Dr. Phyllis Edwards, who departed as Dothan superintendent last year, claims she is owed over a half million dollars from her former bosses. Counting benefits, she is demanding about $584,000 from Dothan City Schools.
According to WTVY-TV in Dothan, Edwards submitted a letter dated September 8 that expressed her intentions to resign, then six days later the school board voted to accept her resignation, effective immediately.
Her attorney, Jacob Fuller, claims Edwards should have been permitted to work a 120-day notice called for in her five-year contract. He claims the board denied her due process and threatened to sue the board unless they pay the final two years of her contract and benefits.
Dothan School Board Attorney Kevin Walding told the Dothan Eagle that Edwards sent nothing to the board indicating her willingness to work.
“I think anyone with common sense who read her letter would reach that same conclusion (that she resigned),” he said, as reported to the newspaper that first published this story. A copy of the letter was also given to WTVY Education Reporter Erin Wilson.
In the two and a half years she worked, Edwards made sweeping changes, consolidating a few schools and closing others.
Her plan got little opportunity to succeed or fail because of the pandemic that shut down all Alabama public schools during the first school year after the changes became effective.
In March, as health concerns escalated, Edwards headed to her Florida home, where she worked virtually until her resignation.
Immediately after the board accepted that resignation, it appointed DCS Chief Operating Officer Dennis Coe as interim superintendent.
A permanent replacement has not been named.
