Decision on Verletta White’s next job expected Tuesday at Baltimore County School Board meeting

The Baltimore County School Board is scheduled to vote Tuesday night at a special meeting to give Interim Superintendent Verletta White a one-year position elsewhere in the system, although the details are being kept secret until after the public vote.

The agenda calls for the formal introduction of Darryl L. Williams, who will take over the superintendency July 1 under a four-year contract. The board voted last month to appoint Williams, a longtime Montgomery County administrator, rejecting White’s bid to assume the role permanently after serving on an interim basis for two years.

Neither the board leadership nor White would say what her new position is, citing the privacy of personnel issues until they board takes a formal vote.

“It is standard that the board cannot comment on personnel matters until after voted on in open session,” Kathleen Causey, the school board chair, wrote in a text message.

The board’s meeting agenda says it will consider “the Interim Superintendent’s employment proposal 2019-2020.” Piecing together information from documents, including White’s current employment contract, it appears she will get a one-year, administrative position, or return to her job as chief academic officer. A spokesman for White, Mychael Dickerson, said she would resign in June 2020.

White’s contract with the board stipulates that if she was not chosen to become the permanent superintendent, she “shall be returned to her previous position of chief academic officer or a similar position in the school system.” School board vice chair Julie Henn said Williams has met with White as part of a transition, but he is not going to be working at the North Charles Street headquarters until he takes over.

Her contract also says that she will not be paid less than she would have received as chief academic officer in the 2017-2018 school year. It is not clear what she would have been paid because she was not in the position at that time. She left that job in June 2017, after Superintendent Dallas Dance resigned.

White had sought the permanent job, but was shunned by a new, partially elected board led by members who had criticized her for her association with Dance, who served a four-month jail term for perjury. However, she enjoyed deep support from principals, some teachers and the county’s African American leaders. She is a product of the county schools and sends her own children there.

After the board meeting Williams will be introduced to parents, teachers and community leaders at a private social event.