FARMINGTON — The Davis School District leader will be stepping down as officials in the system contend with the fallout from a scathing U.S. Justice Department probe last October that found minority students had faced widespread harassment.

The district announced Superintendent Reid Newey, who started in the post on Dec. 1, 2016, will step down at the end of the school year. The statement, sent to family of students, said Newey is retiring. It made no mention of the Justice Department report.

The decision, solely Newey’s, took school officials by surprise, said John Robison, president of the Davis School District Board of Education. He rejected any suggestion that the attention the district has received over race issues factored in the decision. Newey, he added, didn’t face pressure from district leaders to step down.

“All seven board members were shocked that he retired,” Robison told the Standard-Examiner. “We hoped he would continue. He did such a great job.”

The district statement recounted some of Newey’s successes during his tenure as superintendent, including the opening of Farmington High School and creation of a magnet school focused on business and industry, the Catalyst Center in Kaysville. The statement also lauded Newey’s “foresight to increase student access to technology,” which has aided in the district’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, easing the move to widespread online instruction.

“During his five-and-a-half years as superintendent, he has led DSD through some of the most challenging times education has ever faced,” school board members said in a joint statement. “Superintendent Newey has worked tirelessly to help our district improve in every area of education.”

Whatever the case, the district has come under intense scrutiny stemming from the two-year investigation carried out by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. The probe covered the period between 2015 and 2020, which largely coincides with Newey’s tenure. It found cases of “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive race-based harassment in schools across the district” and said the district’s “ineffective response” left students vulnerable to continued harassment.

Davis School District is the second largest in the state with 72,540 students, 81.7% of them non-Hispanic whites and 18.3% of them students of color, according to Utah Board of Education data for the 2021-2022 school year. Just 797 students, 1.1% of the total, are Black.

The federal agency is requiring the district to bring on consultants to assess harassment policies and create training regimens related to race and discrimination issues. It also must create an Office of Equal Opportunity to address such matters.

District officials have said they take the critical report seriously and that they would take steps to address the race issues. Last November, in response, the district hired an administrator, Jackie Thompson, who is Black, to focus on diversity and equity issues. Earlier this week, Davis County leaders announced formation of a partnership to combat racism and discrimination.

And through it all, Newey seems to have retained the confidence of district leaders. “We’re going to miss him,” Robison said.

Indeed, there was never any pressure brought to bear on him from board members about his future despite the recent controversy. “We haven’t even had that conversation,” Robison said.

Rather, Robison noted that Newey would be reaching the 30-year mark as an educator in Utah, which allows him to tap into full retirement benefits. “That’s the milestone educators shoot for. That’s where he’s at,” Robison said.

Newey worked in the Weber School District as director of secondary education and career and technical education director before taking the leadership spot in the Davis School District. He also served in administrative roles in other Weber School District schools and, before that, taught at Weber, Fremont and Clearfield high schools.

Davis school officials will be establishing a timeline to search for a replacement. Weber School District, too, will be searching for a new superintendent as Jeff Stephens, who currently holds the spot, will be stepping down at the end of the current school year.

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