Last week’s enthusiasm at an outdoor rally in support of Stoneman Douglas High School’s principal moved inside Monday, to the Broward County School Board meeting.
That’s where parents lined up to back up Principal Washington Collado, the principal of the high school in Parkland.
“I’m here today to express my outrage over the firing of my principal,” one father said.
Last week parents told NBC 6 they understood that Collado's contract would not be renewed next school year – in essence firing him from his job, they said.
Not the case, said Broward Superintendent of Schools Robert Runcie.
“This is not about a principal’s performance, we are not terminating anyone, we are not disciplining anyone. Again, we want to put our principals in situations where they can be successful,” Runcie said.
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While rallying on Thursday, students and parents said school politics is why Principal Collado is being removed.
Parent Scott Ethridge said it’s a controversy involving the school cheerleaders.
“What he hasn’t measured well on is parent complaints and these complaints come, seriously, from four parents who have not liked a cheerleading decision from a couple of years ago,” Ethridge said at last week’s rally.
When Runcie was asked if the district was looking to remove a distraction, he said that was a fair assessment.
“Anything that’s distracting us from our core of what we should do, I think it's incumbent on us as part of our job to make sure that we have every school positioned to focus on student achievement,” Runcie said.
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