Dear Editor,
Bruce O. Johnson has finally presented his resignation to the Mercer County Board of Education. It must have been a humbling thing to do. But he bit the bullet and did it. Perhaps he hoped the action would buy back a small measure of whatever dignity had been forfeited. And there are school personnel, formerly very critical, who are now praising him for doing the right thing.
It was the right thing, granted. It also was the necessary thing. And one has to wonder if the resignation would have been forthcoming had it not been for such first-rate, hard-hitting reportage: the almost unrelenting scrutiny of a vigilant press that held his feet to the fire until he chose not to take the heat any longer. He must have looked southeastward toward Lincoln County and saw it as a desirable place to which he might return.
But not just yet. For reasons of his own, he will hang around for an extra six months. Isn't Dec. 31 the essence of ill-timing for a superintendent to relinquish his post? That's what a number of interested, and justifiably skeptical, parties are asking. And it's likely the members of the board of education would have fallen in line and followed their leader, had he chosen to clean out his desk on June 30. But since he's staying, it has undoubtedly left board members wondering just when would be the appropriate time for them to "hang it up."
