The Wake County Taxpayers Association now wants AdvancED to investigate the firing of Wake County Schools Superintendent Tony Tata.
WCTA announced today it had amended its original complaint against the school system to include the firing of Tata, which it says has left Wake "leaderless." The complaint also faults the board's Democratic majority for holding the discussion in closed session and not allowing a public hearing before the vote.
"This firing was shocking and has had an extremely negative impact on our community and our schools," said WCTA in the amended complaint. "It has become even more clear since the filing of our original complaint, that the majority members of the Wake County Board of Education are under undue influence of the partisan group, Great Schools in Wake (GSIW)."
AdvancED hasn't yet received the paperwork on the revised complaint, which is dated Friday.
But in this Oct. 2 letter to Wake, AdvancED CEO Mark Elgart told school officials they were "required" to answer the allegations leveled by the WCTA in the original complaint.
Elgart has given several media interviews in which he has praised Tata's performance as superintendent and said he was concerned about the firing.
“The complaint describes the continued practice of the Wake County Board of Education to legislate rather than govern the school system,” Elgart wrote in the Oct. 2 letter. “For a statutorily recognized, non-partisan governing board, determining major or significant policies and direction by partisan votes of simple majority is not an effective practice to govern the school system.”
