The two co-chairs of Eastside Catholic’s Board of Trustees, Richard McDermott and Sheryl Medeiros, have stepped down on Friday, Aug. 18, after staff, parent and student backlash to the removal of high school principal Justyna King and middle school principal Christopher Sharp.
The school drew attention this last week after announcing the termination of King and Sharp. In response, more than 10 staff members resigned in protest.
The school’s Chaplain, Father William Heric, who had been appointed to be the interim president of the school, has returned to his position as chaplain and community liaison as the school begins the process to hire a new interim president.
In response to the backlash after announcing the termination of the two principals, the school held a community meeting at the Eastside Catholic gym on Wednesday, Aug. 16, where faculty, parents and students expressed their frustration with the changes. Demands were made to remove the co-chairs from the board of trustees, remove Heric as the interim president and offer the two former principals their jobs back. An online petition, which received more than 400 signatures before being taken down, also made the same demands.
On Aug. 17, Eastside Catholic’s faculty and board of trustees issued a statement to parents and students saying they would comply with the demands they had received. In addition to announcing the resignation of McDermott and Medeiros, the statement announced that it would invite King and Sharp to return to their previous positions as principals, as well as former teacher Courtney Caldwell and the other teachers who resigned in protest. The statement also announced that the board, after consulting with the faculty, would hire a new interim president.
In a statement from Marketing and Communications Director Karen Hatch on Friday, Aug. 18, Eastside Catholic reiterated the announcements made to the community the previous night.
“We made and announced administrative changes on August 2. Unfortunately, the timing was poorly chosen, because it happened just a few weeks before school,” Hatch wrote. “In response to questions raised by our faculty and community, we held a Town Hall on Wednesday August 16. We heard strong opposition to the changes from both the faculty and our community. Based on all the feedback, we realized that both the changes and their timing were a mistake. The decision was made yesterday to reverse these changes and go back to the previous structure.”
Hatch also confirmed that the first day of class would be moved from Aug. 23, to Wednesday, Aug. 30.
“We have already announced all these changes to our community and they are overwhelmingly supportive of moving forward.” Hatch wrote. “I am sure we can agree that getting our kids back to school and focused on their studies, their friendships and their futures is the important goal, and we look forward to doing just that.”
