Two school districts in two states, same playbook: hire administrators parents wouldn't choose, pocket the taxpayer cash, and clam up when anyone asks questions.
In Chesapeake, Virginia, the School Board hired an outsider as superintendent on a razor-thin 5-4 vote — and the four members who objected stayed mute during the meeting, only explaining themselves after the deed was done. In Syracuse, New York, the district's third-highest-paid administrator appears to have been living in Maryland while drawing a $216,000 salary, and officials won't say a word about it.
Both cases expose the same rot: school bureaucracies that treat parents and taxpayers as ATMs, not stakeholders.
The Chesapeake board appointed Doug Brubaker, currently of the Texarkana Independent School District in Texas, as the district's first superintendent without prior ties to the system. His starting salary: $280,000, plus an $18,000 moving allowance, a $7,500 annual travel stipend, and up to $10,000 in bonus pay. That's comparable to his predecessor Jared Cotton's compensation when adjusted for inflation — though Cotton himself signed a short-term contract in late June paying him $319,517 while the succession got sorted out.
The four dissenting board members — Malia Huddle, Norman Pool, Amanda Quillin, and Angela Swygert — said nothing during the vote. Quillin later posted on social media that she "intentionally chose not to make a statement during the meeting because I believed that moment belonged to Dr. Brubaker and his family." Pool said he "believed we had highly qualified candidates with substantial experience in both Virginia and Chesapeake." Huddle cited differences in education standards between Texas and Arkansas, where Brubaker has worked, as giving her pause. The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reported that none of the three responded to follow-up questions after providing written statements.
Board Chair Kim Scott, who backed Brubaker, said she valued the "fresh perspective" an outsider offered. That's the establishment line: trust the new face from out of town over the people who actually know the community.
Meanwhile, in Syracuse, the stonewalling is even more brazen. Chief Academic Officer Britt Britton — paid $216,000 last year to improve a district where most students don't meet basic reading and math benchmarks — appears to have been living in Maryland the whole time. Syracuse.com reported that Britton registered to vote in Maryland in November 2024, more than a year after she was hired. She was suspended in April for unspecified "conduct and leadership" issues. The district already knew her address was in Maryland when it suspended her but won't say whether she had permission to work remotely.
Britton also lacked the required school district leader qualification and administrator certificate for her position. Superintendent Pamela Odom declined multiple interview requests. District spokespeople hid behind a "policy of not commenting on personnel matters."
The Syracuse editorial board called the district "one of the most secretive, least transparent and least accountable government entities we've ever encountered" — and that's a mainstream outlet talking. The district oversees 19,000 students and more than $600 million in public money.
The pattern holds whether it's Virginia or New York: administrators get hired without local ties or proper credentials, draw six-figure salaries, and circle the wagons when caught. Parents who ask questions get stonewalled. Taxpayers get the bill. The four Chesapeake dissenters at least had the decency to object — but they did it after the vote, not when it could have changed the outcome. In Syracuse, no one on the board is even pretending to answer.
The question isn't whether these hires are legal. It's who these districts think they answer to — and the evidence from both states suggests it isn't the people paying for them.
