Dalton is allowing its outgoing headmaster to say he's quitting, but make no mistake, he was fired. This all went down in January, and wasn't going to be announced until the end of the year, so it's curious as to why now.
Initially, I wasn't sure whether his firing was because he'd turned Dalton into a woke home of racial obsession, or because he'd allowed the situation to blow up beyond Dalton's ivy perimeter. Publicity is always awkward for a private school, and this one went supernova. Best's sin was to "say the quiet part out loud," as one friend of mine put it.
I now have some clarity. The board was actually split, with both halves wanting Best gone. One half was very upset with how he handled COVID, something that the parents were also up in arms about. Dalton didn't open for in-person classes until late January, unlike literally every other private school in New York.
The other half was upset about Dalton's woke/CRT explosion, which Best engineered, using the odious DEI consultant Pollyanna for cover. But I'm still not clear what part of that upsets the board. I suspect it was all the publicity, and not CRT itself. The board - still absent from Dalton's website - is not exactly a conservative hotbed.
In the end, both factions deemed Best's action to exhibit a failure of leadership. I'm told it was unanimous that Best had to go.
But the board told quite a different story to the parents.
A letter from the board to the community had nothing but glowing things to say about Best. Here's a small taste:
"In every role Jim has ever played at Dalton be has brought his giant heart, his passion for innovation, and his commitment to making Dalton the best it can be..."
"He will be deeply missed."
"We look forward to celebrating Jim when our community can safely gather to share a fist bump and toast his leadership..."
As one Dalton parent put it to me, "They must think we're morons."
Hey, Dalton Board: you should all resign right now. This was your chance to distance yourself from Best and everything he stood for, instead you publicly doubled down. Shame on you. You should at least have the courage to put your names back on the website.
As for Best himself, I don't doubt Best will land somewhere. The radicalized community of school administrators and board members takes care of its own. He remains on the board of the Grace Church School, which has had its own woke implosion over the last week. And while he has disappeared from Pollyanna's website, I suspect he remains very active there as well.
I'd say that's about 2 down and 90 to go. That so many faculty and staff put their signatures on that inane petition tells you the school needs an exorcism. Does anyone know the text of their corporate charter and by-laws? There may be an avenue to replacing the board.
ReplyDeleteYou know what they need in that job? A 63 year old business executive who knows how to read a financial statement and who knows how to run fundraising campaigns. Assisting him would be three other administrators: a plant manager who knows that trade, a dean of students who has background in clinical and school psychology and background as a working teacher, a bursar and a comptroller who know those trades, and a provost who is an experienced teacher and has a handsome liberal education. Don't put anyone in those positions who had an EdD degree.
ReplyDeleteOh, I so agree!
DeleteCorrection. Five other administrators.
ReplyDelete