Inquirer Editorial: Plan to change schools' racial makeup may have cost Upper Darby chief his job

Not too long ago, the Upper Darby school board couldn't say enough nice things about its superintendent, Richard F. Dunlap Jr. It wrote in his 2014-15 school year evaluation: "Performance is superior, far exceeding expectations." A year ago, he got an 8 percent pay raise, bringing his salary to $194,866, and a fresh five-year contract.

Now Dunlap is out, having spent the last six weeks on paid leave before officially retiring on Wednesday. Since July 12, he's apparently been the subject of six executive sessions of the board, including one meeting in which 24 staffers were brought in to testify.

His crime? The school district skirts that question, noting that personnel matters can be legally discussed in closed session. Further, Dunlap did not seek to confront his accusers and has not responded to media inquiries. Still, clues abound along the road that runs through the eighth-largest school district in Pennsylvania.

Start with minutes of an April 25 board committee meeting concerning a pilot plan to balance class size. A majority of the board did not support the plan, so action was "postponed until a future time." But buried seems more accurate than postponed.

The plan would allow administrators to reassign students to another school to equalize class sizes. But in a district that is 47 percent African American, 32 percent white, 14 percent Asian, and 5 percent Hispanic, moving students can be controversial.

In the district's 10 elementary schools, white students, though a minority districtwide, make up majorities in five schools: Westbrook Park, 76 percent; Hillcrest, 68 percent; Garrettford, 56 percent; Aronimink, 54 percent; and Primos, 51 percent. African Americans, on the other hand, are substantial majorities at three elementary schools: Stonehurst Hills, 86 percent; Bywood, 67 percent; and Charles Kelly, 61 percent.

There is also the unusual situation of Walter Senkow Elementary, where students from two neighborhoods are bused out of the district to rented space in Glenolden. This school is 60 percent Asian, 26 percent African American, 9 percent Hispanic, and only 4 percent white. Dunlap wanted to build a new school to eliminate the need to rent Glenolden and bus students to it.

Now that plan - like its sponsor, whose retirement appears linked - is slated to become an obscure footnote in district history and any successor is more likely to be looking over his or her shoulder than peering boldly into the future.

The certainty is that this significantly diverse school district outside Philadelphia will become even more so in the years ahead. A key question is whether its future school boards and others will learn from this episode or simply repeat it by failing to readily adapt to changing times and demographics.