreaking,” Whitfield said during the public forum portion in Monday night’s meeting, before the vote. “I can assure you I have not changed. I’m still the same man today as when you hired me in ‘18-’19. ... So I ask you: What has changed since July 26?”
During Monday night’s open session, all 35 speakers — parents and CHHS students — spoke in support of Whitfield, rallying around the administrator, who was seated in the second row with his wife, Kerrie.
Many supporters asked the board to stay true to the district’s diverse student population, where 59 home languages are spoken, GCISD spokeswoman Kristin Snively told The Dallas Morning News in May.
According to 2020 data, the district is 53% white, 25% Hispanic, 10% Asian and 6% Black.
“Don’t Southlake my Grapevine,” one speaker said, referring to neighboring Carroll ISD’s long-simmering controversy over diversity, race and CRT.
Critical race theory is an academic framework that probes the way policies and laws uphold systemic racism. After months of back-and-forth, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a bill that aims to further ban critical race theory from Texas classrooms, even after educators and advocacy groups fought against the move for months.
The Whitfield case has drawn national attention, as has Southlake, which is the focus of a new NBC News podcast.
On Friday, Whitfield and civil rights attorney David Henderson appeared on MSNBC’s The ReidOut with host Joy Reid.
“Our story is the journey of so many educators who are being harassed throughout the country with hateful, racist, intolerant rhetoric focused on disrupting public education,” Whitfield posted Saturday on Facebook.
The decision to move toward ending Whitfield’s three-year tenure in the district came during Ryan’s report, in which the board voted to “consider giving notice of proposed non-renewal of Dr. James Whitfield’s term contract.”
Before that, in the meeting’s executive session, Ryan recommended to the board that they “vote to give notice of proposed nonrenewal to Dr. James Whitfield and direct the Superintendent to provide timely notice to Dr. James Whitfield. Additionally, the Board authorizes the Superintendent to take all actions reasonably necessary related to this proposed nonrenewal,” according to a published agenda.
