A Birmingham City Schools principal placed on administrative leave after the district opened an investigation into test score “irregularities” is asking a court to let her return to work.

Attorneys for Wilkerson Middle School Principal Jennifer Love Lott asked a Jefferson County Circuit Court for a temporary restraining order against her suspension and allow her to continue to serve as principal until the investigation is complete.

According to documents in Lott’s court filing, she was notified Aug. 4 that she was being “placed on administrative leave with pay pending an investigation” and she was to stay away from “board property without express permission.” Lott was also told to turn over her keys, iPad and other equipment owned by the district.

Birmingham City Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In her complaint, Lott claims the district’s legal counsel called her in late July to tell her an investigation was being opened into “testing procedures” at Oliver Elementary during the time she was principal from 2018 through 2022.

“The legal counsel only stated that some anonymous teacher was ‘dissatisfied’ with the testing scores at Oliver” as the reason for the investigation, according to Lott’s complaint.

Lott alleges her suspension is “due to personal vendettas” that Oliver Elementary staff have because Oliver’s test scores fell after she left Oliver to become Wilkerson Middle School’s principal at the start of the 2022-23 school year.

Test scores dropped precipitously at Oliver Elementary after Lott left, while Wilkerson Middle School’s scores rose the year Lott became principal there.

Wilkerson Middle had the greatest percentage-point increase in math of all schools statewide. Oliver Elementary had the greatest percentage-point drop in math of all schools statewide.

From May 2022 to May 2023, Oliver Elementary proficiency levels shifted from:

• 48% to 28% in English language arts,
• 39% to 10% in math, and
• 63% to 12% in science.

From May 2022 to May 2023, Wilkerson Middle proficiency levels shifted from:

• 22% to 33% in English language arts,
• 2% to 38% in math, and
• 10% to 15% in science.

Lott claims the “special relationships” that exist between staff at Oliver Elementary and Birmingham City Schools leaders “heavily contributed to the hasty and unjustified actions” the district took against her.

Lott claims her “livelihood has been and will continue to be adversely impacted and suffer immediate and irreparable harm” by the suspension. She claims her “name, professional reputation, mental well-being have suffered” as well.

Lott asks to be reinstated as principal so she can “continue to improve the education of those students who are also suffering without the leadership of a proven educator.”