School Board Suspends Superintendent

There were probably some concerned citizens whose children attend Monroe City School wondering when the day would come when the Monroe City School Board would take some form of action against Superintendent Brent Vidrine. The embattled superintendent is currently under investigation for alleged “misconduct” issues of a financial nature that have not been made public. Attempts were made at past meetings to suspend Vidrine with pay that failed for lack of a unanimous vote by board members. That all changed Tuesday, October 24, 2023 when board members, after returning from executive session, voted unanimously to suspend Vidrine for 90 days with pay as the investigation by a Baton Rouge firm continues. The suspension begins immediately. After that was done, board members again went back into executive session without explaining to those in attendance why there was a need for a second executive session. That announcement was met with some grumbling from those in the audience, as the motion seemed to have caught everyone off guard. After returning from a second executive session, a motion was made by Board member Betty Ward-Cooper to name an interim superintendent in Vidrine’s absence. Since it was an “add-on” item, there would need to be a unanimous vote to pass the motion. All members voted to pass the motion except Board member Jennifer Haneline, effectively killing the motion. Before the vote was cast, union president Sandie Lollie asked the Board about the criteria used or would be used to select an interim superintendent, including input from the public. In a statement, Board president Bill Willson said they had made no conclusions. The placement of Superintendent Vidrine on administrative leave is nothing more than the school board’s attempt to provide its investigators with the wildest latitude possible to complete their investigation and report their findings without any possible suggestion that Superintendent Vidrine in any way hampered or influenced the investigation.

Editorial: The Monroe City School Board may not be in a crisis mode as of yet, but the handling of Superintendent Brent Vidrine’s alleged involvement in financial misconduct by the board has left many in the community angry. How long did the Board know of Mr. Vidrine’s possible involvement is a question that hasn’t been asked, but the public deserves an answer. The fact that the investigation appears to be widening should be a cause for concern because there probably are those who believe that the superintendent may have gotten “special” treatment before finally leading up to a suspension. In the meantime, how will the district be run without a “captain” at the helm? Who may be hurt the most? How will this affect MCSB’s standing in the region and the state? When board members returned from the second executive session, their body language and facial expressions were met with cries of “that didn’t go too well” and “what is going on?”

However, there was no hint of the Board releasing any information nor a statement of unanimity on where it was going. What about the underperforming schools in Monroe? Is there a plan to address the needs of those schools, and by what process? The Monroe Dispatch is not passing judgment on Mr. Vidrine regarding his fate or tenure as superintendent. That will be up to the seven individuals who voted to suspend him. The focus is and should remain on that of the children who attend schools in Monroe. The superintendent has a contract that would be deemed “lucrative” by many that will reward him when his days as an administrator are over. The underperforming schools would love to see a similar effort displayed towards them.