Democrat Ryan Sawyers Censured by Prince William County School Board

Last night, the Prince William County School Board voted 4-2 in favor of censuring Ryan Sawyers, the current School Board Chairman at Large. Although the Virginia School Board Association does not keep track of specific records regarding votes for censure, it appears that this is the first time in the PWCS school board’s history that the Chairman has been openly censured by his fellow board members. 

The Board is currently composed of a majority of Democratic board members. The vote was Satterwhite (R), Deutsch (R), Brann (I), and Ralston (D) in favor, and Williams (D) and Wilk (D) against.  Chairman Sawyers (D) recused himself from the vote, and Board Member Jessie (D) was not present.

And the censure was well-deserved. Sawyers has been wreaking havoc on the school board since he entered office, with his involvement in no fewer than three lawsuits: He is being sued by Michael Bishop, principal of Patriot High School, in connection with defamation of character, civil conspiracy, and contract interference due to emails sent and social media posts about Bishop. 

Bishop is the former president of the Haymarket Gainesville Baseball League. Sawyers runs the competitor, Bull Run Little League. Guy Morgan is a co-defendant with Sawyers in the lawsuit, as is fellow school board member, Justin Wilk. Guy Morgan is the largest contributor to both the Sawyers and Wilk campaigns according to information available at www.VPAP.org. Trial in the Little League case is set for January 2018.

In addition to his squabbles about little league baseball, Sawyers has also filed numerous lawsuits against various employees of Prince William County Schools, including against Superintendent Steven Walts, demanding copies of emails sent and received by former Board Chairman, Milt Johns. Johns is a partner in a local law firm that is representing Michael Bishop in the Little League lawsuit. 

On September 6, 2017, Sawyers demanded the School Division’s in-house counsel, Mary McGowan, be removed from the dais and relegated to the back of the boardroom.  When the School Board thereafter voted at that night’s meeting to restore McGowan to the dais in a meeting where Sawyers was noticeably absent, Sawyers responded by filing a lawsuit against McGowan. In the lawsuit, Sawyers attached as exhibits several emails that contained warnings that the subject matter was “attorney-client privileged” and confidential.

The public disclosure of this confidential attorney-client privileged material was the basis for the School Board’s Censure Resolution on September 20, 2017. The full censure resolution can be read here.

A vote of censure is something like a public show of disapproval of Sawyers’ actions by the other board members. While the vote of censure does not serve to cause Sawyers to be removed from the Board on its own, it may give force to the ongoing efforts to recall Sawyers from the Board. A group of Prince William County citizens has been working to obtain signatures on a petition to recall the Chairman. The petition is available here.  

Sawyers chose not to be present on the dais during the taking of the censure vote, and it is possible he will respond with yet another lawsuit. But the citizens of Prince William County are growing extremely weary of his antics, and of the destruction and distraction he is causing on the school board. The Board is forced to spend its time focusing on responding and defending themselves (or in the case of the censure vote, distancing themselves) from Ryan’s caustic actions, and that wasted time is time not spent in furtherance of objectives that would support the Prince William County School District. 

The District has a one billion dollar budget, and the Board oversees more than one hundred schools and more than 85,000 students. For Sawyers to waste the Board’s time and energy, as well as the school division’s dollars, in his fame-seeking pursuits, is a travesty and a shame. His political games do not serve the school district well, and are likely not even helpful to his own campaign for Congress. Sawyers is paving a clear and straightforward path for his replacement on the Board with a reasonable Chairperson who can guide the Board with civility, cooperation, and a goal of achieving effective and efficient results for the school district.