The longtime leader of Ann Arbor Public Schools may soon be on her way out. It comes after a contentious school board meeting on Monday night.
Dr. Jeanice K. Swift was named superintendent of Ann Arbor Public Schools back in August 2013. In 2018, she was named superintendent of the year by the Michigan Association of School Administrators.
However, now, a decade after she started, the school board has approved two motions leading to her removal.
The first motion gives Swift pre-termination without cause notice, and the second was for the district's attorney to enter into negotiations with Swift on a separation agreement. Both motions passed by a 4-3 vote.
"My biggest concern is really the concerns that I'm hearing from parents, from students, and this is not just recent, and even teachers. This has been going on," AAPS Board President Rima Mohammed said.
The board's decision comes less than two weeks after 7 Investigator Heather Catallo exposed an assault on a child with special needs on an Ann Arbor school bus.
The hard-to-watch video shows the school bus aide repeatedly hitting the young child.
It happened in 2021, and the child's mother said she wasn't informed of the attack until five weeks later.
Swift is taking the pre-termination with grace, vowing to finish her term and work to create a smooth transition.
"I will be dedicated moving forward from this evening to a strong transition. This is what we owe our team, our students, and our families," she said.
