By the time Tyron Barnes prepared to address Annandale High School’s band students and parents during an end-of-year banquet in the school cafeteria on June 1, the group had already learned that he had resigned as the school’s director of bands.
In between awards that night, and with Principal Shawn DeRose in attendance, Barnes announced that he wouldn’t be returning to Annandale after two years there. It was an awkward address, some parents who attended said, because Barnes said he never intended to leave the school, and wanted to continue leading the band program. Some left confused about the reason behind Barnes’ resignation.
Days before the banquet, DeRose sent an email directly to students on behalf of Barnes. It said in part that it was time to explore new opportunities.
“I no longer believe that I am a great fit as your director of bands,” the message said.
Barnes had intended to share the news during the banquet, but since the email went out, he felt the urge to send a clarification to band families. In an email that same night, Barnes wrote that it had become apparent to him that some people didn’t want him leading the band program.
“As a result, my reputation has been tarnished, my educational background has been questioned, and I have been portrayed as someone who does not fit well within the band program at Annandale High School,” Barnes wrote.
In the 2021-22 school year, Barnes was rated an effective teacher during his mid and end-of-year evaluations, according to a copy of his reviews obtained by WTOP. But in the 2022-23 school year, Barnes’ evaluations were done by a new director of student activities that said he was ineffective in February and again in May. He received a “do not reappoint” recommendation both times.
The evaluations, Barnes said, contained falsehoods and were the result of connected band boosters and middle school band directors complaining about his strict style and comparing him to the previous band instructor. It was a coordinated effort to oust him disguised as poor performance, he said. Because he’s a Black man, he said, it was easier to remove him.
Fairfax County Public Schools declined to make DeRose, Assistant Superintendent Fabio Zuluaga and Annandale’s Director of Student Activities, Brandon Sutphin, available to be interviewed. In response to several questions about Barnes’ resignation, a school system spokeswoman said the county doesn’t comment on personnel matters.
Several members on the Annandale Band Booster Board didn’t respond to multiple email requests to be interviewed.
Some parents disagreed with his style and teaching methods, Barnes said; other parents supported him.
“There were people in high places, who believed parents who thought like them, that I did not belong there,” Barnes said. “Rather than supporting the teacher, they supported the parent.”
‘Strict but not unkind’
After several years as a teacher in Texas and more recently in Louisiana, Barnes was looking for an opportunity in a school system that was more inclusive and diverse. A colleague recommended Fairfax County.
Students were returning to the new normal after the pandemic when he took over the band program at Annandale in the fall of 2021. They started band camp, things were normal and the band was successful in several competitions, notably receiving superior ratings at its marching band assessment, Barnes said.
John Ellenberger, the school’s director of student activities at the time, conducted Barnes’ mid- and end-of-year evaluations. There were few, if any, comments. Ellenberger encouraged routine communication with parents but complimented the job he had done in his first year.
Fairfax County teachers are rated on several standards, with a maximum of 40 points. In 2021-22, Barnes received a score of 31 both times.
Sometimes in his first year, he was late to communicate schedule changes to parents, according to two parents who spoke on the condition of anonymity because their student is still in the program. But they said he became more communicative over time.
By the second year, Barnes said, the only change was he eliminated a day of rehearsal. He also signed the band up for more competitive assessments and competitions, based on the success the year prior.
He observed that some parents didn’t like that rehearsals lasted more than two hours, the length they were the prior year. He also suspected some parents didn’t like the way he held their students accountable.
There wasn’t any profanity, he said, and he didn’t say anything harmful to students. He’d sometimes give lectures and call students out for not giving their full effort during rehearsal.
But he was honest and reinforced the importance of why the group needed to be prepared to rehearse. He considered marching band a sport.
Stacy Arth, whose son is a saxophone player, said Barnes was “strict but not unkind.”
“Me, being an African American with a commanding voice, I think that most parents couldn’t wrap themselves around the fact that a Black man was being assertive with their white children,” Barnes said.
There was a division among parents, Barnes said. Some understood his approach, and others complained about him to other people.
“With today’s generation of kids, you say anything that is not with a kind Disney voice, they think you’re mean,” he said.
At the end of November, Barnes had a meeting with DeRose, the principal, and Zuluaga, the regional superintendent, at Fairfax County Public Schools headquarters. During the meeting, they discussed a small number of parents who had complained about Barnes and urged him to address the concerns.
“I left the meeting feeling unintelligent, incompetent and just another Black man in a place where he doesn’t belong,” Barnes said.
In February, Barnes prepared for his midyear evaluation with Sutphin, the school’s new director of student activities. Sutphin wrote that Barnes had “limited professional knowledge in three main content areas: content expertise, instructional best practices, and instructional knowledge of policies and regulations.” The evaluation said Barnes didn’t have an agenda or learning objectives posted in his classroom. His grading practices, Sutphin wrote, didn’t follow Annandale’s policy.
It also said Barnes “has made students feel disrespected or embarrassed by yelling at them or by saying disparaging comments about them or their performance.”
It critiqued his approach to communication. Barnes said he sent out weekly emails to parents and students, and used a band app in case parents didn’t check their emails.
Barnes received an ineffective midyear rating, with just 18 of 40 points. He left a post-review meeting with Sutphin livid.
“I have a master’s degree in music education,” Barnes said. “I am one step away from having a Ph.D. in music education. He said I was ineffective because of secondhand information that was inaccurate and hearsay.”
Barnes said he started to think he was being retaliated against after he asked Gov. Glenn Youngkin a question during a CNN town hall, while representing the Virginia Education Association in March. He asked Youngkin if there’s an unspoken culture of racism and implicit bias against teachers of color within school districts nationwide. Days later, he received a written reprimand about an issue he said had been resolved weeks prior.
That “made me extremely confident that this was not about my performance,” Barnes said. “This was about a coordinated effort to remove me that was camouflaged in poor performance.”
Barnes also said the school sent out surveys to parents and students about him, and sent a retired band director to sit in on his class, which he described as unusual.
Tension in the room
At the March meeting of the band booster club, Arth, the parent, said it was clear there was tension was in the room. She was surprised to see DeRose attend the meeting, as she’d never seen him there before.
“I definitely felt that there was some sort of division going on, or some tension between the band director and the people who were running the band boosters,” Arth said.
In April, Barnes got a letter from human resources saying his contract likely wouldn’t be renewed, and offering him the opportunity to resign. So, that made May’s end-of-year evaluation a formality.
Barnes was again rated by Sutphin as ineffective, with a score of 19/40. The May review detailed concerns about not giving students rubrics. Barnes said he made sure students had those.
It again questioned his communication, classroom environment and instructional planning, and came with a recommendation of “do not reappoint.” He didn’t sign the form.
Barnes said Sutphin questioned why he was fighting the decision.
“You mean to tell me, from 2021 to today, I got stupid? I don’t do anything good,” Barnes said. “I’m not good at any aspect of my job. I went from being effective in 2021 to being a crappy teacher in 2023.”
Barnes had a meeting with Superintendent Michelle Reid, who he called the only person in the county who tried to rectify the situation.
In addition to the teacher’s union, “She’s the only person who supported me in this experience,” Barnes said.
However, there aren’t any current openings in Fairfax County that align with his experience, Barnes said. So, his time with the county will end June 30.
‘Bullied out of the program’
The Friday before spring break, several parents met with DeRose to express their concerns about how Barnes was being treated, even before he resigned. They said they anticipated he was going to be pushed out.
Upon learning that Barnes wouldn’t be returning to Annandale, several parents said they were outraged.
Arth said her son was shocked.
Carmel Halloun said her son wanted to remain in band through graduation, but doesn’t plan to do that now that Barnes isn’t leading the program. Halloun said she was at every competition and observed that some people just “did not care for him.”
Barnes was “totally bullied out of the program,” Halloun said.
One parent said Barnes was “forced out by a couple of bad apples.”
There were also rumors about Barnes at Holmes and Poe Middle schools, according to the two parents who requested anonymity. They said students at those schools were dissuaded from signing up for marching band because Barnes was leading the program.
“Our kid does not look up to many male adult role models, but Tyron Barnes is one of them,” the parent said.
In early June, after the banquet, students created a flier promoting a walkout in protest of Barnes’ resignation. It said he had been asked to resign unjustly.
“If I’m not building positive relationships with my students, how is it that they are organizing a walkout?” he said.
