Student leaders at Collingswood High School late Monday evening shifted from asking the board of education to not renew superintendent Dr. Fredrick H. McDowell Jr.’s contract next year to calling for his immediate resignation at the body’s regular monthly meeting.

“He’s got to go,” wrote Aidan DiMarco, student representative to the board, in an email to The Retrospect after Monday’s meeting, which included a link to the online petition he and fellow student representative Riley Stacy are circulating.

Hours earlier, the students had read a searing indictment of McDowell’s performance into the record during the time allotted for their student report. That time is usually a tame affair with subjects such as football game scores, prom plans, and awards won by various student groups but not on this occasion.

Included were 11 separate anonymous testimonials from teachers who the two students believed represented “the majority of opinion of both the student body and the teachers,” collected over the past few weeks. “It’s critical that the board of education hear, firsthand, a general opinion from the staff on how Dr. McDowell has performed so the board has a clear understanding before they start contract talks,” said Stacy.

“We did not collect anonymous quotes to create an atmosphere of drama and hostility but rather to give the public and the board a taste of what our teachers are experiencing under Dr. McDowell’s leadership, and how the consequences of these experiences are affecting students,” added DiMarco. Teachers “lack the ability to share their unfiltered opinions on what’s happening because they fear for their jobs,” he said.

The quotes shared common themes: teachers and staff don’t feel supported or heard; morale is low; McDowell, two years into the position, has not made any effort to get to know the staff, community, and school culture; and the superintendent hasn’t shown the true leadership to navigate the now-fractured climate at the high school.

Particularly damning was one comment claiming the superintendent lies. Another stated, “he isn’t present in any meaningful way.” Several mentioned colleagues were currently job-hunting, though none by name.

The board of education hired McDowell two years ago after an extensive national search to replace a beloved predecessor, Dr. Scott A. Oswald. Not insignificant, McDowell earned his doctorate in educational leadership to go along with two master’s degrees in education.

DiMarco and Stacy’s motivation to collect data from teachers on McDowell’s performance grew out of personal frustration with the superintendent. On January 4, several school days after a student was viciously assaulted by two other students in the high-school cafeteria, in what seems to be a planned attack, DiMarco and Stacy, as members of CHS’s 25-member student council executive board, asked for a meeting with the superintendent to discuss the current climate at the school.

What DiMarco said he heard there reflected the “fear, frustration, and confusion our teachers are experiencing. Dr. McDowell finger-pointed our high-school administrators and teachers” for blame over the December 22 incident. “He painted a picture of our administrators that to me was offensive, disrespectful, and quite frankly, disgusting,” said DiMarco. “I felt like getting up and walking out. It hurt me to hear him talk about them like that.”

McDowell’s version of the same meeting is that he responded immediately to the students’ request to meet and permitted it to take place during the school day. The 90-minute meeting was conducted round-table style, “everyone was equal,” and he said he “captured the students’ concerns,” which he shared with the faculty in a similar staff-only meeting the next day, “and captured their concerns as well.”

Asked on whose shoulders the blame falls for the lunchroom incident, the superintendent reiterated one of his core educational beliefs. “We fundamentally believe in sitebased leadership, and the primary point of contact at each of our eight school campuses is that building’s top administrator,” he said. “If someone has an issue with how that person handles something, then they should come to the district office.”

Upon further questioning, he conceded there were “gaps in the approach” the high school administrators took in responding on December 22. “When I heard about what was going on (that day), I went immediately to the high school to listen to the faculty accounts.” In the aftermath, which ended with two students being arrested by Collingswood police and charged with assault, “we know we have some egregious behaviors displayed by a very small number of children, that we need to have a response for and correct. School climate problems are not solved with a single silver bullet.”

The superintendent pointed to the settling of three union collective bargaining agreements since his tenure began as evidence that, “we value our people. In each agreement, the employees got increased pay, and increased levels of support in their jobs. None of the negotiations were adversarial — they were collaborative. We came to consensus with all three units.”

Responding to the charge of lying. McDowell said, “It’s disappointing that that’s the sentiment shown by some, but the facts don’t bear that out either. I feel like we’ve bent over backwards to accommodate staff. Maybe at times we’ve been too transparent. It’s unfortunate that anonymous sources from within the district fuel continued rumors that are just not founded and the facts just don’t bear out the rumors.”

McDowell came to Collingswood after completing just two years on a five-year contract serving as superintendent of a huge Trenton City school district. There he was formally rebuked by Trenton’s mayor over a security issue and was subject of a vote of no-confidence by the teachers’ union.

Collingswood board president Regan Kaiden, who was also president two years ago when the board was conducting interviews for the position, said upon his hiring that the board “absolutely did our due diligence,” and “was satisfied we got a full picture of Dr. McDowell’s leadership in Trenton.”

While the students read the nine-minute report, McDowell kept his head down, apparently taking notes. Kaiden did the same. Others on the 11-member board shot looks of consternation around the U-shaped table, particularly newly sworn members Kelly Maia, Meghan Mikulski, and Kate Seltzer. DiMarco and Stacy spoke from seats at the table reserved for the student representatives.

They were met with a resounding ovation from the audience when they concluded. McDowell said nothing. Kaiden hastened to fill the dead air with “we’re glad you’re standing up for what you believe in, and we’re listening and hear what you’re saying. I don’t have a lot more to say at this moment because I’m still processing.”

But DiMarco was well prepared for that moment as well when he responded, “with all due respect, we met with you (and vice-president Matt Craig) privately after the last board meeting, so you’ve had time.”

The superintendent said later he didn’t directly speak to DiMarco and Stacy’s report because “it wasn’t appropriate. And I’m human too. It’s very difficult to thank individuals when they are misrepresenting facts about you.”

“The charges that we don’t listen to student voice, or don’t value student voice — they just aren’t founded,” McDowell said after the meeting Monday. “We listened to student voice when they said they needed more mental health support, and we went out and got a $1.9 million grant to create the Wellness Center in the high school. We listened to a presentation on free feminine products in bathrooms, and we got dispensers over the winter break and filled them.”

No teachers gave state- ments in person, though there were quite a few in the audience. High school nurse Sarah Mervine whose resignation, effective February 8, has already been approved, provided some corroboration of the anonymous criticism when she said she “gave up my dream job here in Collingswood,” because “my multiple attempts to ask for support from the administration got nowhere.”

Mervine added she was a product of Collingswood schools, and loved working in her hometown, but “couldn’t do it all by myself,” implying her caseload was too taxing. She also said that as her boss was a person with no medical training, she found it “irresponsible, unethical, and ridiculous, that I have to justify to someone like that how much time I spend with a student.

“I just want all of you to know I did not resign because I already had another opportunity. I wasn’t looking for another job. This was my dream job,” Mervine said.

McDowell responded, “sometimes, in an emotional situation, things don’t get heard. We just couldn’t come to terms with Sarah on her timeline before she took another position.”

The district employs over 200 teachers and staff members. Since the beginning of the school year, 15 have resigned their positions, including Tracy Taylor, supervisor of counseling services, on Monday. According to a state taxpayer’s guide on education spending released in 2022, Collingswood’s median teacher salary of $67,750 is the highest of the seven school districts The Retrospect covers, including Haddonfield.

Collingswood Education Association president Rick Pentz said his union has taken no formal stance on the information presented by the two students. Asked about the process of assessing members’ feelings towards eventually taking a vote on no-confidence — the strongest anti-McDowell message the union could send — Pentz replied, “We’ve had a lot of things happen here in the past six-seven weeks, and right now we’re trying to stay strong as a staff. We’re trying to work together with the administration to make Collingswood a great place to work, and our goal is to allow our seniors — these seniors (indicating DiMarco and Stacy) — to have a great senior year. Collingswood High School has been a great place for a long time, and we want it to stay that way.”

After the December 22 lunchroom assault, longtime Collingswood Mayor James Maley had called out the district, saying “the time for talk is over; it’s time for action.” The only action articulated Monday was by DiMarco and Stacy, who aren’t waiting for the next school climate committee meeting to convene to make the student body position clear.