When the Norfolk School Board abruptly fired Superintendent Sharon I. Byrdsong last month, it was the final act in a years-long campaign against her by a faction of the board that opposed her even before she was considered for the position.
In February 2020, the board voted 4-3 to hire Byrdsong after scrapping the search process to consider her. At the time, she was serving as interim superintendent.
Byrdsong had not applied for the position and that was because of a phone call with former school board member Rodney Jordan, former school board chair Dr. Noelle Gabriel wrote in an email to board members obtained through a public records request.
“The conversation seemed threatening in nature, especially when you advised her not to apply for the acting superintendent’s post because to do so would ‘ruin her career,'” she wrote in a Feb. 19, 2020 email, adding that it compromised the superintendent search because it inhibited a qualified candidate from applying.
“Whether that was your aim or it was the unfortunate byproduct of a poorly worded phone call, the end result is still the same. Best case scenario you limited our candidate pool unintentionally; worst case scenario you intentionally intimidated a woman who has served this school division well for more than 20 years simply because she wasn’t your choice for the job."
The board, she said, could not ignore Byrdsong's effectiveness and the community relationships forged through 21 years on the job. They should consider her rather than cling to a search process that hadn't delivered suitable candidates.
The next day, Gabriel joined Adale Martin, Carlos Clanton and Lauren Campsen to approve a contract with Byrdsong. Jordan and Tanya Bhasin, members who would repeatedly oppose Byrdsong over the next four years, were among the three voting no.
Gabriel ended her email with the hope that if the board chose Byrdsong, they would work together.
"If we don’t, it is the children of Norfolk Public Schools that will suffer," she concluded.
That proved to be wishful thinking. The board divisions continued over the years, reaching a conclusion on June 11 when a last-minute resolution to the agenda was added during a meeting to terminate Byrdsong without cause.
Board dysfunction, disagreement goes back years
The 4-3 vote to fire Byrdsong included members who had campaigned against her for years, as well as two new opponents: board chair Sarah DiCalogero, who took office in January, and Jason Inge, who was an interim member appointment in February. Those who voted for dismissal did not offer reasons. Inge later posted on social media that his decision was "grounded in data" he didn't specify.
Byrdsong's defenders, including Martin and Ken Paulson, decried the board's dysfunction and division in public, something they'd also done by email in private.
"The board is the problem, and we refuse to recognize and address the issue," Paulson said during the meeting. "Our school board has become deeply dysfunctional, with personal and political agendas overriding our mission to serve the students. I believe today's decision is rooted not in educational leadership, but in ancient personal vendettas."
The board’s last-minute termination didn’t include a public announcement about Byrdsong’s severance package. Under Virginia law, “severance benefits provided to any departing official appointed by a local governing body or school board shall be publicly announced by the local governing body or school board, respectively, prior to such departure.”
When the Newport News School board fired its superintendent after a first grader shot his teacher in 2023, the termination included the details of his severance.
Emails to and from DiCalogero from June 10-12 obtained through a public records request, show there were negotiations with Byrdsong and her attorney prior to the vote. Norfolk City Attorney Bernard Pishko as well as Jack Cloud and Andrew Fox, attorneys in the office who represent the school board, emailed with DiCalogero the day before the vote, discussing a draft separation agreement. It appears there was discussion about Byrdsong resigning rather than being fired without cause.
“I have also been made aware that ‘supporters’ of Sharon are considering ‘protesting’ the board’s action,” Pishko wrote in an 11:45 a.m. email on June 10. “Sharon’s ‘resistance’ does not surprise me and perhaps will delay executing the separation agreement, which appears to be a ‘no brainer.’”
He added that the board could move ahead.
“If we do not very soon have an executed agreement from Sharon, id (sic) be inclined to proceed with the needed public vote to accept the resignation and separation agreement and the appointment of the interim,” he wrote, suggesting he thought she was going to resign.
In the morning before the vote, DiCalogero received emails from two school principals asking the board to delay acting, according to the records. Tommy Smigiel, principal at Granby High School, president of the Norfolk Secondary Schools Principals Association and City Council member, said he was writing to the board after an emergency vote of the association. Byrdsong, he said, had provided needed stability. Terminating her in the midst of the district’s challenges, including closing schools, building a new Maury High School, and working through a new accreditation system, would create “turmoil.”
“Along with our colleagues in the Elementary Schools Principals Association of Norfolk (ESPAN), we are deeply troubled that more dialogue between the school board and building principals (boots on the ground) has not been held prior to making this decision,” he wrote.
The records released by the school system do not show a reply from board members that day or the next.
Following the vote, Byrdsong released a public statement about the board’s decision.
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven,” she concluded. “Quite simply, my faith tells me that there is a time when you know your season has concluded, when you know you have served your purpose. That time for me is now.”
At 7:31 p.m. that night, DiCalogero sent Doreatha White, the system’s chief strategy, innovation and community engagement officer, an email demanding to know who authorized her to send the Byrdsong statement.
“Please remove Dr. Byrdsong from all areas of the NPS website immediately,” DiCalogero wrote. “This is to include all picture(s) and communications that include references to Dr. Byrdsong.”
There is no response to that directive in the public records sent by the school system. A search of the NPS site shows that removal did not happen. It could have been a violation of the state’s public records retention requirements.
In a response later that night, James Pohl, the interim superintendent, wrote to DiCalogero that Byrdsong told White she was permitted a farewell message.
DiCalogero, approached at a meeting about school closings, said she would think about commenting but did not respond to a follow-up email.
In the aftermath of Byrdsong’s firing, the Norfolk City Council issued a public rebuke, passing a resolution praising her. One after another, council members extolled her successes. A packed council chambers twice rose for standing ovations.
Smigiel noted that when he was first elected, the city only supplied about $100 million to the school system, but through Byrdsong’s efforts, that number rose to $171 million.
"That's because we have faith in the leader of that organization moving our school system forward," he added.
Last month's vote wasn't the first time Byrdsong's opponents attempted to oust her. Before Jordan left the board at the end of 2024, he joined with Bhasin, and then-chair Tiffany Moore-Buffaloe in another attempt.
Carlos Clanton, a new council member who served six years on the school board ending last year, said he thwarted the attempts last year. Individual board members solicited votes without holding a full board discussion in closed session, he said.
"I don't approve of what happened, because I know the backstory," he said. "You have a board that is acting as a board of four and not a collective governing team, and that's problematic."
Byrdsong's firing comes at a crucial time as the school system navigates the political minefield of a plan to close ten schools, required by August, by the City Council. Underinvestment in aging buildings means the system faces $900 million in capital improvements, according to a consultant’s report.
To meet the challenge, Clanton said the board needs to set aside personal differences.
"They've got to be willing to rise up to the occasion," he added, noting that he butted heads repeatedly with Jordan, but they worked through their issues or agreed to disagree.
Jordan could not be reached for comment. The number for McKinley Megginson Group in Norfolk, which he lists as an employer, rang busy every time a reporter for WHRO attempted to reach it. The State Corporation Commission lists it as inactive since 2015. An email sent to his campaign site went unanswered. An online corporate database shows McKinley active beginning in 2022 in New Mexico with a Norfolk mailing address.
Byrdsong, in an email, declined an interview.
“I gave the opportunity you are offering a great deal of thought and came to the conclusion that it is time for me to look ahead rather than revisiting the past,” she wrote.
In December, Jordan left the board after 12 years, stretched between appointed and elected boards. He and Bhasin voted against every annual budget proposed by Byrdsong since 2020.
From March 1, 2024, until his term ended on Dec. 31, Jordan sent Byrdsong 2,033 emails, often long and about internal administration matters, according to a records request by Paulson that was confirmed by a separate WHRO request. Bhasin and another Byrdsong opponent, Moore-Buffaloe, who works as the executive assistant for the Newport News School superintendent, were other prolific email writers to Byrdsong. Moore-Buffaloe sent 556 while Bhasin sent 523. Bhasin, according to the request, sent another 234 emails between Feb. 1 and April 25, 2025.
“The effort has intensely resurfaced”
By May 8, 2025, Byrdsong had had enough. She emailed DiCalogero, noting the schools were at their busiest time and the emailed requests often related to day-to-day operations as well as data and reports. Under their procedures, it was DiCalogero's job to vet them first.
"I cannot focus on my work while being bombarded with multiple requests for reports, data, and responses for varied inquiries," she wrote. "Please assist me in resolving this challenge."
DiCalogero responded on May 21 that she would discuss the issue with the board. That was the day Byrdsong said she was "blindsided" by the board's agenda change and 4-3 vote to deny the administration's choices for several positions, including a new principal for Booker T. Washington High School. That vote made clear that the anti-Byrdsong faction had the muscle to oust her.
In an email Bhasin sent to DiCalogero the next afternoon, she wrote that her rejection of the administration’s recommendation "is grounded in a loss of trust and confidence in Dr. Byrdsong's ability to lead the Division effectively. At the heart of this decision is the process – or lack thereof – surrounding key leadership appointments."
Two hours later, Byrdsong sent the board a seven-page memo. She noted a "quagmire of philosophical disagreements" with a segment of the board, orchestrated by Bhasin working with the others; and that it was in retaliation for her intention to reorganize the Division of Communication and Community Engagement, something within her authority. The vote meant the district lost two new principals and a budget analyst while preparing for a new school year.
She referred to the effort last year to dismiss her.
"Discussions around this possibility were held outside of School Board meetings, excluding Board members who were supportive of my leadership," she wrote. "Decisive votes were solicited, ultimately unsuccessfully. I was hopeful when new individuals were appointed to the Board, the atmosphere would improve. Instead, it appears the effort has intensely resurfaced, once again."
DiCalogero, she wrote, told her by phone the board would be discussing her performance in a closed session, but declined to offer details.
"Again, there is a blatant lack of transparency regarding actions of the Board that should not be and the appearance of continued work done in secrecy," she added.
Bhasin replied by email with a different tone to Byrdsong and the board than she did to DiCalogero. She wrote her vote denying the hirings was "misaligned."
"My response did not prioritize student needs,” she wrote. “I allowed my discomfort with the process and the urgency surrounding leadership decisions to overshadow that focus." She did not reply to an email from WHRO seeking comment.
Three weeks later, before the vote on Byrdsong’s employment, Martin read a statement outlining the board's dysfunction, calling out DiCalogero's leadership.
It echoed Gabriel's email five years earlier. Bhasin sat beside her, shaking her head.
"There have been repeated instances of alienating school board members and intentionally excluding fellow board members from vital information," Martin said.
"When citizens have commented on your misconduct, you have taken a dismissive tone. These patterns have not only impeded the board's ability to function cohesively, but have contributed to a culture of bullying, disrespect and unprofessional conduct, as well as a growing perception of dysfunction and mistrust among community stakeholders."
Norfolk Public Schools is a member of the Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association, which holds WHRO's license.
