A new name for Sligh Middle? School Board member says not so fast. - Tampa Bay Times

TAMPA — Sligh Middle School might be renamed for professional wrestler and benefactor Thaddeus Bullard.

Or it might not.

Tamara Shamburger, the School Board member who represents the neighborhoods around Sligh, is asking pointed questions about why the change is being considered, whether the district’s school-naming process is being followed faithfully, and whether the move has the full support of the community.

Shamburger is also running for re-election and noticed recently that Bullard made a $1,000 donation to one of her opponents, retired educator Henry “Shake” Washington.

Shamburger said in an interview that she is concerned mostly about the process. “If they want to do it the appropriate way and the community wants it, I will absolutely support it,” she said.

But she also suggested Bullard, profiled by the Tampa Bay Times on March 31 because of his work at Sligh, was being honored largely for his monetary donations. By his own estimate, he has spent millions on projects to improve urban schools and communities.

And that’s not all.

Shamburger said Bullard, known in wrestling circles as Superstar Titus O’Neil, held events at Sligh without allowing School Board members to participate. “Thaddeus has an extremely big heart,” she said. “He wants to do right by our students. But he also has a big ego."

Bullard said School Board members have taken part in all of the public events he has hosted, including holiday celebrations and back-to-school fairs. Once, he recalled, he invited the board to an event at Sligh, but Shamburger was out of town that day.

“If anybody accuses me of doing all this to try to put my name on a school, they really don’t know me,” said Bullard, 43. “I have no room to have an ego. If this pandemic doesn’t show anybody anything, we are all just one situation away from being in a bad situation.”

He also said, “I don’t put any credibility or credence to any political figure whose vote can be bought.”

Tensions between the two go back at least a year. In an email in May 2019 to top district leaders, Shamburger accused “this wrestler,” as she called Bullard, of being rude on social media and using inappropriate language in front of students.

Shamburger said in her interview that she did not remember that email. Bullard recalls posting something on Facebook about politicians who were in office for their own self-interest. He said he meant the statement in a general way, and Shamburger appeared to take it personally.

The renaming decision affects a Sulphur Springs area school that struggled, despite its magnet program in health sciences, for the better part of a decade. Now a “C,” Sligh bounced mostly between an F and a D as principals tried to motivate staff and students.

“It was known as the fighting school,” Bullard said.

Current principal Anthony Jones is the third school leader since Dallas Jackson, who presided over a bitterly divided faculty and then filed a race discrimination suit after the district demoted him in 2015.

Bullard’s contributions, supported by private businesses through a nonprofit foundation, have grown steadily over the last five years. They include physical improvements to the campus including a new track and multi-sport field, an indoor fitness center for the faculty, a student house system to encourage friendly competition, and plans to offer an array of services to adults in the community.

Already, Jones said, he sees a growing sense of pride. Teachers are not transferring out the way they used to and discipline problems have decreased. Although there will be no state testing this year because of the coronavirus crisis, Sligh gained 67 points towards its state grade between 2018 and 2019.

Talk of a renaming began around February, Jones said, so he took the idea to his staff. Of 35 people who turned out to a meeting, 30 were in favor. He was beginning to test it in the North Tampa community when the virus crisis closed everything down.

School renaming efforts can be explosive, as district leaders learned during the debate over Robert E. Lee Elementary in 2017 and 2018. The general consensus at Sligh was to opt for more of a partial renaming, along the lines of The Bullard Academy at Sligh.

“It was a way of embracing this new sort of new way of thinking in the future, while also embracing the history of the school,” Jones said. It would also avoid the cost of changing out signs, uniforms and other items that bore the Sligh name.

(From left) Jayden Massey, LaJashia Wallace,13, looks on while Maliah Smith, 12, and Thaddeus Bullard talk after school while they wait for their ride at Sligh Middle School in Tampa, at Sligh Middle School in Tampa, Florida on Friday, February 21, 2020. Thaddeus Bullard a WWE superstar "Titus O'Neil," also a noted philanthropist and former Florida Gator football player, has made it his life's mission to create a school that would serve an underprivileged community in many ways. Sligh Middle Magnet is the school he has adopted. [OCTAVIO JONES | Times]

Bullard has the support of Hillsborough’s new superintendent, Addison Davis, who said he’s been “blown away" by his efforts at the school.

“He’s all action and he’s a great visionary," Davis said. "He’s a good individual to problem solve with and talk about what we can do to expand the potential for our learners, but also give them a sense of hope inside and outside of the classroom. I would name a street after him.”

Bullard is also a good friend of Washington, Shamburger’s campaign opponent who, like Bullard, is an accomplished athlete.

“The community and the students are number one with him, and that’s what I love about him,” Washington said. Bullard said he was happy to kick $1,000 into Washington’s campaign for the School Board seat in February. After the campaign finance report became public, he said Shamburger called him and asked if he had made the donation to spite her. “Absolutely not,” he said he told her.

Shamburger’s take: “To me, it shows that he is not interested in working with me. That’s just my personal opinion. I’m not saying that’s why he did it.”

On March 31, Shamburger sent an email to several officials in the district, asking questions about Bullard and Sligh. She requested copies of work orders completed at Sligh, and incomplete work orders at other area schools. She asked for evidence of academic improvements at Sligh that resulted from the Bullard foundation’s work, and information on whether the organization is in full compliance with the district’s volunteer and community partner guidelines.

Shamburger said in an interview that she is fulfilling her responsibility as a board member.

“I think the work he has done has been great — absolutely amazing work,” she said of Bullard. “Does it change the culture of the school? Has it increased the educational gains at the school? I can’t say that it’s done any of that. But if the community wholeheartedly wants it, then I support what the community wants.”

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A new name for Sligh Middle? School Board member says not so fast. - Tampa Bay Times
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