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Dallas County Superintendent Anthony Sampson will be leaving his post at the end of his contract after he submitted a letter asking for his contract not to be renewed.

The Dallas County School Board of Education held its annual board meeting Thursday night at Tipton-Durant Middle School. The agenda included Sampson’s evaluation and his letter stating that he does not want to extend his term to the next two years.

During the discussion of the evaluation, Board members William Minor and Leroy Miles had no comment while Board member M. Flanagan-Brown, who was just re-elected in her district, said everything with the superintendent was OK.

Board member Mamie W. Solomon even thanked Sampson during the meeting for his hard work and dedicated service to the Dallas County community, especially the communities involving parents and kids.

“They recognize the superintendent not only in the school system, but when he’s at Walmart or at the fair and so, that’s good rapport to the Selma-Dallas County community,” Solomon said.

Board Member Mark Story agreed with Solomon about Sampson and said having good public presence is important because it shows you can be a part of the community while simultaneously  letting the residents know you care.

Miles, who served as president for the last year, stated he chose to have no comment in the matter because he did not bring Sampson in and wanted the results behind Sampson’s vote to be honest, true and not skewed.

“I thought it would be fair to him, and I shared that with him,” Miles said. “That I wouldn’t participate so he can get a true picture of what the evaluation was and if I feel indifferent, I didn’t want to skew it.”

Soon after Miles statement, he asked Board Attorney Mailka Fortier if the board could speak about the decision regarding Sampson’s letter within an executive session meeting, but the request was denied.

“With the superintendent contract, we have two issues here,” Miles said. “The superintendent gave us a letter saying that he didn’t request to come back, and we as a board need to accept that or we need to let him know what our intent is for him in Dallas County.”

Miles told the board that they couldn’t go into executive session, which would allow them to privately share how they feel about Sampson before it was publicly released in front of everyone in the meeting, including Sampson.

“We can’t hide, we have to come clean,” Miles said.

Flanagan-Brown said that she feels Sampson is entitled to at least one or two more years because he has shown improvement within his actions since he was suspended earlier this year and is paving the Dallas County School District forward.

“He’s cleaning up his act the way that we want him to clean it up and he seems to be on the right road so he’s going to move us to the next level, and I don’t have a problem with it because I want to go to the next level. I want Dallas County to shine, and I want more people to move to Dallas County,” Flanagan-Brown said.

Solomon said she was in favor of whatever decision Sampson chose to make.

“If he feels like he needs to go back home to his family, wife and children, I will accept that but I just want him to know that I appreciate what all he has done for Dallas County but if you feel like you can hang on with us another year or two, I am for it,” Solomon said.

Sampson made his final speech before the official vote of the board took place, saying,
I came to Dallas County with a purpose to do what the record reflects, do what the achievement and the progress reflects, and that’s what we have been able to do. I have shared that most of which during the superintendent’s update. The only part that I didn’t share are those details that I couldn’t speak of because they are embargoed and what I will say is in the first year, you’ve seen the results, the district jumped six points. So, in doing those types of things, they are uncharacteristic to what Dallas County School System has experienced historically.”

“In terms of the letter I did tender to the board, I tendered that letter because at that particular time, that was what I was feeling and I have always been transparent with the board and I will tell you exactly what I’m thinking. And I what I need as a superintendent is top support from the board, if I can’t have top support from the board, that means I’ve done what you needed me to do here and that’s why I tender the letter that I did without intent to extend,” Sampson added.

After mixed emotions surrounding Sampson’s letter surfaced by the board, the board chose to finally and officially accept Sampson’s letter to not extend his term for the next fiscal year.

“It was my intent to let the board know that, so that they can transition the right way and so, those are my exact words, when I pass the guide on to the next person based on what we’ve accomplished, I want to be able to take it out of my hand and sprint, not crawl not walk but sprint for the students of Dallas County.”