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The Dallas County School Board has placed School Superintendent Anthony Sampson on paid administrative leave following a nearly 90-minute executive session Thursday night. 

The board approved placing Sampson on leave with a 3-2 vote with board members Leroy Miles Jr., Mark Story and William Minor voting in favor and board members Melvin F. Brown and Mammie W. Solomon voting against the measure.

Miles announced following the executive session – in the form of a motion – that he recommended that Sampson be placed on leave effective immediately. Minor seconded the motion.

“This board has reached out and had an investigation done for the Dallas County Board of Education,” Minor said after the executive session. “The investigation has been done and it’s still ongoing. OK? It’s still ongoing. Well, I’m gonna recommend that Mr. Sampson be put on administrative leave with pay pending further investigation.

“We’ll talk with you Mr. Sampson of how we will proceed and how we’re going to deal with that.”

When asked about the reason for the administrative leave, Miles said he could not comment on that at this time.

“I’m going to have to refer you to the school board attorney for that,” Miles said. “But the only thing we did is just to put him on administrative leave with pay pending further investigation.”

Story also said that no determination has been made about whether Sampson will be retained following the investigation.

“Putting someone on administrative leave is never an indication of guilt or anything like that,” Story said.

Sampson was not immediately available for comment after the meeting.

The school board appointed Bridgette Carter, who serves over special education services, was unanimously appointed to be interim superintendent until the matter is resolved. She told the board, “I accept,” when she was asked if she would serve.

Miles said the rest of the meeting’s agenda was tabled until a special called meeting on Tuesday. He did not comment on when they believed the investigation would be complete or have a timetable for when Sampson’s fate would be decided.

The Selma Times-Journal will update this story as more details become available.