Dr. Stone with a child during Northlake’s ‘Career Day’
Richardson ISD superintendent Dr. Jeannie Stone is expected to announce her resignation, sources close to the district leader say. The 2019 Texas Superintendent of the Year has been convening behind closed doors with RISD trustees and attorneys to negotiate a separation agreement, according to insiders.
Stone and board president Regina Harris did not return requests for comment.
The crisis at RISD’s administration building has been brewing for months as the anti-mask, anti-vax, anti-DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), anti-SEL (social emotional learning) faction battled district officials who had implemented such programs. School board meetings became opportunities for some parents – and a few people from outside the district – to advocate for their position and hurl personal attacks at trustees and administrative staff.
The ugliness came to a head in September when then-board president Karen Clardy, representing Lake Highlands’ District 5, resigned in discouraged frustration. Since that time, Stone has juggled educating the district’s 40,000 schoolchildren during a pandemic with retaining the confidence of her elected bosses on the board.
Currently, the average RISD trustee has less than 2 years of experience.
Stone infuriated some in 2018 when she created the district’s diversity, equity and inclusion committee and in 2020 when she sat down to listen to the “demands” of then-Lake Highlands High School senior Osadolor Osawemwenze and other students who shared personal experiences they said demonstrated racism within the district. (Osawemwenze is now a sophomore at Stanford University.) Parents began showing up to public meetings sporting “Fire Stone” t-shirts after she implemented a COVID-19 mask mandate.
(Note: Stone recently announced that masks in schools will be optional after Christmas break due to the availability of vaccines for schoolchildren.)
The expected announcement of Stone’s departure calls to mind current chaos scenarios in other districts across the metroplex and around the country. A school board in Grapevine-Colleyville parted ways with a principal there because they said he allowed teaching of “critical race theory.” In Oregon, a superintendent was fired for upholding statewide mask mandates. NBC’s “Southlake” podcast chronicles disagreements in the DFW suburb which have attracted big dollars for school board races and divided neighborhoods.
The details of Stone’s separation agreement with RISD have not yet been made public or formally approved by a vote of the board, but her departure is likely to be expensive for RISD taxpayers. Stone has 2.5 years left on her contract, and her base salary is $327,087.
Stone joined RISD in 2015 as deputy superintendent, and she has served 5 years in her current role. Tabitha Branum currently serves as deputy superintendent and would likely step in as interim super while a search committee interviews candidates.
