Addis resigns abruptly from board of ed seat

When news comes out of a Worcester County Board of Education meeting, it’s seldom about the board members themselves. Yet, the biggest takeaway from Tuesday’s public input budget session in Newark is that board member Katie Addis stunned everyone in the room by announcing her immediate resignation.

She has caught people off guard before, but this declaration was different. In her speech that led up to her announcement, she said she had found the job more difficult than anticipated because of biased newspaper reporting, a “good ol’ boy” mentality in the county and a school system that routinely wanted more money than it needed.

Also coming in for a verbal walloping from Addis was the Worcester County Teachers Association, which she accused of not always working in the teachers’ interest.

Addis began her surprise resignation speech by saying she sought — and won — a school board seat three years ago because it was her dream to see her children enter the county school system. That, she continued, would not be the case, although she offered no specific reason why that would not or could not happen or what prompted her decision to step down with one year left on her term.

That she was destined not to blend in with the other members of the board was evident during her 2022 campaign for the 6th District’s (Bishopville) seat on the board. In an interview with the Capital News Service, Addis said the biggest problems facing the school system were “Social Emotional Learning, a damaging health framework and constant political agendas are being pushed.”

She also objected to what she said were the schools teaching “Critical Race Theory practices, gender identity and other social justice programs to create a divisive divide in our schools.”

Addis also had butted heads with other members and the administration over the board’s budget proposals, which she saw as excessive. Now, she’ll have to object from the sidelines for reasons that remain unclear, for now.