Vidrale Franklin, the former principal of Dr. Charles R. Drew College Preparatory Academy in San Francisco, used a graduation ceremony to challenge the school district for forcing her to resign after an investigation into how she managed school funds.

Investigation and Resignation

Franklin’s stand-off with the school district began with an October email from the director of employee relations, saying that her financial practices were under investigation. The district was looking into how she managed federal Title 1 funds and funds raised through fundraising events.

Over the next eight months, Franklin turned over multiple records and receipts of all financial transactions. The district stopped asking her about Title 1 funds early on but persisted in its investigation of how she used funds raised from parents and other events.

Franklin said she was told in a meeting with her union legal counsel that all the money had been accounted for, but she was still forced to resign. She claims the district unfairly targeted her and that she was scared into resigning.

Community Support

Parents and staff at Drew are planning to protest Franklin’s resignation and the investigation that led up to it at a forthcoming board of education meeting. A former longtime SFUSD principal said the practice of using informal and even personal cash-related apps for storing school funds is common in under-resourced schools.

Franklin said she is gathering documentation to file a claim with the state civil rights department, including filing public records requests concerning the district’s history of what she called ‘forcing out Black principals.’ She plans to sue the district to bring attention to the struggle Black and brown academic leaders experience within the SFUSD.

Original reporting: Mission Local — read the source article.