Sudden resignation: Venable principal steps down mid-year
Write a letter to the editor
Leatherwood meets with parents after the official announcement.PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER
4pm update: According to City schools spokesperson Cass Cannon, the school board accepted the resignation of Venable principal Jamie Mathieson last night.
5:30pm update: The interim principal will be longtime city schools official Kenneth Leatherwood, who currently serves as the Coordinator of Human Resources. A five-year veteran of the top job at Charlottesville High School, Leatherwood is former history teacher and varsity basketball coach. “This will be a different kind of situation for me,” says Leatherwood, “but I look forward to it.”
Original story:
Less than a day after a closed-session personnel meeting by the Charlottesville City School Board, a suddenly-announced meeting at Venable School has some parents concerned.
“It seems strange that the principal is neither calling nor leading a meeting that was called on such short notice,” says one parent who asked not to be named.
Venable has a high concentration of professors’ children along with less privileged kids.FILE PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR
The meeting, slated for 3:30pm Friday, September 17, will bring together Venable parents and Charlottesville School Superintendant Rosa Atkins in the school auditorium.
The principal is Jamie Mathieson, who came to the UVA-area public school in the fall of 2008 after several years as the principal of Madison Primary School in Madison County.
A telephoned request to the Venable School found that Mathieson is “not available today.”
Schools spokesperson Cass Cannon tells the Hook she doesn’t know what the meeting is about. Ditto for the official who sent the meeting announcement to parents with just 21 hours notice.
“The staff is meeting at 3:15, and Dr. Atkins is meeting with parents at 3:30,” says assistant principal Valeta Paige, “but as for the content I have no idea.”
Original headline: Sudden confab: Surprise Venable school meeting has parents worried
haha Great photo caption. I’m just wondering how the fact that there’s royalty and poor peasants mixed up together in the same classroom has to do with anything, or this mysterious last minute meeting….
Ummm, is this really a story until the meeting has taken place?
For those who would like to attend this meeting, of course it’s newsworthy.
Do you mean the parents who have already been invited? Who else goes to school meetings where the departure of a principal is announced?
Uh oh. There’s that recommendation from a bunch of eggheads saying the city should close a school. And no word what the subject of the meeting is…
This counts as smoke, no?
Well, “closed-door personnel meeting yesterday” and “today’s meeting called on short notice but not by the principal” suggests to me that the principal was sacked.
Oh. Wish I’d read the article better. Also wish my comment would be deleted.
“Yes” is probably right. the venable story right now is totally messy and sordid and gross and sad, and involves many different people. yuck.
the adminstration at this school is mess right now. mathieson is the third principal in the past six years. they sacked the last person after two years for unknown reasons. they will now have some interim person take over for a year, and start over again. the one big positive is the teachers, who are for the most part great.
Maybe Scottie Griffin is coming back as Principal.
Never has so little been said in a Hook article…
“Mid-year”? Didn’t schools start two weeks ago?
What happened? Do tell.
Leatherwood won’t put with / respond to the Venable Uber-Mommies like the previous administration. This is a great thing for the kids who need more from this school and from our limited public resources. I believe that the focus of elementary education in this City outpost will move away from the Quest kids, the hand-picked “student government”, and from parents frothing for more plans for their kids who are already on the 10th grade reading level.
I’d LOVE to see a published transcript of the parents meeting for community review/comment; I was impressed with Dr. Atkins and shocked/embarrassed/humored by many of the comments from parents.
This morning’s cup of coffee is a great one.
-Perplexed Educator & Venable Parent
Bereal there is such emphasis on Quest at Venable that they haven’t had much of a program last year as the teacher was on leave a lot of the year, this year the program was rolled into a whole class program for all kids. Added to that they currently have no Quest teacher she has been relocated. So I don’t get your point.
Venable is (still) a great school regardless of it’s recent management difficulties. The involved parents,pricks they may be at times, do have the students(theirs first)best interests at heart. The teachers for the most are great. There are a cliquish few who are painfully insecure regarding their own qualifications and they are always fighting any change. I believe some may not even be able to write a sentence without a typo. That small group, along with some uneducated aides,are continually creating issues. As a parent, I have had these toadies complain about their issues to me, basically sharing information that should be addressed in staff meetings, and hoping that I would spread their mumbled ill will. I hope that Leatherwood will not fall prey to these types.
Why, when was Quest teacher relocated? Does this have something to do with the principal’s resignation? I wonder if the climate at Venable will ever be the same…
Nature abhors a vacuum. In the absence of any information regarding the reasons for Mathieson’s resignation, it will be invented through speculation. Most Venable parents (myself included) wholly support Dr. Atkins and the board in their efforts to provide for the students, search for a principal, and support current staff. Keeping parents completely in the dark is not only a bad idea, it’s an improper and reflects a remarkably small buireaucratic attitude toward administration of public resources generally.
I seriously hope they revisit this posture and choose to keep parents informed.
’sad’ I think some people think the two facts are related, the relocation was announced at the same meeting but as everyone points out there is no information about anything so its all gossip/speculation at this point.
One more interesting detail: at the parents meeting Dr. Atkins mentioned that the board had accepted Mathieson’s resignation at 8 p.m. Thursday.
The call notifying parents went out at 6:02.
The school board officially accepted his resignation at 8 p.m., but there was a closed door session of the school board that started prior to the public meeting. I imagine most of the details were ironed out in that meeting, allowing the robo-call to go to parents as soon as the closed door session ended and before the public meeting started.
I double checked my facts. There was a closed door session prior to Wednesday’s meeting and the only thing on the agenda was “personnel matters”. Thursday’s closed door session took place after the meeting. I’m still going to guess that after Wednesday’s meeting everything was in place to formally accept the resignation on Thursday.
Everyone knows what really happened by now. Just ask one of the Venable “ubermommies” at your kid’s next soccer game. I did. The school can’t comment on personel matters, or they get sued. That is the truth, you can’t even give someone a positive reference anymore. All you can say is that they either did or didn’t work for you. Anything else you risk being sued. Aren’t lawyers great! Postings on here or any other site aren’t truly anonymous either unless you do it from a library or internet cafe in a third world country. The agrieved party can still get the ISP address of the poster if they get a court order. That’s why I don’t put a password on my WiFi, cause then I can claim somebody parked in front of the house…
Everyone knows what really happened by now. Just ask one of the Venable “ubermommies” at your kid’s next soccer game. I did. The school can’t comment on personel matters, or they get sued. That is the truth, you can’t even give someone a positive reference anymore. All you can say is that they either did or didn’t work for you. Anything else you risk being sued. Aren’t lawyers great! Postings on here or any other site aren’t truly anonymous either unless you do it from a library or internet cafe in a third world country. The agrieved party can still get the ISP address of the poster if they get a court order. That’s why I don’t put a password on my WiFi, cause then I can claim somebody parked in front of the trailer…
So, Morris: You got a house or a trailer?
Article was pointless for most of Charlottesville and in general didn’t offer up a lot of information. This is a blurb. The comments are hysterical though, made this school sound like some elitist, gossip center full of overly-involved parents. Hope everything works out for the sake of the children.
Morris is trying to cover all of his bases. He probably subscribes to Town AND Country.
On a related note, free WiFi outside the old Shifflett places! Morris is buying, so be sure to drop to download your favorite copyrighted music and movies and to share your recently produced cockfight videos and snuff films.
They need a landing pad outside that school for all the helicopter parents.
I am intrigued by the comments from “Perplexed Educator & Venable Parent” (aka “bereal”). You are obviously the best-informed of anyone — including the press. I am certain that the Charlottesville populace will appreciate your highly-respected, anonymous insight.
Explain please how public parental name-calling serves a positive, nurturing and constructive benefit to the Venable student body, community and culture which you are professionally obligated to cooperatively champion?
Honestly, this passive-aggressive/gossip-creation thing doesn’t work for you. Rather than publicizing your personal agenda-driven swan song, perhaps your interests might better be served through fulfilling your brief and remaining professional committment through actively encouraging some semblance of dignity and respect to the school community.
Despite bereal’s misgivings, teaching is still an honorable profession. And Venable deserves better.
btw Anyone who knows anything about modern American education these days should be fully aware that ANY involvement of parents is a positive situation. Do your homework.
Ubermommy and educator with a conscience
Monty Hall could ask everyone to guess what’s behind curtain number two.
I guess now that bel rio is closed the jackals have found a new chew toy….