Ashley Hunter
Greene Publishing, Inc.
Madison County Excel Alternative School, located behind the Madison County High School, has recently come under fire after the accusation of a former teaching employee, Eugene Hall.
Hall sent a letter to the school board, claiming that he had witnessed various levels of student favoritism by the Principal, and that Principal, Jada Woods Williams, had allowed many students to display blatant disrespect to teachers without any repercussions. Hall also attested that teachers at the Excel School were encouraged to push their students to just take repeated tests rather than teach their students in a classroom setting.
“Jada Woods Williams requires us teachers to let the pupils take the same test on the Edgenuity software over and over and over again. If the test has more than 25 questions the kids get to take it many more times,” wrote Hall in his letter. “We were required after each time to let the pupils know which questions they missed (had wrong). By the process of elimination, the pupils would take [the] same test over again and again and again and of course, figure out which ones they needed to correct.”
Hall, in a second letter, addressed four separate accusations, such as:
Students being allowed to sleep throughout class undisturbed. According to Hall, he was told by other students that the sleeping students were not ill, but had been up all night partying and were just tired. When Hall would try to lightly awaken his students, he would be threatened by the tired student and addressed with less than respectful terms. “To my surprise, I received an email from my supervisor directing me to let them go ahead and sleep,” wrote Hall.
He had challenges with keeping his classroom in an orderly learning environment and received very little backing with his reprimands. His paraprofessional would frequently have students behind her desk to show them pictures of her family members during their outings and vacations.
The films shown to students were less than educational. “Pupils were allowed to watch Disney type films,” wrote Hall. In response to this, Hall said that he had borrowed educational films from the North Florida Community College library and presented them to his students. When he showed the students films on World War II, they were able to properly answer questions on their Edgenuity curriculum. According to Hall, when he began to show films on black American history, the television was “mysteriously removed” from his classroom.
There is excessive use of derogatory race terms within the school. Hall attempted to inform his students of the negative connotations, only to be appalled that his paraprofessional “found it acceptable” to use those words when speaking to the students. Hall attested that he spoke with Principal Williams about this cause for alarm, but has seen no evidence that the incident was ever recorded or dealt with.
Before receiving his letter of contract non-renewal, Hall said that some of his students knew of it before he did, prompting, taunting and disrespect. One student in particular proudly claimed that she was the cause of getting his contract non-renewed.
In light of these serious concerns, Hall sent a letter to the members of the Madison County School Board, but upon receiving no response, he sent it instead to the Inspector General for the Florida Department of Education.
The office of the inspector general responded by saying that under Florida constitution, local school districts are charged with the power and authority to operate, control and supervise the schools within the district
“Upon our review of the information provided to this office, we have concluded your concerns would best be handled through [the] Madison County School District,” wrote Oscar Restrepo, Director of Investigations in a letter of response to Hall.
The office of the Inspector General also sent a letter to Superintendent Doug Brown, informing him that they were aware of the letter but were handing the investigations to the school district.
After this point, Hall contacted his local newspaper, Greene Publishing, Inc., as he felt the community needed to be made aware of what he believed to be taking place at the Madison County Excel Alternative Education Center.
Many of the board members from the Madison County School Board were contacted, including District 3 representative (where the Excel School is located) and chairperson of the board, VeEtta Hagan.
According to Hagan, her concerns regarding Hall's letter were ones that the board needed to take quite seriously.
“When we have allegations of this kind at any school, we need to address those concerns in a timely manner,” said Hagan. Instead, the board took awhile to respond to Hall, forcing him to go to the Inspector General. “We need to listen to people,” Hagan adds.
District 2 board member, Kenny Hall found the accusations to be hardly unsettling. “Hall is just a disgruntled employee,” said Hall. As Eugene Hall's contract of employment had not been renewed by Principal Jada Woods Williams, this could be Hall's way of lashing out. In Hall's second letter, he also addressed that his employment contract not being renewed placed his finances in a “dire situation.” In Kenny Hall's consideration, Eugene Hall's accusations had no weight. “It's just one of those things,” said Kenny Hall. “Hall is just not a good teacher.”
Karen Pickles, board member for District 4, had a more open outlook to Hall's accusations against the Excel School, saying that both herself and the board are attempting to be objective. “We are being told that this is a disgruntled employee,” said Pickles. “[But] we have to take both sides into account. You have to look at all the evidence.” According to Pickles, there are cameras within the school, and the investigation, which is being conducted by a private firm, will include going through the evidence.
Superintendent Doug Brown had no personal concerns or comment to add to the situation, but did say that the investigation is currently on-going and the findings would be shared with the Inspector General's office. “The issues raised by Mr. Hall are being actively investigated by the District,” said Brown. “Once the investigation is completed, results of the investigation will be forwarded to the Inspector General's office at the Florida Department of Education.”
On Tuesday, Sept. 27, the district held a workshop meeting where the matter of the Excel School investigation was brought up. Brown also implied that the investigation should be completed by mid-October.
Principal Jada Williams could not be reached to provide her comment regarding the accusations against herself, her staff or her school.
Greene Publishing, Inc. will be following the story and will keep Madison County informed of updates within the investigation.