Copyright Baltimore Sun
In a full-circle moment Monday, the Somerset County Board of Education appointed W. David Bromwell as interim superintendent of Somerset County Public Schools, effective immediately. The appointment, which will continue through June 30, follows months of controversy that culminated last week in the departure of Ava Tasker-Mitchell, the district’s first Black female superintendent. During a special meeting Oct. 28, the board met in closed session before emerging to announce that it had “mutually agreed” with Tasker-Mitchell that she would step down. The board had earlier attempted to fire Tasker-Mitchell and appoint Bromwell in July, but that action was stayed by State Superintendent Carey M. Wright while an appeal was pending. The Maryland State Board of Education ruled on the appeal Oct. 6, noting that under state law, a local school board must provide a superintendent with written charges and hold a hearing before termination. The Somerset board, the ruling said, failed to follow those requirements, attempting instead to fire Tasker-Mitchell and then hold a “post-termination” hearing. The state board remanded the case back to Somerset, ordering the local board to issue a final decision on Tasker-Mitchell’s employment and provide written documentation within 30 days. That decision came last Monday. Tasker-Mitchell had been appointed superintendent in June 2024, beginning a four-year term on July 1. In announcing Bromwell’s appointment, the board said, “Mr. Bromwell brings extensive leadership experience and a proven record of service in public education, making him the most experienced public-school superintendent currently serving on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The Board remains determined to guide the 2025–2026 school year forward in a timely, safe, and successful manner.” Bromwell has more than three decades in Maryland public education, most recently serving as superintendent of Dorchester County Public Schools from 2019 to 2024. He stepped down from that position March 1, 2024, in what the Dorchester school board described as a mutual decision. In Somerset County, Bromwell inherits a tumultuous administration, including fallout from a recent state audit that found more than a decade of unresolved financial and procedural problems. At an Oct. 22 virtual meeting, Board President Matthew Lankford said the audit “identified multiple violations within Somerset County Public Schools for fiscal year 2025, which indicate noncompliance and confirm that the district did not pass the audit. These findings are significant concerns and need more immediate attention.” He said the board will address those findings during a Nov. 18 meeting with auditors present. During that same meeting, Tasker-Mitchell noted that the problems were long-standing. “It wasn’t just 2025 – these are issues that have been in place for the last decade,” she said, adding that procurement policies hadn’t been updated in 10 years and that past boards had pledged reforms that never materialized. “This administration is going to be tasked with mitigating those issues and fixing them,” she said. Tasker-Mitchell’s departure leaves the district’s top leadership – the superintendent and all five board members – entirely white, a shift that has not gone unnoticed in a county where more than half the student body is Black or Hispanic. School board members did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
