Advertisement
This is member-exclusive content
icon/ui/info filled

News

GCISD denies it effectively fired Colleyville principal accused of teaching critical race theory

James Whitfield’s attorney said he has ‘no choice’ but to appear at a board hearing to save his job.

Updated at 10:35 a.m. Friday with information from the district.

Grapevine-Colleyville ISD and the attorney for James Whitfield have accused the other of mischaracterizing the board’s vote to move forward with a process that could lead to the principal’s contract not being renewed.

Dallas attorney David Henderson said in a prepared statement this week that the trustees have misled the public by calling their decision a procedural step, and that the embattled Colleyville Heritage principal must appeal to “avoid effectively being fired.”

Advertisement

“They’re obfuscating,” Henderson said Thursday about the district’s rationale for reprimanding the principal, who was placed on administrative leave Aug. 30.

Breaking News

Get the latest breaking news from North Texas and beyond.

Or with:

In a statement released Wednesday, district officials sought to clarify that the procedure is ongoing.

“Contrary to the attorney’s assertions, the Board’s vote Monday was NOT final and Dr. Whitfield has NOT effectively been fired,” the statement read. “In fact, several members of the GCISD Board of Trustees went out of their way to express Monday that they want to hear from Dr. Whitfield and give him the opportunity to respond.”

Advertisement

Whitfield, the first Black principal at the high school, has been at the center of a monthslong critical race theory controversy that began at a GCISD board meeting July 26 when a former school board candidate accused him of teaching critical race theory.

He and Henderson have been making the rounds on national television, appearing on CNN’s New Day on Thursday morning.

“Prior to July 26 … there is no mention of the nonrenewal of my contract,” Whitfield said during the interview. “I think they [school board] are underestimating the intelligence of the broader community.”

Advertisement

Henderson said that the district has given Whitfield “no choice” but to appeal the decision, which will result in a hearing that has not yet been scheduled.

“It’s never good to forecast what you intend to do in court before you’ve actually done it,” he said on CNN. “But rest assured, we’re not the people that you come to when you’re trying to avoid conflict.”

Henderson also said that they have not been given, in writing, a list of reasons why Whitfield is at risk of losing his job.

The district said in a statement Friday morning that on Tuesday, the day after the board vote, it sent Henderson and Whitfield the reasons for the proposed nonrenewal via email and certified mail.

(Courtesy Dr. James Whitfield)

The principal and his attorney released materials to The Dallas Morning News that show Whitfield was asked to improve in a number of areas in his first year at the high school, according to a performance evaluation from June 8, 2021, and a letter dated Aug. 16 from Superintendent Robin Ryan.

“You do not routinely work collaboratively with teachers and staff to assess the impact of research-based programs and interventions on student learning and achievement,” the evaluation read in part. “You do not regularly provide teachers and staff with individual feedback.”

Grapevine-Colleyville ISD spokeswoman Kristin Snively said in a statement Friday that the records provided to the media might be incomplete, and officials have asked Whitfield and his attorney what documents they have released.

The June 8 evaluation was signed by Whitfield’s supervisor Lance Groppel, executive director of instructional leadership for secondary campuses, but Whitfield refused to sign the evaluation, instead sending Groppel a rebuttal in a June 9 letter in which he explained that his first year as principal was met with challenges because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This year was a very unique year and they were not out and about due to distancing guidelines and safety,” Whitfield wrote, referring to feedback that assistant principals were not visible during his first year.

In addition, Whitfield said Groppel lacked data to back up his assertions and did not raise the issues before the evaluation.

Advertisement

“Throughout the evaluation document, you used the words ‘you did not,’ ‘you attempted,’ or ‘you have not,’ which are very definitive, matter of fact statements that are lacking in hard, relevant data to support those findings,” he wrote.

“Throughout the year, whether formal or informal, none of these findings mentioned within the evaluation document were brought to my attention by you as my supervisor as areas of growth.”

Then came the July 26 board meeting, when former school board candidate Stetson Clark claimed during the public comment portion that Whitfield had introduced critical race theory in a letter to parents and students after the murder of George Floyd last year.

Whitfield said the unity he saw across the world after Floyd’s death influenced him to write the letter, in which he encouraged students and parents to become “antiracist.”

Advertisement

The district and Whitfield have said numerous times that critical race theory, an academic framework that probes the way policies and laws uphold systemic racism, is not taught in GCISD. 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.

By Aug. 16, the letter from Ryan to Whitfield showed the rift between the district and the principal had grown wider, influenced by the July 26 meeting, as well as increased media attention brought on by an interview Whitfield gave to KXAS-TV (NBC 5) on Aug. 3.

Ryan wrote that he had a meeting with Whitfield on Aug. 11 “to let you know how your recent actions are a distraction to your staff and students and are dividing the public.”

The recent actions included the interview and a widely circulated Facebook post about how a district official asked Whitfield to remove photos from his Facebook page in 2019, shortly before he began his tenure as principal at Heritage Middle School.

Advertisement

The district maintains that the community member who brought the photos to its attention was not motivated by race, yet Ryan wrote that Whitfield “implied that the sender had racial motivations.”

Two weeks after Ryan’s letter, Whitfield was placed on paid administrative leave. And on Sept. 9, Henderson said Whitfield was called into a meeting in which he was told Ryan would recommend that the board take steps to not renew his contract.