Racial job claim difficult

There isn't much room for compromise when the person you have demoted says your "mistreatment" of him is "strictly racially-based."

That's what Donald Gist, the lawyer for principal Ronnie Burgess, told me after the Horry County Board of Education turned down Burgess' appeal to remain head of the Academy for Arts, Science and Technology.

He surprised me. He then he went on to point out that all of the white board members voted to uphold the decision made by schools superintendent Cindy Elsberry while the lone black member voted in favor of Burgess.

This all came after several of Burgess' colleagues, students and parents of students - black and white - made impassioned pleas on his behalf, many of them reminding the board about the students he inspired to get through school, how he has been a stalwart role model and the numerous national awards won by the schools Burgess has overseen. The Academy was recently named one of only 30 High Schools That Work Pacesetter Schools in the nation.

Gist said the basis for his race-based claim will be made clear in a lawsuit he plans to file on behalf of Burgess against the district. It must, for it's hard to make a judgment about the veracity of that harsh claim without more information being made public.

I didn't expect the board to overturn Elsberry's decision. She makes such decisions every year and will have to make tougher ones. There must be overwhelming evidence for the board to overrule her.

But neither did I expect this to become an ugly fight. I'm still hoping it doesn't.

The teachers I know who have worked with Burgess, including my wife, said he is a top-notch professional and a rock-solid human being. That description certainly applies to Elsberry and members of the school board as well. But everyone involved in this unfolding drama is hamstrung by a history that has left lingering racial suspicions that are fueled by ever-present inequalities within the school system and beyond.

As long as those inequalities persist, a white superintendent's decision to remove a black principal will have the potential to be seen as more than a simple decision made by a boss about one of her charges.

I wish that wasn't the reality. But it is.

What I also wish is that the public be made privy to all of Elsberry's concerns. Saying Burgess had leadership issues sheds little light on why a man who has seemingly accomplished a great deal in his career would need to be demoted.

But the board can't provide that information because Burgess and his attorney have not allowed them to. Maybe there's sound legal reasoning behind that choice.

I remember the board being criticized a few years ago for not being transparent enough during the search for a new superintendent.

They can't be blamed for that lack of transparency this time.