WENTWORTH â The Rockingham County Board of Education voted 4-3 after a closed session Monday night to fire Rodney Shotwell, longtime superintendent for the 25-school district and a former North Carolina Superintendent of the Year.
By Wednesday night, nearly 1,000 Rockingham County parents and community members had signed an online petition calling for Shotwell's reinstatement. And leaders of the county's NAACP announced a Friday press conference at which they are expected to denounce the board's discharge of Shotwell.
The board gave Shotwell, who has overseen the district's $130 million budget and piloted a hybrid system through the pandemic, 90 days' notice, but no reason for his dismissal during the open session of Monday night's meeting, a video recording of the meeting showed.