A local judge upheld Friday a decision to remove former school Superintendent Dr. Willie Hoskin from office. Chancery Court Judge Kennie Middleton ruled the Natchez-Adams School Board did not violate any of Hoskin’s rights in 1998 by voting not to renew his contract.

For this reason, Middleton wrote, the &uot;court must affirm the non-renewal of Dr. Hoskin’s contract.&uot;

The school board had enough evidence to remove Hoskin and does not have to justify its decision, as long as it was not based on an &uot;improper reason,&uot; Middleton said.

In January 1998, the school board voted not to keep Hoskin as superintendent, citing poor test scores and lack of leadership as some of the reasons.

After a public appeals hearing before the board, Hoskin appealed to the Adams County Chancery Court later that year, claiming the board acted unfairly and made an arbitrary, capricious decision based on race.

But Middleton said Hoskin did not prove racial factors or lack of due process impacted the board’s decision.

When that matter was settled, the rest of the judge’s discussion came down to a &uot;battle of statistics.&uot;

The school board said it proved Hoskin’s lack of leadership by the district’s poor student tests scores.

But Hoskin argued poor socio-economic conditions in Adams County proved the district is performing as predicted and has not seen a decline in performance.

In this type of case, neither the board or Hoskin is the clear winner, Middleton said.

&uot;Like the proverbial optimist and pessimist, Dr. Hoskin sees the glass as half full and the district sees the glass as half empty,&uot; he said.

But because the matter is so subjective, Dr. Hoskin could not prove he provided effective leadership based on the data, the court order read.

And the school board could not be said to have acted arbitrarily because its decision was based on a five-year evaluation of Hoskin.

Hoskin heard of the court’s ruling late Friday.

Hoskin said he needed to study the judge’s ruling before he would decide what to do next.

&uot;I had no way of knowing what would be the outcome,&uot; he said. &uot;We were on hold ’til just a few minutes ago waiting for the decision of the judge.&uot;

Hoskin said he had not the time to decide if he would appeal or if he still wanted to be Natchez’s superintendent.

His attorney, Chet Nicholson, also was still digesting the ruling Friday, Hoskin said.

Jim Keith, attorney for the school board, said he received a copy of the ruling late Friday afternoon and also needed time to study it.

But &uot;we thought that’s what the ruling should be,&uot; he said.

Hoskin served as superintendent for five years before the board voted not to renew his contract.

Later, the board went through a search process and hired Dr. Carl Davis of Hattiesburg in fall 1998, as superintendent.