When Somerset County’s Superintendent opened the sealed envelope and announced the district’s teacher of the year at a fancy Friday night event, Myresha Bevins walked up to the stage to cheers.

But the Washington Academy and High School teacher was handed a trophy engraved with a different name: Corey Bivens, an elementary school teacher who was also a finalist for the award.

In the intervening days, the school system announced that it had made a “clerical error” and that the award should have gone to Bivens, who is white, not Bevins, who is Black. The school system will recognize both women “to honor their accomplishments equitably,” but Bivens will represent the county at the state competition for Maryland Teacher of the Year, the school system said in a statement released over the weekend.

School district officials and Bivens did not respond to requests for interviews. Bevins was not available for an interview on Monday.

Such a public blunder at a gala designed to honor teachers might be chalked up to a stupid mistake, but in Somerset County the error has exacerbated the community’s divisions over race and politics. Black leaders point to it as yet another instance of bias in school district leadership after the county’s MAGA-aligned school board ousted its Black superintendent last year.

The board tried to fire Ava Tasker-Mitchell for insubordination, a decision she appealed and state leaders overturned. The board then bought her out of her contract for a sum they have refused to release publicly.

Since then, said James Jones, head of the advocacy group Caucus of African American Leaders of the Eastern Shore, other Black educators have been disciplined unfairly.

Jones said he believes that Bevins should have won teacher of the year and that the mixup is another instance of bias. He said he has knowledge of the details because he talked to Superintendent W. David Bromwell and others who are involved.

“That is Somerset County. They are in a dead fall. They are still having problems with all that is going on,” said Jones.

Jones and others say they believe the two teachers were in a dead heat for the award. Jones said each one scored slightly higher than the other in two categories used for judging..

Patti Mullins, a spokesperson for the Maryland State Education Association, which is involved with the Maryland State Teachers of the Year award, said every school district has its own process for selecting the local winner.

Neither Bivens or school administrators responded to request for an interview. Bevins declined to be interviewed.

Joe Hylton, who is running for the school board, thinks the whole incident will further divide the community.

“I had all intentions of running for school board to bring everybody together. This is a huge hiccup in separating us, dividing us by race,” said Hylton, a Black man. School board chair Matthew Lankford called the police on Hylton last May, shortly after a school board meeting, saying there was an aggressive and threatening man outside the board offices. A video shows Hylton had asked pointed questions about pending layoffs of librarians.

“It has been turned into a white versus black [issue] when it is not the case. The community should be upset with the process,” he said. Some white residents, he said, feel the Black teacher was allowed to share the award as a diversity, equity and inclusion action or to “appease the Black community.”

And Black residents see it as another example of bias. “I cannot prove that it is a racial issue, but past practices kind of elaborate that it is. The Black community is used to this happening,” he said.

Hylton would like to better understand exactly how the judging was done and how many points each candidate scored.

The issue, he believes, is the failure of the staff to use a clear process. “Everybody is upset for the wrong reasons, instead of being upset for the right reasons,” Hylton said.

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