Bremerton school board votes to dismiss superintendent, releases investigative reports

BREMERTON — The Bremerton School District board voted Thursday to terminate the contract of Superintendent James Crawford during a special meeting held at district headquarters.

Roughly 100 community members filled the board room for the hour-long meeting, a majority of which was devoted to public comment from a mostly pro-Crawford crowd. There were some tense moments, both from public speakers and board members before the final decision was reached to dismiss Crawford, who was placed on administrative leave July 4 after concerns emerged over his use of the district's computer network and overall workplace climate within the district during his employment.

"We have been very intentional, very measured, very thoughtful about this process to protect the due process," said board president Aly Rotter, minutes before she, vice president John Paul Hurley and directors Karen Bolton, Jonee Dubos and Carolynn Perkins unanimously voted to unilaterally terminate the contract of Crawford, which was set to run through June 30, 2026.

Board releases statement explaining decision

In a statement released following the meeting, the board laid out two reasons behind the decision to terminate Crawford's contract:

The first stated that Crawford was "actively reviewing the emails of board members without their knowledge or consent," based on digital access logs reviewed as part of the investigation, and then claimed Crawford denied doing so "multiple times."

The second referenced interviews with Bremerton School District staff that revealed a "pattern of verbal intimidation, fear, hostility, extreme stress, and health impacts under Dr. Crawford’s leadership," according to the statement. The report indicates that 15 employees were interviewed.

The board posted the reports into network use and the human resources inquiry on its website along with the statement.

Report says Crawford viewed emails over six months

The report regarding network use, prepared by investigator Jeffrey Ganson, states that Crawford, in December 2023 or January 2024, approached Bremerton School District director of technology services Nikhil Gautam and asked for access to board member emails, some of which he reviewed in Gautam's office. Crawford later requested administrative credentials, which would allow him open access to the district's email cache. He was provided those credentials on Jan. 16, according to Gautam.

Access logs provided to Ganson from Gautam show that emails of all five board members and assistant superintendent Grant Steedman were accessed by Crawford's district-issued account from January to June, and that Rotter's emails in particular were accessed 55 times. Some of the subject matter in Rotter's emails involved Crawford's performance evaluation and negotiations regarding his contract, which was not extended by the board earlier this summer.

Ganson summarized that "by an overwhelming preponderance of the evidence that Crawford accessed and viewed the contents of Rotter's email and all other board members' emails without their knowledge and consent, and that he repeatedly falsely denied doing so when confronted by the board."

The human resources inquiry, prepared by Noel Treat, involved 15 interviews with current and former district employees, including all current employees who served on the district's leadership team under Crawford. Themes that emerged included inappropriate expressions of anger, lack of honesty, invasion of work/life boundary issues, and poor conduct when dealing with third parties, including parents and law enforcement, according to the report. Examples included staff members who said they received "voluminous" text messages or emails from Crawford early in the morning, at night, on weekends, holidays or during scheduled time off. Other allegations describe inappropriate outbursts of anger from Crawford, requests by the superintendent that employees provide negative information about one another, and accusations that staff were colluding with school board members.

"The employees working directly with Superintendent Crawford all reported negative personal impacts from his behaviors," Treat's report said. "Employees described working under constant stress and uncertainty. Many said they feared Superintendent Crawford. Most described the workplace as 'toxic.'"

Crawford denies wrongdoing in statement

About two hours before the meeting Crawford emailed a statement to the Kitsap Sun, which Bremerton resident Scott Alexander read aloud during the evening school board session. Crawford wrote that he was speaking out on the advice of his attorney, and characterized the entire issue as rising from his interest in district cybersecurity.

Crawford wrote that the "network use" issue that the school board had cited in July — but not elaborated upon — stemmed from an accusation that he had read Rotter's emails. Crawford's statement says he has never read the school board members' email "without cause," and said "multiple vulnerabilities and breaches" in the district's computer system were found and that he informed Rotter.

He also characterized the board's process over the past two months as a "pretend investigation" and accused Rotter of spearheading attacks against his character.

"These investigations represent a complete neglect of our primary responsibility: ensuring the safety, privacy, and integrity of our students' data," Crawford's statement read in part. "Instead, the board president has shifted focus to personal feelings about the superintendent, which is an embarrassment to our community."

Board members defend actions to community

Before holding Thursday's vote, board members took turns addressing the audience to respond to accusations that Crawford's termination was, in the words of public commenter Eric Morley of Bremerton, "the final act in a campaign to tarnish the reputation of a great leader."

"We are doing this because it is our job, it is our role and our responsibility in our position as board directors and we all take that very, very seriously," Hurley said. "We've put up with a lot of challenging our integrity, being called names, text messages, emails that have been very much unkind. But meanwhile we have had to remain silent in order to protect the integrity of the investigation and inquiries as they occurred."

Bolton, saying "I was the one who was out front saying, 'this is the guy we need for our district'" during Crawford's interview process, told the crowd on Thursday she was proud of the board because "we came together, we had discussions, we made sure that we dotted our Is and we crossed our Ts because, you know what, we cannot make a mistake on this. We cannot make a mistake on this."

Hurley, Perkins and Rotter implored audience members to judge the board's actions after reviewing the reports on Crawford.

Crawford's three-year contract, which went into effect July 1, 2023 and was set to run through June 30, 2026, contains a section on unilateral termination that states "the board may terminate the superintendent's employment for any reason, upon an affirmative vote of a majority of the board at any regular or special meeting of the Board, by giving the superintendent notice of unilateral termination." Such a termination would require the board and superintendent to agree on a "mutually acceptable explanatory statement, and the board would be required to pay the superintendent severance pay: equal to either 12 months of salary, or the remaining salary under the contract, whichever is less. Also, the superintendent would be required to "release and discharge" the district, board and district personnel from claims related to the termination, except for salary and benefit entitlements covered in the contract.

Earlier this month, the district announced the hiring of Donna Dearin-Colosky to serve as interim superintendent. On Thursday the board also announced Dearin-Colosky will remain through the 2024-25 school year.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Bremerton School District votes to terminate Superintendent