The following is from the November 21st edition of The Cheat Sheet.
So, what the heck is going on at the Newfields Museum of Art? As you are probably aware, Newfield’s Superintendent, Dr. Colette Burnette “departed” from her post. And no one will say why. At least until now. We here at TCS did some digging and have managed to put together what we believe took place, so hear us out on this.
To put it mildly, this apparently was the classic situation of the staff not liking the new boss and complaining to the board. And it’s not like the new boss was doing anything wrong or illegal. In fact, TCS hears that not only were both attendance and membership up at Newfields under Dr. Burnett, but a lot of African-American organizations were using Newfields to hold events.
However, it turns out the Newfields Board Chairwoman, Darrianne Christian, had some issues with Burnett. By the way, both Burnett and Christian are black women, so we’re not too sure how allegations of racism fit into all this. But we digress.
Apparently, before Burnett was let go, she received her goals about a week before she was to do a 360 interview. The questions were not shared with her prior. And apparently, Burnett had some issues with Newfields’ HR director who she said needed to be let go. That person, who apparently was not a fan of Burnett, allegedly went to the Board to complain. This reportedly led to creating dissension in the ranks. TCS is told one manager has left, and several others have threatened to leave.
This led, in part, to Burnett’s departure; however, we’re hearing the board’s personnel committee was not involved, which is apparently why one of them resigned, and a couple more may be leaving. The argument is that Burnett didn’t do anything to rise to the level of termination.
Now, with this last part, we’re hearing two different things. In one version, TCS is told the Board was not happy with the departure, challenged the chair, and tried to take a vote to undo the matter, but it was too late because Burnett had already left. In the other version, apparently, Dr Burnette NEVER resigned, but the board couldn’t come together to take back the statement and reverse the decision made by the executive session… Likely out of fear of the legal ramifications.
That’s what we’ve been told for now. Stay tuned.
