A termination hearing for a former Greenwood Public School District administrator has been on hold for a month because of repeated scheduling conflicts.
The hearing for Assistant Superintendent Mary Brown, who was fired by district Superintendent Montrell Greene in October, last convened Jan. 16.
Since, attorneys for Brown and the school district have been unable to find agreeable dates to resume testimony.
Brown had overseen curriculum in the district for about a year and a half prior to her firing. She is also a former principal at East School in Leflore County and at Williams Elementary in Greenwood.
The hearing on Brown’s firing has been open to the public at her request.
In firing Brown, Greene cited insubordination and violations of district policies, including Brown’s decision to air complaints of mistreatment, harassment and intimidation of her by Greene during a half-hour recorded interview with Greenwood talk show host Lee Hall, which was later broadcast online and on the radio.
Brown has maintained that her termination came after she’d been harassed and bullied by Greene. She has said the firing was an act of retaliation for her criticism of Greene, including testimony during the non-renewal hearing for former Greenwood High School Principal Percy Powell last spring that the superintendent had instructed her to intimidate witnesses — charges Greene has denied.
Brown’s attorney, Lisa Ross of Jackson, has argued that her client’s firing violated her First Amendment free speech rights.
School Board Attorney Carlos Palmer, who is representing the district in the hearing, has argued that Brown failed to follow the proper procedure for filing a grievance and that her public airing of complaints violated several district policies.
When the hearing resumes — no date has yet been set — Greene is scheduled to retake the witness stand. Greene has spent three days on the witness stand in the hearing so far, but when the proceedings last broke on Jan. 16, Ross had indicated she still wasn’t through with her cross-examination of the superintendent.
Greene is the third witness to be called so far in the hearing. Hall, the radio host who has also been streaming video of the proceedings over the Internet at www.gwoodlive.com, was the first witness called and testified for several hours.
District Deputy Superintendent Chester Leigh also spent three days and nearly 20 hours answering questions about Brown’s conduct, performance and relationship with Greene, which Leigh said became strained after Brown testimony during the Powell hearing.
Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
