Cabinet file photos Milford school superintendent Dr. Jessica Huizenga and school board chair Ron Carvell at a Milford school board meeting.

MILFORD – Embattled Milford superintendent of schools, Dr. Jessica L. Huizenga, has resigned from her position, effective at the end of the school year.

In May 2019, after 48 staff resignations, Milford school unions took a vote of “no confidence” in Huizenga, asking officials to search for a replacement.

According to a release, 99 percent of the union members answered no.

In a joint press release issued by Milford Teachers Association president Cheryl Erdody, MTA vice president Suzanne Schedin, Milford Education Support Staff Association president Brenda Walker and Milford Educational Personnel Association president Doug Haggett, it stated, “This is one of the first times that the Milford education unions took a vote of no confidence in our educational leader. We do not take such a vote lightly.”

It was alleged that Huizenga made “drastic changes” without input from staff, including reappropriating Title I funds and spending $80,000 on consulting services.

As the school year was just beginning in Sept. 2019, there was still a heated debate over board member conduct, a 99 percent no confidence vote for Huizenga and the resignation of Jennifer Siegrist over a controversial text message debate. Siegrist later resigned.

Milford school board meetings in the last year and half have often become heated, during public comments and sometimes between board members themselves.

Former Milford school board chairman Ron Carvell, who was a board member this year, also recently resigned from the school board.

In February of this year, the Milford school board discussed Huizenga’s evaluation amidst a flurry of questions that were raised about a petition warrant that was submitted to the school board did not appear on the ballot for the Mar. 10 election. That petition requested the resignation of superintendent Huizenga and board chair Carvell.

Walker pointed out that Huizenga’s evaluation was to occur no later than Jan. 1, 2020.

“That’s still hasn’t happened,” Walker said at the time. “We’re not following her contract on that.”

In the past, Huizenga was met with resistance by residents in attendance of school board meetings, many of whom were wearing, “Milford Strong” t-shirts. Huizenga called for them to end “negative campaigns” against her.

Huizenga, who has master and doctoral degrees from the UMass Lowell, has been a middle and high school teacher, assistant principal, principal, director of curriculum, assistant superintendent and superintendent in her 20-year educational career.

In Sept. 2019, speaking to the Milford Cabinet, a newspaper in The Telegraph Publishing Group, Huizenga attempted to clarify the continuous debates that lingered on social media and were ongoing during school board meetings.

“I think it’s a combination of things,” Huizenga said at the time. “The way I was appointed is a big problem. People think I was thrusted upon them. They were promised certain things. They were promised a process. I was brought in as an interim. And very quickly after that, the board decided to go ahead and make a permanent decision, without putting together a committee, without bringing in other candidates, without giving the choice to other community members and the union and different constituents and stakeholders to have a say in it. They feel like they were promised that.”