By By KERRY WHIPPLE BEAN – publisher
Alabama State University has not renewed Margaret Breland Bradley's contract as headmaster at Southern Normal, school officials said.
Bradley's contract ends Sept. 30, but she remains on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation into her management of funds at the school, ASU spokeswoman Janel Bell said.
Southern Normal is a satellite campus for Montgomery-based ASU and offers children's programs, continuing education and some graduate programs.
No new director has been named for Southern Normal, Bell said, but the position will be advertised as is custom for state jobs.
Bradley is a former superintendent of Escambia County Schools. She left the position after 21 months when the school board voted 4-3 in April 2000 not to renew her contract.
Bradley filed a lawsuit against the district alleging racial and gender discrimination, but a U.S. District Court judge dismissed the suit in 2003, saying she had not presented sufficient evidence. School board members cited concerns including the loss of longtime district employees and questionable spending practices, according to news articles in April 2000.
Bradley was later hired by ASU to run Southern Normal.
Alabama State took over the Southern Normal campus in 1997. The school was founded in 1911 by James Dooley as a junior and senior high boarding school.
It was operated under the Board of Domestic Missions of the Reformed Church in America as one of its permanent projects in 1919. Until 1969, Southern Normal was the only school in Brewton that educated African-American students.