BY STEVEN STIEFEL
FOR THE OBSERVER
LEE COUNTY — The controversy at South Smiths Station Elementary School intensified during the April 15 Lee County Board of Education meeting, where teachers and community members criticized Superintendent Mike Howard for his handling of a curriculum compliance investigation.
Cole Johnson, father of a third grader at the school, said parents are angry not only about Principal Teresa Phillips being placed on administrative leave during the investigation but also outraged about what he described as unprofessional and inflammatory behavior by district leadership.
“The faculty was accused of being toxic, racist, part of ‘mean girl’ cliques,” Johnson said. “The superintendent told them he was ashamed to be their leader and labeled their actions disgusting — all over some alleged text messages.”
Johnson claimed the assistant superintendent’s personal life became the justification for Superintendent Mike Howard dressing down the entire staff, which Johnson argued should have been handled privately. He also questioned whether the investigation stemmed from the alleged messages or pre-existing concerns about curriculum noncompliance.
“We’ve heard at least five different timelines and contradictory explanations about how the investigation began,” Johnson said.
He expressed outrage that Howard refused to name other schools found out of compliance while allowing his son’s school to be “dragged through the mud.” Johnson also demanded details about the audit conducted by the Bailey Group, calling it a waste of taxpayer money for a school he said allegedly suffers from mold, sewage backups and rodent infestations.
“This whole thing feels like a witch hunt sparked by someone’s hurt feelings,” Johnson said. “Sports equipment seems to matter more than the health and safety of our children. Every time it rains, the roof in the cafeteria pours water that’s held at bay by trash cans. I invite all of you board members to go eat lunch in the cafeteria during the next rainstorm and see for yourself. In my opinion, this investigation is an enormous waste of everyone’s time and energy.”
Howard responded after the meeting, promising to investigate allegations of disrepair immediately.
“My IT director looked at me when [Johnson] mentioned exposed cables being chewed on by rats,” Howard said. “If cables are being chewed, that means we don’t have internet — but we have perfect internet in the building. Admittedly, South is the oldest building that we have, and it’s a Frankenstein, which means it was built over decades and added on. I agree the place needs to be upgraded badly, but the school is used 12 months out of the year. Do I bring portables in and put [students] in trailers? We are obligated by the literacy and numeracy acts to have school for those students in the summer that are not on grade level. I’m kind of in a catch-22 situation.”
Howard told reporters the curriculum noncompliance came to light a year-and-a-half ago through internal observations.
“We had a teacher or two that we knew of [out of compliance], and that was when we started taking corrective actions,” he said. “I had hoped it would be fixed. As we progressed through the whole course of the year, we realized it hadn’t been corrected.”
When the issue persisted, the state Department of Education alerted district leaders during an in-person meeting.
Howard acknowledged making strong remarks during a Jan. 9 faculty meeting, where he called some of the staff’s behavior “disgusting” and said he was “ashamed to be their superintendent.”
His 13 minutes of comments “have been blown way out of proportion,” Howard said. “I was not going to speak, because that was the assistant superintendent’s role to speak to them about the non-compliance, but a few days prior, some teachers start passing around photos of [the assistant superintendent’s family member who] was arrested, and made the comment that ‘if she can’t handle her household, I’m not listening to anything she tells me to do.’ And then this employee is in my office crying her eyes out.”
Howard said he took offense that the assistant superintendent “being bullied.”
“I’m not going to let my employee be bashed that way,” he said. “Her personal issue had nothing to do with her professional life, and it’s just uncalled for. That’s why I stepped in. They can come after me. I don’t like it, but I’d rather they come back to me than her, because she’s a victim who’s being treated like she’s the perpetrator. That’s not right.”
Howard said other schools quietly corrected noncompliance issues, while the South Smiths controversy became public due to internal backlash.
“The issue is not personal,” he said. “It’s about following approved curriculum. Teachers cannot replace state-approved materials with unvetted resources. That’s called supplanting, and it’s not allowed.”
He compared the situation to internet use, saying it’s not about the tool itself but the content accessed.
“We love the internet — we’re on emails,” Howard said. “Is there material on that internet that’s unsafe and should not be seen by anyone? We wouldn’t give you permission to look at those websites, but we’re giving you permission to look at the internet and use it. It’s not what you’re using. It’s the tool itself. When you go around the approval process, it’s a problem. The process exists to protect students and ensure everyone teaches the right material.”
Howard also defended the district’s audit process and warned of the consequences of ongoing noncompliance, including potential loss of state funding and staff layoffs.
“I take that very seriously, because you’re talking about people’s lives now, potentially being fired because somebody’s not doing their job, forcing them not to do theirs and they’re going to get let go,” he said. “You’re also going to jeopardize the other schools that have nothing to do with this. They’re going to lose their coaches. Why should somebody else be punished because this person over here is not doing their job correctly? That’s not the way things supposed to work. People believe what they want to believe, and emotion is hard to reason with.”
Howard also said no faculty group has requested to meet with him directly and noted board members have been advised not to meet individually with staff to avoid legal conflicts.
“We could’ve handled this quietly, but that didn’t happen,” he said. “Instead, it was brought to a board meeting and spiraled.”
Community member Jacob Harvey and teachers Jamie Johnson, Kristina Singletary and Ashley Roberson also spoke at the meeting. Alabama Education Association representative Izaak Standridge criticized the district’s response and said a more constructive, collaborative approach would have better served students and faculty.
Standridge said he discovered the Alabama Reading Initiative and the Office of Math Improvement “do not check for compliance and they do not enact punitive measures.”
“I think that would have been a better way to think about this situation,” he said. “Instead of using charged words and making everyone believe that something terrible had transpired in the district, there could have been a conversation around ways to improve classroom instruction and teach with more fidelity. Taking that route could have created more buy-in from the faculty and staff itself, which could have resulted in positive outcomes for the student and the entire school community.”
