The leader of one of the biggest school districts in New England is departing three weeks ahead of his planned retirement amid calls for his resignation. Daniel Warwick, superintendent of Springfield Public Schools, announced Thursday that he served his last day as head of the district – 48 hours after a recording of him disparaging a school committee member and her family surfaced.
LaTonia Monroe Naylor says it was a voicemail message inadvertently left on someone’s phone that captured Warwick referring to her family as scumbags, thieves and crazy.
The two-minute message features the superintendent of 12 years saying the Naylor family “would steal everything that’s not bolted down,” referring to the Monroes as “crazy,” and complaining about accommodations LaTonia allegedly requested for her family ahead of an event, among other comments.
That event, Monroe Naylor says, was the graduation for Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy – a ceremony her daughter was taking part in and also where both Warwick and Naylor shared a stage. They sat next to one another at Symphony Hall.
“As I bid farewell to Springfield Public Schools, I do so with a heart full of gratitude and pride,” Warwick said Monday, June 3.
Warwick spoke at the graduation on Monday, as did Monroe Naylor – a day before the message surfaced. They also spoke with one another at the ceremony – conversations the school committee member says were nothing but cordial.
“He was updating me on the status of my niece, he let me know even though an email had gone forth, that she was on a waitlist I said ‘no problem,’” Naylor told WAMC. “[He was] congratulating my daughter, she'd done a great job, he was so proud of her. I had no clue that the same person who's talking to me nicely, smiling in my face, congratulating me and my family would then be sitting in an office, or wherever they were sitting at the time of the call, and be talking and badgering my family.”
Warwick says he was speaking with a colleague when the conversation was recorded. In a statement, he said he apologized to Monroe Naylor – something Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno publicly requested Wednesday.
Warwick said he was “mortified” to see the remarks surface and claimed they were the result of “total frustration with some of the issues we have been dealing with to uphold school department policies.”
He added it was no excuse, and that he had apologized to Monroe Naylor and her family. He also canceled an exit interview with WAMC News scheduled for Thursday morning.
Also Thursday, dozens of community leaders and elected officials filled the school committee’s chambers in Springfield City Hall, rallying for Monroe Naylor while calling out what some considered systemic, racial injustice in the system.
The rally included calls for Warwick, who is white, to resign, given his remarks targeting Monroe Naylor and her family, who are Black.
School Committee Vice Chair Joesiah Gonzalez also called attention to another comment made towards the end of the voicemail, in which Warwick appeared to reference Putnam Principal George Johnson when he said, “the synapses don't all fire with George." Johnson is also Black.
“I believe that we've got to bridge the gap of inequality, mostly because of systemic racism and poverty in our system,” said Bishop Talbert Swan II, president of the Greater Springfield branch of the NAACP. “But in order to bridge that gap, we've got to address systemic racism as a tangible barrier to learning and future achievement, and I believe that the way we address it in this moment is for Superintendent Warwick to close out his career today.”
Swan was among those calling for Warwick’s resignation, as well as that of Kimberly Wells, the lead chief schools officer for the district.
Social media accounts sharing the voicemail message alleged that Wells was the colleague speaking with Warwick. WAMC has not confirmed Wells participated in the conversation and has reached out to Springfield Public Schools for clarity.
Wells had also been a candidate during the search to replace Warwick, back when he was slated to retire at the end of the school year. The school committee ultimately selected Dr. Sonia Dinnall, a former teacher and principal in Springfield, putting her on course to be the first Black woman to head the district.
The search process leading up to Dinnall’s selection was contentious, and often featured four of the committee’s members, who are people of color, protesting and boycotting aspects of the search they deemed unfair or wrongheaded.
The search was brought up Thursday, with speakers such as Springfield State Senator Adam Gomez seizing on the matter.
“They call them vile, childish, and if you could speak in public about electeds of color that way, imagine how they speak about us in private,” Gomez told the crowd. “This is not political - this is racist. Bias.”
Monroe Naylor spoke at the rally, calling Warwick’s comments racist and hateful. Five hours later, notice of his departure was sent out by the school district.
Mayor Sarno said he accepted Warwick’s retirement letter, which said in part:
“Due to my desire to act in the best interests of Springfield Public Schools students, staff, families, and the community-at-large, I am notifying you that I will be retiring effective Friday, June 7, 2024.”
Naylor later shared in a statement that she was “elated that the community spoke and that the message was heard loud and clear.”
She added that she hoped the district could move forward with focusing on the education of its children “rebuilding a culture of proficiency and equity."
Monroe Naylor tells WAMC contract discussions with Dinnall are expected to begin Tuesday, June 11.
Before that, the school committee voted Friday to select SPS Chief Instructional Officer, Dr. Michelle Balch to serve as interim superintendent.
