Volusia County School Board abruptly fires its superintendent

The Volusia County School Board voted Tuesday to fire its superintendent, effective immediately.

In a 3-2 vote, superintendent Dr. Scott Fritz was voted out of his position.

Fritz previously announced that he did not intend to renew his contract with the district and planned to leave by December.

However, one of the board's members, Jamie Haynes, made a motion to fire Fritz immediately.

Why? What happened?

"During the break, Dr. Fritz made it very clear to me that he does not want to be here by his actions," said board member Ruben Colon during the meeting. "I do not believe that our employees should be subject to what I was just subject to minutes ago."

When asked by FOX 35, Colon would not elaborate on what was said during the conversation, but said it was clear that Dr. Fritz wanted to leave his position. 

"And so it was for that reason, despite not having been at that point in the discussion, why I opted to support that motion," Colon said.

Board member Carl Persis voted against the motion.

"This was something that to me wasn’t necessary," he said in an interview with FOX 35 following the meeting.

He was caught off-guard by the vote, he said. Apparently, before the board meeting there were discussions about an exit strategy and a leadership transition regarding the superintendent role, he said.

"I like things to be deliberate, carefully planned, thought out," he said. 

"Nobody wants change, but sometimes it's necessary. And I will tell you that when I was hired here, I was asked to make change. And I think we've done that," Dr. Fritz said before walking out of the meeting.

Rachel Hazel, the human resources manager, will serve as interim superintendent.

The board hopes to have a permanent replacement named by July 1.