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 FINALLY!  THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED TO JOE MAIMONE!

This has been submitted to the Daily Courier:
To the Editor:

We all know Mr. Maimone was working diligently to build a new school building and campus for our deserving TJCA students and staff.

Anyone that has had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Maimone has certainly already realized he would never have willingly left the project incomplete. Mr. Maimone would never have abruptly left the school that he and his wife founded, mortgaged their home for, and worked for 19 years to build at a time of crises without leadership.

The principal, Mr. Blake had just abruptly quit and tendered his notice to the school board before the end of the 2017/2018 school year. The principal, Mr. Blake was implemented as the leader of TJCA by the volunteer TJCA school board led by Mr. Maxwell. In August 2017, the board stripped Mr. Maimone of all of his responsibilities as leader of TJCA, and gave Mr. Blake complete authority to run the upper campus. Mr. Blake no longer answered to Mr. Maimone but rather directly to the volunteer school board led by Mr. Maxwell. The volunteer school board was able to do this by massaging and changing the bylaws to suit their needs.

The volunteer school board changed 18 years of successful leadership and a productive chain of command structure in one afternoon.

The volunteer school board went from having one employee- the headmaster, and having all other employees answer to the headmaster to a new regime. The new regime had Mr. Blake and all administrators answering directly to the volunteer board chair and removed all authority from Mr. Maimone, as well as anyone else in administration, placing all power within the board, and in particular the volunteer board chair.

This is equivalent to a volunteer candy striper taking over administration of a hospital. Suddenly the board chair is acting as administration and micromanaging the school.

The office Mr. Maimone had occupied for years as headmaster was taken from him and given to Mr. Blake. Mr. Maimone was installed in a small office in the middle school tucked behind Mr. Fair’s (the new vice principal’s) large windowed office. And yet Mr. Maimone stayed. Mr. Maimone stayed and continued in the face of adversity to build a new school for the TJCA community he loves. The board’s bullying, rudeness and complete lack of respect for the founder of TJCA did not stop.

Rather the new board leadership berated and belittled him if he addressed any concern a student, parent or staff member tried to discuss with Mr. Maimone, stating it was outside of his newly outlined job description. Suddenly a role Mr. Maimone had been doing successfully for 18 years was taken from him and he was no longer permitted to lead the school because the volunteer charter school board decided they were going to install the leader THEY hand picked.

The volunteer school board decided they knew what was best for TJCA. The board did not consult parents, teachers, staff nor even Mr. Maimone. The volunteer school board over turned 18 years of leadership by Mr. Maimone and decreed that Mr. Blake, after working at TJCA as a math teacher and dean for only one year would be the leader of TJCA.

However, the volunteer school board’s newly hand picked leader quit and left TJCA after being installed as the principal and leader of TJCA after only 9 months in that position. The volunteer board has now installed another principal and this time picked the human resource director, Mrs. Bridges. Mrs. Bridges has worked at TJCA for one year. Perhaps she will stay longer than Mr. Blake did in the role. The reality is TJCA had a consistent leader for 18 years. TJCA was led by the founder Mr. Maimone.

Mr. Maimone never abandoned or walked away from TJCA. TJCA has had many different volunteer school boards and chairmen of the board through out the 19 year history of TJCA. NEVER has a sitting TJCA chairman or volunteer TJCA school board ousted the founder Mr. Maimone until this board that is currently being led by chairman Ray Maxwell.

Mr. Maxwell has been on the volunteer school board for two years and he and his other directors decided they know what is best for TJCA, implementing unprecedented changes without consulting the TJCA stakeholders and community.

The current volunteer chairman Mr. Maxwell and his volunteer board do not have a long standing part of TJCA history, nor have they mortgaged their homes for TJCA, nor have they put in the blood, sweat, and tears it has taken to build TJCA.

Therefore, why is this group of volunteers permitted to oust the founder and successful leader of TJCA? Why would we accept this? Mr. Maimone never accepted it when he was told he could not build a successful charter school in rural NC. Mr. Maimone has always passionately believed in TJCA. The volunteer school board is out of control and hiding behind bylaws they make up.

All decisions made by this volunteer board have been shrouded in secrecy. In particular this volunteer board led by Mr. Maxwell has operated behind closed doors and held closed session board meetings ensuring TJCA stake holders were unaware and kept in the dark about the changes they were implementing without any input from the TJCA stakeholders.

Mr. Maimone’s nineteen years of leadership speaks for itself through the success of TJCA. However, the nine months of leadership by Mr. Blake and Mr. Maxwell has been riddled with destruction.

There was no wrong doing by Mr. Maimone, as is falsely promoted through board members’ friends and family into the community.

We MUST BRING MAIMONE BACK, and undo this wrong!!

 

Sincerely, Inge Collins, M.D.

 

 

ORIGINAL PETITION: Mr. Joe Maimone, headmaster of Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy, tendered a resignation effective July 31, 2018 after a closed session of the TJCA School Board in June and July 2018.  It is obvious his resignation was a choice of the lesser of two evils, the other being termination. My immediate suspicion was that this occurred due to a pointless scuffle of egos. I was told by a Board member that he left under “amicable” terms, which any intelligent, logical person would doubt seriously based on the obvious circumstances.  

I have had many interactions over the years with Mr. Maimone, all of which have been extremely positive. I can not think of ONE situation, either that I have experienced or involving others, where his character was called in to question. He has poured his heart and soul into this school selflessly! My goodness, if he was paid an hourly rate for his service, he would be a multi-millionaire! He attends nearly every school function and infuses a contagious enthusiasm into the staff, students, and parents!

I realize that whatever agreement was made behind closed doors with the TJCA Board will keep us from knowing what happened. That is terribly unfortunate as I perceive a GRAVE INJUSTICE has occurred.

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITON WHICH WILL BE SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL BOARD ASKING THAT MR.MAIMONE BE REINSTATED AS HEADMASTER AT TJCA!