Chester Upland replaces superintendent with a district administrator who is married to Pa.’s education secretary

Chester Upland School District’s superintendent is leaving, and the district is tapping its assistant superintendent — who is married to Pennsylvania’s education secretary — to replace him.

During a brief meeting Friday, Nafis Nichols, the court-appointed receiver who oversees the distressed district, thanked Superintendent Craig Parkinson. He then introduced Assistant Superintendent Latrice Mumin.

“We’ve done a lot of work, and we still have a lot of work to do,” Mumin said. She said she looked forward “to engaging our students so they, too, have an opportunity to excel and compete.”

The reason for the leadership change wasn’t clear. An agenda item for the meeting referred to a resignation and confidential separation agreement for an unnamed employee that took effect Friday. The same item specified that Mumin would be reassigned from assistant to interim superintendent, also as of Friday.

Mumin is married to Khalid Mumin, a former Lower Merion and Reading superintendent who was named education secretary by Gov. Josh Shapiro earlier this year.

The Chester Upland district has been under receivership since 2012 — oversight initiated by the state Department of Education, which argued the district lacked the ability to address its financial troubles.

Nichols is the latest in a series of receivers appointed by a Delaware County judge. He was approved by the court in 2021, after submitting his own name for consideration and garnering support from the city’s largest charter operator, Chester Community Charter School. The state education department had suggested a different nominee.

Last year, though, the department supported Nichols’ reappointment. Nichols then granted a new five-year contract to Parkinson, a former principal in the Phoenixville Area School District who had started in Chester Upland in 2021.

During Friday’s meeting, Parkinson said the district had made growth during his tenure, and that it had been an “amazing, amazing two years.”

Following the comments from Parkinson and Mumin, outgoing Chester Mayor Thaddeus Kirkland, who attended the meeting, stood up and criticized the leadership change — noting Parkinson had replaced a previous superintendent who was in the position for about a year.

“We’re hurting our children,” said Kirkland, who lost the Democratic primary in May. “We cannot continue to remove superintendent after superintendent.”

Kirkland said, “I understand the politics of it, but it’s wrong.” In a comment apparently directed at Mumin, he said, “I don’t know how long it’s going to take before they walk you out.”

“Again, consistency will remain in place,” said Nichols, who said earlier that Parkinson had worked to update the district’s strategic plan. He adjourned the meeting.

Nichols did not respond to requests for comment Friday on the reason for Parkinson’s departure. He also did not provide the terms of Parkinson’s separation agreement or of Mumin’s reassignment.