Monday’s meeting of Natchez aldermen and Adams County supervisors had the potential to be explosive and divisive.

Instead, community leaders came together as one to pursue a change in how Natchez-Adams School Board members are selected. The group will seek legislative approval to change school board members to be elected by voters rather than appointed.

While the matter at hand was procedural, the invisible, but very much palpable, elephant in the room was the feeling many in the community have toward the current school superintendent.

The lone school board member in attendance who had the courage Monday to stand up and talk, Benny Wright, tried to defend the school board’s support of Superintendent Frederick Hill. Wright stated the community and in particular the aldermen and supervisors didn’t support Hill or the school board.

That complaint doesn’t hold much water. The community supported Hill until the massive changes in the district started to no longer make logical sense. Dysfunction in the district became difficult to ignore.

The stories of departed teachers and administrators initially discounted as merely gripes of disgruntled former employees, actually hinted at deeper leadership problems.

Last year’s federal lawsuit in which the school district, Hill and his Assistant Superintendent Tanisha Smith were found to have racially discriminated against a former white principal, was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.

Mistreatment of employees should not be tolerated.

As one supervisor suggested Monday, in any other work environment, that person would be immediately terminated for such behavior, yet amazingly, Hill remains gainfully employed.

Changing the manner in which our community selects school board members may be needed, and we applaud the city and county leaders for joining hands to make the change.

But the biggest problem facing the district right now will not be fixed until a change in the top leadership occurs.