Adviser Update Adviser Update Spring 2017 | Page 31
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maintains new principal highly
qualified, best candidate.”
All of a sudden, the mountain
was rocky. The superintendent
dismissed all points discussed in
the Booster’s article and said their
information was irrelevant.
On Sunday, April 2, the district
announced a special board
meeting for Tuesday, April 4.
Needless to say, it was a very long
weekend as we waited for the
special board meeting.
Monday came and went. Tuesday,
April 4, started out a normal day.
In the publications room, tension
was high. Around noon, the faculty
received an email announcing
an emergency faculty meeting
immediately after school.
During the faculty meeting,
the superintendent said Amy
Robertson had failed to produce a
transcript for a bachelor’s degree
from the University of Tulsa. She
had attended, but did not graduate.
She had stopped communicating
with him. If she did not submit her
resignation to the board
by the meeting that evening,
the board of education would
terminate her contract.
During the meeting the
superintendent did not mention
the students and their article. He
did not mention The Morning Sun’s
article in which he dismissed their
concerns.
While in the staff meeting, The
Kansas City Star posted a story
about the newly hired principal.
Little did we know, this was the
beginning of the brewing media
storm.
That evening, the students, their
parents and I attended the board
meeting. The board opened the
meeting and immediately voted
to go into executive session for
10 minutes. The board returned
from executive session and read a
statement. Robertson submitted a
letter of resignation and the board
voted to accept it.
gallery
Once again, the students and their
article were not mentioned.
That evening, I was contacted by
The Washington Post. The story
printed during the night and
the next morning was a media
explosion. My inbox was flooded
with emails, our phones were
ringing off the hook and all of
our social media accounts were
inundated with messages, tweets
and posts.
The students have been featured in
every major publication, from T
he
New York Times to The Washington
Post, from CNN to Good Morning
America, from CBS News to N
PR.
In fact, the students did so
many interviews across so many
platforms, I can’t even keep it all