Decatur Schools To Overhaul Superintendent Contract Amid Lawsuits

DECATUR, GA — Two pending lawsuits amid allegations that Superintendent David Dude was underreporting his time off, and retaliated against former employees, have prompted the City Schools of Decatur board to renegotiate his contract to clarify vacation usage.

School Board Chair Tasha White issued a statement Friday about the ongoing issues, which have been brought up during the public comment period of several school board meetings.

The school board said Friday that it will hire an independent investigator to look into these allegations, as well as rescind and renegotiate Dude's contract — which was scheduled to take effect July 1 — and sign a new agreement that is "consistent with other central office cabinet members," the statement said.

The district will not comment on pending litigation and instead let the information come out in court proceedings, White said in the statement.

"We regret if our silence, until this point, was construed as complacency ... Active personnel inquiries are confidential, and the Board has a duty to its employees to maintain the confidentiality of such matters," the statement reads. "The Board’s intent in employing an investigator is to provide Dr. Dude with the due process and fairness to which he is entitled, while at the same time addressing the issues raised by the CSD employees and community."

The background

The district faces two separate lawsuits filed earlier this year by two former employees who are suing it and Dude, alleging retaliation and unpaid overtime wages, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in late January.

The most recent lawsuit, filed in January, claims Dude violated the district's severance and non-disparagement agreement with David Adams, the district's former human resources officer, when Dude told Decaturish.com that district employees complained about Adams' job performance.

The lawsuit alleges that Dude's comments were made in retaliation for Adams reporting Dude's "financially unethical conduct" to the district attorney. It says that Susan Hurst, the district's former chief financial officer, told Adams in 2017 that the Decatur board was providing "an improper salary increase" to Dude by reimbursing him for expenses without receipts. It said the superintendent was also frequently not reporting his time off when he was not working.

Adams and Hurst were later set to resign after they reported Dude's actions, the lawsuit alleges. The school district agreed to a non-disparagement clause as part of Adams' resignation in 2019, but Dude told Decaturish.com in January 2020 that employees "felt like they weren't being supported."

“Subsequent to Dr. Dude’s disparaging statement, Mr. Adams inexplicably did not receive callbacks after successful interviews,” the lawsuit said.

Adams is seeking financial compensation for damages and a court order prohibiting Dude and the Decatur schools "from engaging in unlawful employment practices," the newspaper reported.

The AJC also reported that a second former employee, Cheryl Nahmias, alleges Dude demoted her in retaliation over a video of her son — a white City Schools of Decatur student — using racial slurs and wielding a toy gun, mentioning shooting Black people.

Nahmias was initially placed on leave after she defended her son, and later put on "special assignment" in the district's central office — a demotion from her administrative role as Decatur High School's international baccalaureate coordinator and instructional coach, the AJC reported.

“David Dude and [Assistant Superintendent] Maggie Fehrman targeted Dr. Nahmias, restricted her communications with colleagues and students, subjected her to a five-months-long sham investigation and fishing expedition, and then in retaliation for her advocacy for herself, her son and prior history of whistleblowing activity, ultimately demoted her for groundless, pre-textual reasons,” the lawsuit stated.

Nahmias is seeking to be reinstated to her former position, as well as a financial award for damages.

The statement

Decaturish used the Georgia Open Records Act to request further information and investigate the allegations against CSD. The publication reported in February that based on open records requests, Dude did not document the payment from his unused vacation days since 2016 in the district's payroll system until Jan. 27, 2021 — in response to the open records request from Decaturish.

New records from earlier this month also showed Dude was out-of-office on days he didn't record as vacation days, particularly in the summer of 2019, Decaturish's Dan Whisenhunt reported March 9.

CSD records showed on July 17, 2019, Dude received a $24,980 pay out for days he said he did not use, Decaturish reported. But an auto-responder email from Dude on June 11, 2019 said he would return to work on July 16, 2019 — and vacation requests showed his only vacation days were July 12 and July 15, according to the publication.

The district said there has been "some confusion" over the interpretation of language in Dude's contract in regard to time off, which "may have played a role in the belief that he has taken more leave than he is entitled to take," according to the statement.

According to the district's statement, Dude's contract — which expires June 30 — says he has 45 vacation days each school year, which refers to days Dude takes off from work while the school district is open, and he would ordinarily report to work. Holidays and school breaks do not count toward those vacation days since the district is closed, White said.

His contract also allows for a "cash-out" of up to 30 days of unused vacation time each year, which is "an alternative to paying a straight, often much higher, salary," the statement reads.

"The Board recognizes that Dr. Dude’s contract is different from any other employee in the District and that this has caused confusion about the meaning of his contract. Accordingly, Dr. Dude suggested, and the Board agreed, to rescind his contract that was scheduled to take effect July 1, 2021, and sign a new agreement that provides for leave time that is consistent with other central office cabinet members," the statement said. "We believe this change will treat Dr. Dude in the same manner as all other cabinet-level employees and avoid further confusion in the future. That contract, like all other contracts, will be a public record."

Dude's salary at the time of publication is $219,000, and he is eligible for up to $20,000 in bonuses each year.

"I won't sugarcoat this. These are tough times. And some have lost faith that your school leadership can get us all through this. The Board is here and we show up every single day," White said in the statement. "The Board wants to be as open and honest as possible with the community about this process and we recognize that we are accountable to you, the voters."

Read the full statement here.