The removal of Dr. Charles Foust as superintendent comes on the heels of a staff climate survey that framed him and his administration as out of touch and unsupportive.
Shortly after the survey was released, the results were presented to the board during their Tuesday night meeting — board members then voted to terminate his contract.
At a minimum, the district will have to pay Foust a year's salary — at least a quarter of a million dollars — and the sudden move could potentially put the board in legal crosshairs since they recently extended his contract last summer until 2027.
It's uncertain where the money for Foust's contract payout will come from. New Hanover County Commissioners have signaled in the past that they would likely not appropriate additional funds to buy out his contract — and that funds would have to be redirected from another current district fund.
Previously, board member Pat Bradford said she intended to bring a motion to fire the superintendent in January, saying they could terminate his contract. Bradford brought this up after the district's sudden announcement of the closure of the high school program at Mosley. The board later reversed the decision and kept the program open.
As reported by WECT, Foust's attorney Gary Shipman issued a statement:
This morning, I called Dr. Foust to congratulate him on being emancipated from the embarrassment that is the majority of the members of the New Hanover County Board of Education. The deliberate effort on the part of the majority of the board members to radicalize public education in New Hanover County has not only led to career teachers leaving the profession they love, but has left a stain on the reputation of the public schools in New Hanover County that will not easily disappear. The group that controls this board has given into the will of the vocal minority, and for Dr. Foust, I am glad he will no longer have to endure their efforts to trash public education in New Hanover County.
The callous and reckless disregard by this Board towards fiscal responsibility is outrageous, given that the taxpayers of New Hanover County will be writing a check for work that Dr. Foust will not be performing.
Climate survey
Nearly 2,000 staff members answered the survey, which opened on May 14 and closed on May 31. The survey link was emailed to each school's teachers and staff; the links had no unique identifiers, allowing anonymity. The survey did track some general employee information, though. For example, 75% of the respondents were ‘certified’ staff, like teachers, and the rest were ‘classified’ workers, like janitors, bus drivers, and nutrition staff.
The survey was facilitated through UNCW’s Watson College of Education. The district’s communication office analyzed a previous survey in December 2021.
Based on the climate results, Board member Stephanie Walker’s overall takeaway is that “these are deeply troubling findings with implications for the leadership and direction of both the BOE and District leadership.”
NHCS leadership gets rated poorly
Most NHCS teachers and staff say they don’t feel supported by district leadership (66%) nor do they feel comfortable raising concerns over policies, procedures, and curriculum without fear of retaliation (65%). Around 72% disagree that there is “an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect.” They also disagree that leadership is “effective in fostering a positive work culture” (68%).
They also think the district's administration doesn’t know what goes on in the classroom (78%), and don't seek and value input from staff (76%).
Overall, employees wrote 2,414 comments. From the 590 comments left by staff about district leadership, themes emerged that they were “out of touch, disconnect[ed]” and that they didn’t “support, value, or respect” their employees. Many added notes clarifying that their comments and rankings applied to Foust's Central Office — not principals and other school-level leaderships.
One person wrote, “I have worked in the district for 24 years, and I feel the least valued, trusted, and supported this year by our superintendent and instructional leadership than I ever have. Our superintendent seems to show up for the camera but isn't here with us, knowing what we face every day in the high schools yet puts more and more on our plates while taking away more and more from our resources and support. We are not valued for our instructional decisions, and we may be ‘surveyed’ on issues, but all know that is to check a box.”
Foust has fought the perception that he isn’t supportive or visible in schools; however, the issue has also been raised in previous surveys, most recently in the 2023 NHCS administrator survey.
Hundreds of respondents wrote about the difficulties caused by position losses throughout the district. As one employee wrote, “This year, we lost our assistant principal and full-time music teacher. No one from the district leadership has visited and asked, ‘How are you doing?’ (Not well, by the way.) Teacher morale is at an all-time low, justifiably so. I would not encourage anyone I cared for to be a teacher with NHCS. So sad.”
NHC school board gets poor ratings, many comments highlight partisan bias
Nearly two-thirds of teachers (65%) feel the seven-member school board doesn’t value their expertise as educational professionals. An overwhelming 80% say they are unaware of the realities and challenges that teachers and public schools face.
Compared to district leadership, more teachers and staff said they felt the board didn’t create a positive educational climate to attract and retain teachers (74%).
Over 1,000 employees left comments about the board, many negative. As one wrote, they felt the board has “no respect for teachers’ professional knowledge, best practices, or student inclusivity. I am leaving the district and going to work in another one because of the board of education policies.”
Another respondent said the board is “focusing on banning books in our classrooms and limiting what we put up on the wall while our main issues are phone use, tardiness, skipping, behavior referrals, and student apathy.”
Many of the comments left by respondents said the partisan overreach has gotten out of control — and the board has to focus on the business of education, not ideology.
Employees also said they wanted more support with student discipline; some employees wrote that student behavior has gotten out of hand with little to no consequences.
Curricula comments
The survey asked teachers to comment on the district’s math and English language arts (ELA) curricula.
Most ELA teachers said they weren’t thrilled about the local curriculum, with 57% saying it doesn’t allow for “experiential and hands-on learning” and is not “flexible and adaptable to meet the diverse needs of students.” The results for the math curricula were slightly better.
There was a common thread among those math and ELA teachers — they felt they didn’t have enough professional autonomy to select classroom materials.
This year's results indicate that district leadership and the school board should focus on education, not partisan politics, and that there is increased transparency and accountability. According to Walker and UNCW’s analysis, a climate survey should be completed annually to look for improvement.
NHCS board members respond, Foust silent
Board Chair Pete Wildeboer said the results were “eye-opening and not in a positive way.” He gleaned from the survey that educators want the board members to visit their classrooms: “I haven’t been doing such a good job on that.”
Wildeboer said, "Listening and doing are two different things. I will do my very best to start doing.”
Board member Pat Bradford took a more defensive approach, starting with, “Teachers have no idea how concerned we are with safety.” She mentioned that the board created a safety committee to address these issues. She added that the board is also working on an official cell phone policy, recognizing that was a concern in the survey.
“We are constantly focused on the negative, not what’s good,” she said.
Board member Hugh McManus said that the members need to listen to the survey takeaways and “take the politics out of the school system.” He told the board they needed teacher and student input before implementing policies and cautioned the board to do “what’s best for all our students and staff.” Based on the survey results, he said respondents don’t like banning books and being told what they can put up in their rooms, referencing the recent board policies outlining specifically what staff can display on school grounds. “Please absorb what this survey has told you.”
Bradford responded to McManus by addressing the public and survey respondents upset by book bans: “Someone bring forward the list of banned books,” saying this was an incorrect narrative that the board was taking out more than one book from the district's classrooms.
She added that she had no voting power on the current curriculum committee and wanted to establish a separate board curriculum committee.
Walker said the results were “pretty troubling. This isn’t one or two mad people, but about 85% of our teachers answered this.”
She acknowledged that the district conducted a climate survey two years ago, but “nothing happened. If we don’t do anything about it, then more people are going to leave.”
Foust and his upper administration didn’t respond to the survey results.
Wildeboer announced that on August 13 at 5:00 p.m., there will be an 'educator-only' town hall to discuss the survey results further.
[Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify that while the chaotic announcement of Mosley's closure might have been a proximate cause of Bradford's motion to revoke Foust's contract, she did not say they could fire him "with cause'" — that would be a legal move that would allow Foust's removal without a payout; the options the board ultimately took was a unilateral removal that requires them to pay out a year of Foust's compensation.]
2024 climate study results, and prior reporting on NHCS climate surveys
- Teacher morale is sinking in New Hanover County. It’s not just the pandemic to blame, November 2021
- NHC beginning teachers finding support they need, according to recent state survey, December 2022
- Statewide survey: Overall satisfaction, but specific areas of concern for New Hanover County schools, December 2022
- NHCS teachers share their concerns, many highlighted in recent climate survey, February 2022
- NHCS tackles negative climate-study feedback, and a host of other issues, January 2022
- A majority of NHCS administrators still say there’s not ‘trust’ and ‘mutual respect,’ January 2024
- Teacher attrition on the rise in the Cape Fear region, April 2024
- NHC school board approves staff climate survey, establishes safety committee, April 2024
- NC climate survey initial results for NHCS, local board survey underway, May 2024
NHCS Survey Quant Data by Ben Schachtman on Scribd
NHCS Survey -Written Responses - REDACTED by Ben Schachtman on Scribd
NHCS Survey Presentation - 7-2-24 by Ben Schachtman on Scribd
