photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Newly elected interim superintendent Jeanice Swift talks with School Board President Kelly Jones and Board Member Carole Cadue-Blackwood at a meet and greet on Monday, August 12, 2024.

As the Lawrence school district inches closer to beginning the search for its next leader, its interim superintendent is not saying whether she will apply for the job.

Jeanice Swift declined to answer questions about her plans past serving as interim superintendent or if she would be applying for the permanent position in an email to the Journal-World. Instead, Swift wants to focus on ensuring families and the community will have a successful school year.

However, school board president Kelly Jones said in an email to the Journal-World that Swift was hired with the understanding that she would be eligible to apply for the position when the board opens applications.

“The board welcomes Dr. Swift’s application when we do,” Jones said. “For now, we are focused on the leadership contributions she’ll make as part of LPS students’ 2024-25 school year.”

Jones said the permanent search will include input from staff, faculty, students, union leadership, the board and community members. She also said the board executive committee, HR staff and the Lawrence Public Schools certified and classified union leadership had a meeting pertaining to the permanent superintendent search on Wednesday, and an exact date to begin accepting applications hasn’t been set yet.

“Because the board has good collaborators, we are on track with the timeline the board shared in July,” Jones said.

As the Journal-World reported, the board is expected to develop a request for proposals from search firms soon, and Jones estimated that the board could choose a search firm in October. Then, the search process for the permanent superintendent, including community engagement and feedback efforts, would take place between November and March. The process would allow for a new superintendent to be in place before the next school year begins. Swift’s contract runs through June 30.

Swift begins her tenure in Lawrence as some questions remain about her departure from the Ann Arbor, Michigan, school district, where she served as superintendent for a little more than 10 years. As the Journal-World reported when she was hired, Swift seemingly was asked to resign from her position in Ann Arbor, but details about what led to the resignation were sparse.

Since Swift’s Aug. 30 hiring in Lawrence, the Journal-World has reached out to district officials and others in Ann Arbor, as well as reviewed media reports from the community.

The Journal-World’s review did find that about 100 parents sent a letter to the school district calling for Swift to resign. The letter came after a parent in the school district filed a lawsuit alleging that her autistic son was physically and verbally abused by a bus aide, and the district did not review footage of the incident for five weeks. In early August of 2023, parents criticized what they said was Swift’s lack of transparency about the incident, and the letter calling for her to resign soon followed.

District officials in Ann Arbor largely declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comments when contacted by the Journal-World.

A review of past media coverage from Ann Arbor found that the school board president did call for a change in leadership in the district. The Ann Arbor Observer reported on Aug. 27, 2023 that board president Rima Mohammed at the time said she was limited as to what she could say, but believed that new leadership was needed to truly address inequities; academic achievement and resource gaps; special education services; mental health crises; and other crises that had worsened over time.

One official, school board trustee Jeff Gaynor, did provide the Journal-World with a copy of a public statement he made about four months before Swift’s departure from the district in December 2023.

Gaynor praised Swift’s dedication to the district, her professionalism and said the district had performed well during the pandemic under Swift’s direction. But Gaynor joined with critics seeking Swift’s resignation.

“Too many words, too little substance has marked the public presence of Dr. Swift,” Gaynor said in his statement. “The push to put things in positive terms comes at the cost of brushing over substantive issues and problems, or worse brushing them aside.”

Gaynor, a former district employee, said he believes teachers and staff “are more fearful to speak up than ever.” Gaynor, though, also said the board shared in the blame for issues facing the district.

“Previous boards share in the responsibility for our current environment, as they went along with most everything Dr. Swift proposed,” Gaynor said in his statement. “More trustees in the current board have asked questions or raised issues that Dr. Swift and some board members have resisted. Due to our dysfunction as a board as a whole — our egos and resentments — little has been accomplished.”

The Ann Arbor school district approved a voluntary settlement and resignation agreement with Swift, which went into effect on Dec. 31, 2023. She recently gave further comments to the Journal-World and said her record is strong at Ann Arbor, and while she is proud of her accomplishments at her previous position, eventually every chapter in all of our lives comes to a close.

“I was the longest serving superintendent in 40 years in that district,” Swift said. “We passed a billion-dollar bond to make generational changes in the physical properties of the schools. We saw remarkable growth in four years, on-time graduation rates, particularly among students who have traditionally been underserved in our schools. We persevered through the hardest time in public education beginning in March of 2020 and we did that together.”

Research by the Journal-World found that Gaynor, one of Swift’s chief critics, also was mired in controversy in the Ann Arbor district. The Michigan media website MLive.com reported in October 2021 that fellow school board members voted to remove Gaynor from his committee duties for the remainder of the year. The board cited Gaynor’s use of social media to discuss board and district business. Gaynor rejected the allegations, saying he simply was breaking with board culture of “always doing positive PR for the district,” according to the MLive.com article.

Board members, though, alleged that Gaynor publicly disclosed contents of closed executive sessions involving personnel issues and disclosed information about collective bargaining sessions on social media, according to the MLive.com article.

In the days leading up to her resignation, Swift also had her defenders in the Ann Arbor community. The AAPS Board of Education faced criticism over the potential removal of Swift, with concerns that such action could violate her contract and undermine the successful operation of the school system. Critics argued that the process surrounding her removal violated the Michigan Open Meetings Act, regulations that require public bodies to make their meetings and decision-making processes transparent, exposing the district, the Board, and individual trustees to possible civil and criminal liability, according to a letter from former trustees of the AAPS school board.

Six AAPS labor unions also wrote a letter to the school board and the community demanding the decision on Swift be rescinded and the process reopened with more transparency and objective decision making.

Swift recently told the Journal-World that she remains thankful for her time in Ann Arbor and the school district.

“It’s common across the country for changes to occur, and that happened,” Swift said. “I’m so proud and grateful for my time in Ann Arbor, and I’m extremely excited for a new chapter in Lawrence.”

Swift said moving forward, she will 100% be centered on Lawrence Public Schools.

“We are all laser focused on that one goal, and that is ensuring that the child’s experience is a quality educational experience,” she said.

“That doesn’t happen by accident,” she said. “It happens because professionals have the intention that we cherish our children, and we’re going to educate them well, and we intend to do that.”

Swift told the Journal-World that she has many items on her list for the current school year, and making connections is a high priority.

“I take this work and serving children very seriously,” Swift said. “It’s those connections and conversations with children, families and community members, and we are all together on one goal, and that’s our children.”

Looking ahead to the school year, Swift said there are several topics in front of the school board that are important to address. One of high priority, she said, is ensuring that the Lawrence school district has a strong pipeline of educators coming into the school systems and ensuring that the district can be competitive in recruiting and retaining quality staff.

This fall, she plans to do a series of meetings with staff, students, parents, families and community members to explore the topics that are top of mind for people. Toward the end of the semester, Swift plans to share a report with what people are saying and the things that have emerged as top themes for Lawrence.

Swift, who has worked in education for 36 years, said there were many things that drew her to the Lawrence role, including it being a highly engaged community that values its public schools. In addition, she said Lawrence is an exemplary school district, and that it is a place where good work can be accomplished for students while embracing diversity.

“I feel in Lawrence that there’s a real celebration of that for the beauty that it is, and that resonates with how I lead,” Swift said.