Roanoke School Board votes William Fleming's principal out

10:36 p.m.

By Candice Nelson
WSLS Reporter
cnelson@wsls.com

The Roanoke City School Board made their vote on the fate of Susan Willis within minutes of starting their meeting Tuesday evening.

The vote to dismiss Willis was not unanimous.

Two school board members, Mae Huff and Courtney Penn, voted against the motion to dismiss her. Before the big vote, Huff motioned to allow Willis to resign by Friday, but that vote did not win out.

Vice Chairman, Jason Bingham made the motion that ended Willis’ career with Roanoke City.

"Deny the grievance of employee number 5463, and dismiss number 5463 as an employee of the school board effective immediately,” he motioned.

After the majority vote in favor of that motion, Chairman David Carson, announced the school board would have no further comment. We caught up with city leaders and teachers to get a reaction.

Latasha Suggs teaches at Monterey Elementary School.

"I stand behind the decision by the school board. I'm glad they had the courage to make it,” Suggs said.

City educator and council member, Anita Price, thinks the decision was just.

“This has been a long process and certainly very relieved that some closure has finally been reckoned with,” Price said.

The school board wants the public to have access to the panel members’ findings on their own.

That motion was made by Suzanne Moore and also won a majority vote.

"The full report and recommendation of the fact-finding panel will be publicly released,” she motioned.

Afterwards, Price, said, “It's certainly no more than fair that the public have an opportunity to see what the findings were able to put forth."

Teachers like Suggs say the whole situation shed light on putting children first.

"The children are more important than a test score. We get all caught up in the SOLS and AYP and they have to make a certain score, but in the end we need to remember why we get in the business of education,” she said.

It’s a decision in a case that may not be over depending on if Willis decides to appeal.

Willis was not at the meeting, but her spokesman sent out a statement on her behalf.

Part of it read, “Tonight's decision of the Roanoke City School Board to uphold my dismissal could not possibly reflect a thorough review of the facts presented during nine-days of testimony which exonerated me."

In the statement, Willlis said she has yet to make a decision on whether to appeal the case.

We talked to with Superintendent Dr. Rita Bishop over the phone. She said she does not have a comment on the case that may be ongoing. She did add that she believes the public deserves a public report.

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7:05 p.m.

By Candice Nelson, in the field
WSLS Reporter
cneslon@wsls.com

Roanoke City School Board has voted to remove William Fleming principal Susan Willis effective immediately.

The decision came on a majority vote by the school board, after a resolution to have Willis resign was voted down.

Willis was not mentioned by name, only by employee number.

Willis' through a spokesman, issued a statement by e-mail. You can read it here. The statement includes what Willis claims is the dissenting opinion by one of the three-member panel who oversaw her grievance hearing.

I'll have more information from both the School Board's side and Willis' side on WSLS at 11:00 p.m.

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4:10 p.m.

The school board's decision on Susan Willis is just hours away.

There's no indication so far as to which way the board is leaning.

On WSLS 10 On Your Side at 5:00 p.m., I'll have a breakdown of the board's options.

On WSLS at 6:00 p.m., my colleague Candice Nelson will give one more update before the meeting starts.

The meeting is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. at William Fleming High School.

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12:54 a.m.:

William Fleming High School Principal Susan Willis will find out her fate Tuesday night.

WSLS has learned that the Roanoke City School Board will take some sort of action on Willis' future at a meeting Tuesday night.

A State Department of Education investigation tied Willis to a class switching scheme, that removed certain students from classes so they would not have to take the SOLs.

Willis had a closed door, formal grievance hearing at the Hotel Roanoke a few weeks ago.

The Board was not a part of that hearing.

The Board has two options:

1. Take the recommendation of the three-member grievance panel that heard the case (Given privacy laws, the public was not told about that recommendation)

2. Hold another fact-finding hearing, this time in front of the School Board. In this case, only Willis and Dr. Rita Bishop could answer questions. No Dept. of Education investigators or witnesses would be allowed to speak.