The Omaha Public Schools board will move forward with Freddie Gray as president.
Gray and school district attorney Elizabeth Eynon-Kokrda came under fire after reports that they knew about inappropriate emails sent by Nancy Sebring for up to three weeks before Sebring resigned as incoming superintendent. She resigned June second after emails surfaced showing Sebring sent sexually explicit messages from her Des Moines Public Schools account.
Justin Wayne was one of the four board members who voted to remove Gray as president, calling it an issue of accountability. "How can we, as a board, vote at a hearing of a student to uphold the administrative discipline when we ourselves don't uphold the discipline of our own policy, the policy of voting on something that you are involved in, the policy of breaking our fiduciary duty, which is in our policy as a board member."
Board member Shirley Tyree supported Gray and called the issue a distraction. "I don't know why, and I've thought about it, I really don't know why we weren't told things, we were given reasons as to why, it doesn't make sense to me the more I go over it. But I can't turn on someone and say you made a mistake, I'm casting you away."
It would've required eight votes to remove Gray as president. Instead, eight votes were cast in favor of keeping her as the board leader.
Joining Wayne in voting to remove Gray as president were Sandra Jensen, Nancy Kratky, and Kersten Borer.
