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Susie C. Spear
EDEN â Hundreds of Rockingham County residents are piercing their lawns with signs that read Bring Back Dr. S Â â a show of support for recently ousted Rockingham County Schools Superintendent Rodney Shotwell.
And a grassroots coalition of parents, teachers and members of the local NAACP chapter and county Democratic Party have launched a movement with protests and a 1,500-signature petition calling for the longtime district head s reinstatement. The students are shocked. The parents are outraged. The teachers are stunned and their morale has dropped, said Mary ED Ryan, a mother of a 16-year-old Rockingham Early College High School student who spoke at a Wednesday demonstration in Reidsville in support of Shotwell.
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.