Few details have been released about former Charleston County School District Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait's departure in the five days since the school board accepted her resignation.
Her departure happened so suddenly that one of Charleston County's board members, Cindy Bohn Coats, wasn't able to attend either of the two meetings during which it was discussed. In an interview with The Post and Courier she said that she still doesn't know the reason for Postlewait's resignation.
Kristen French, another member of the board, declined to speak about the reasoning behind Postlewait's resignation, saying it was confidential information.
"Anytime that a superintendent and the board have a situation where one of the parties wants to end the contract, it is very complicated and it is very private," she said.
The remaining board members, Eric Mack, Kate Darby, Courtney Waters, Joyce Green, Erica Cokley, Helen Frazier and Lauren Herterich, did not respond to multiple calls or emails requesting information about Postlewait's departure.
The school board first discussed Postlewait's resignation during a closed-door meeting on Dec. 16 out of the public's view. Board members were only given a couple day's notice that the meeting was happening. They made no decisions on Postlewait's departure at the time, but called a second meeting on Dec. 29. Board members only got one day's notice before the meeting was held.
During the Dec. 29 meeting the school board voted 6-1 to accept Postlewait's resignation after a 1½-hour closed-door session.
French said the board understands public concerns but that the process of an employee leaving the district has to remain confidential.
"The public needs to understand that because it involves an employee, there are a lot of restrictions about what can be made transparent," she said.
Postlewait's departure has led to confusion among community members and education leaders in Charleston, many of whom feel that the public deserves more information about why the superintendent left. Postlewait, who has been in the role since 2015, received an overall "good" rating on her Sept. 13 evaluation from the board. Seven board members supported this rating. French was the only one who voted against it.
French said she couldn't speak to any issues the rest of the board had with Postlewait's performance, but said that she herself has been frustrated with the lack of progress the district has made on addressing the achievement gaps between White and minority students.
A number of initiatives started during Postlewait's seven-year tenure aimed to address those gaps, including the district's mission-critical actions plan, the Achieve Charleston initiative, the district's Cultural Competency Team and the new Reimagine Schools initiative, which the board will vote on at its Jan. 17 meeting. All of those programs aimed to close gaps by implementing extended-learning time, providing more resources in classrooms and partnering with nonprofits like Meeting Street Schools and the Coastal Community Foundation. Some programs like the district's mission critical program were introduced shortly before the pandemic.
"We haven't seen a fruition of that, we haven't seen much difference in the performance of the students," French said.
Results from the 2020-21 Measures of Academic Progress tests showed only 36 percent of Hispanic and 32 percent of Black students meet national averages, while over 80 percent of their White classmates achieve the same.
Black education leaders in the community have been frustrated with the lack of progress over the years and hope the district's next superintendent will put more emphasis on closing those gaps.
"You're talking about a superintendent that had seven years in the district and the achievement gap has not closed," said Kevin Hollinshead, a former CCSD board member and education advocate. "The only thing they can hold their hats on is closing down African American schools and shifting African Americans around, which doesn't solve the achievement gap."
Hollinshead and Chris Collins, another former school board member, both said the board and school district should work toward better transparency, as the superintendent's departure caused concerns.
"From the way that it unfolded, it's obvious that there have been some discussions about it in the past that have been building up to this," Collins said. "It didn't come overnight. That's clear."
Postlewait isn't the first South Carolina superintendent to leave her position in the middle of the past few school years. Christina Melton, who was the superintendent for Lexington Richland School District Five near Columbia, was forced to resign during a board meeting on June 14. In Dorchester District 4, Kelvin Wymbs resigned from his position on Oct. 8.
Postlewait's last day was Jan. 2, but she'll continue to work with the district until June 30 in some capacity. What that role will be remains to be seen. Don Kennedy, the district's chief financial officer, stepped in as interim superintendent on Jan. 3.
The former superintendent did not respond to requests for comment. In a three paragraph statement the district sent out the night her resignation was announced, she didn't provide a reason for why she was leaving. She gave her best wishes to the board, school district and students for continued success.
