KCPS Foreign Language Academy principal on leave amid allegations, efforts to unionize

The longtime principal of Kansas City Public Schools’ Foreign Language Academy was placed on administrative leave in February, and won’t return for the 2024-2025 school year. His attorney says he plans to take legal action against the district, alleging he was discriminated against during his employment.

A contract for Joell Ramsdell, who has served as the immersion school’s principal since 2013, was not among a swath of principal and vice principal agreements approved by KCPS board members April 10, according to a memo posted by the district. The district began accepting applications for an elementary principal position at the school April 15, according to an open job posting.

Kirk Holman, an employment law attorney representing Ramsdell, told The Star his client was placed on administrative leave Feb. 15, and has been given little information about the reason for the move.

“Essentially, just a vague allegation of ‘staff conduct,’ something along those lines, but no particulars,” Holman said. “It’s quite simply an outrage.”

Holman said “without question” he plans to file a lawsuit on Ramsdell’s behalf against the district over complaints that related to what he described only as discrimination against his client.

“We have a whole host of people we’re going to seek to hold accountable, that’s for sure,” Holman said.

KCPS spokesman Shain Bergan declined to comment in an email to The Star last week, saying, “Unfortunately, we cannot comment on personnel matters.”

In a message to FLA families Feb. 20, Christy Harrison, assistant superintendent of school leadership with KCPS, wrote that Ramsdell was “out of the office” and didn’t elaborate further on his status. Effective immediately, Harrison wrote in the message obtained by The Star, vice principal Michelle Aguirre-Hill would be moving into the role of acting principal at the school.

“We are grateful for Mrs. Aguirre-Hill’s willingness to take on this important role, and we are confident that under her guidance, Foreign Language Academy will continue to thrive and provide a nurturing and enriching environment for our students,” Harrison wrote.

As of this week, Ramsdell is still listed as the school’s principal on its website.

Jason Roberts, president of the Kansas City Federation of Teachers and School Related Personnel, said he had been with Ramsdell Feb. 15, the day he was placed on leave and a day of parent-teacher conferences at the school, and said neither he nor Ramsdell had been expecting the change.

“From the union standpoint, there have been no grievances filed against him in the three years that I’ve been president, and he has, from my perspective, always wanted to stay within the confines of the contract,” Roberts said. “He may push the limits of that, but he was willing to dialogue and to converse. It’s a relationship that I appreciated.”

Roberts said Ramsdell had been spearheading an effort to resurrect a union that would represent principals and vice principals in the district under the banner of the American Federation of School Administrators. That push had been in the works for a while and gained traction in August, Roberts said.

“The teachers were supportive of the administrators’ potential desire to formulate a union and to bargain their contract,” Roberts said.