Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Franklin City School Board meeting on Thursday, Feb. 27, featured more than 100 people in attendance in the wake of protests and public communications at Franklin City Council meetings from community members making known their opposition to the school division’s recent reassignment of longtime Franklin High School Principal Travis Felts.

Felts had been principal at Franklin High School since 2012, and Franklin City Public Schools officially announced in a Feb. 10 news release that he was being moved out of that position and being appointed as the school division’s new director of extracurricular activities, Jobs for Virginia Graduates and virtual programs.

The School Board meeting on Feb. 27 was the board’s first meeting since the announcement of Felts’ reassignment.

The Citizen’s Time portion of the meeting featured 11 speakers, including Don Spengeman, Jerry McCreary, Mary Eure, Pam Lease, Liz Burgess, Carrie Johnson, Nancy Harrell, Danny Dillon, Audrey Lee, Lamont Hill and Regina Hill.

Ten of the speakers spoke in strong support of Felts, with most also opposing the school division’s decision to move him. McCreary acknowledged Felts’ outstanding reputation in the community but said he was neutral on the matter of his reassignment.

Following are excerpts from public comments made during Citizen’s Time.

Spengeman said, “For tonight, I would like to leave you with some questions to consider about building, school division and school board leadership.

“As a building leader, the principal builds a positive, safe learning environment, relates to and can talk to children and is clearly comfortable with all children,” Spengeman said. “A principal nurtures the success of all students, has the trust of his faculty, clearly values teacher voice and opinion and effectively communicates with teachers, parents and members of the community. Principals must follow legal, ethical and professional standards. This is Mr. Felts.”

Then Spengeman began posing questions.

“Does Mr. Felts understand the strengths, needs and challenges of our community?” he said. “Is he visible in our community? Is Mr. Felts approachable, open to ideas of others and clearly able to effectively communicate with students, staff and parents?”

Spengeman was greeted by instances of “Yes!” from the crowd.

Then he addressed the superintendent’s role.

“As a division leader, the superintendent is responsible for a climate of mutual respect, trust, innovation and professionalism with the board, staff, families and other stakeholders,” he said. “Superintendents are responsible for data-driven decision making, instructional systems that promote high student achievement and professional development and growth of staff.

“Does Mr. Carter understand the strengths, needs and challenges of our community?” he said. “Is he visible in the community? Is Dr. Carter approachable, open to ideas of others and clearly able to effectively communicate with students, staff and parents?”

Spengeman’s words were greeted by loud instances of “No!” from the crowd.

“Does Dr. Carter understand the practice of strategic SOL test scheduling so that students have maximum time to master content, if needed?” he added.

Spengeman said, “Mid-year evaluations are based on eight uniform performance standards for principals and are rated Evident or Not Evident. How is it that Mr. Felts received an Evident rating on all standards and signed a document to that effect on Feb. 15 and Feb. 7 was reassigned to Central Office?”

Spengeman then addressed the role of Franklin City School Board Chair Robert Holt.

“As a school board leader, the board chairperson sees that board members formally evaluate the superintendent’s performance and leads to the board’s annual review of school system effectiveness, including board policies, overall staff performance and student achievement,” Spengeman said. “How can the superintendent, with all schools Accredited with Conditions for the second year in a row, be evaluated as this one was according to information provided in The Tidewater News by the School Board chairman?

“Do we have the right School Board leadership?” Spengeman said. “Is there consistent messaging from Mr. Holt?”

Spengeman said the school division has an elementary school that has had at least eight principals since 2012. 

“Now we have a high school principal that has been reassigned to Central Office mid-year,” he said. “How is Mr. Holt communicating the board’s expectations to the superintendent about providing leadership and support to building principals?

“In closing, where do we go from here in our schools?” Spengeman said. “We have a high school principal that has dedicated his career to this school division and has been removed for reasons no one can explain and no one understands.

“It saddens me to think of the negative impact removing Mr. Felts as principal will have on our community,” Spengeman added. “What a tremendous loss.”

McCreary cited his own recent service on the School Board during his comments, seeking to defend the board members and staff he served with from what he indicated were disrespectful comments he had seen made about them on social media.

“They’ve been maligned because I can see that the community felt a personal insult for the reassignment of Mr. Felts, but that doesn’t mean they’re deserving of disrespect either,” McCreary said. “So I commend them for their hard work. And during my time, everybody was honest, consistent, including Dr. Carter.”

Pam Lease shared her support for Felts and her concerns with the decision-making of the school division.

“In closing, I would like to thank you for allowing me to speak,” she said to those on the dais. “Now I respectively request that all of you all resign from all of your positions and allow the people of this community to appoint a new School Board and one that would truly have our children’s best interests at heart. Furthermore, I demand, as a city taxpayer, that you reinstate Mr. Felts as principal of Franklin High School where he rightfully belongs.”

A loud cheer went up from some people present at the meeting when Lease called for resignations.

Carrie Johnson also cited her own recent service on the board during her comments. Near the beginning of her remarks, she took off her sweater to reveal a T-shirt with a message written on the back that prompted some in the crowd to erupt in cheers and applause.

The message stated: “I was on the board that hired the super. I’m big enough to admit to my mistakes!”

Rock Church Franklin Pastor Danny Dillon said he was at the meeting in support “of my good friend Travis Felts.”

Dillon noted that before he became Rock Church’s pastor, he found a place working in FCPS, teaching special education for 10 years.

“During that time, I was able to serve under Travis Felts (when he served) as athletic director and then principal, and I got to see the way that he loved his students, I got to see the way that he fought for his teachers, and it so blessed me watching even his work ethic,” Dillon said. “Even on Saturday and Sunday when you saw his silver SUV and now black truck up there at Franklin High School hours upon hours, a lot of students thought he lived there.”

Dillon indicated that this level of dedication from Felts was simply an example of him fulfilling the reason for which he was created — to serve the next generation and be a principal.

“The other thing that I saw during this (community response to Travis’ reassignment) is the fact that this has brought unity to our community,” Dillon said. “It has been such a blessing, as I see other pastors here, for Psalm 133:1 to be fulfilled: ‘Behold how good and how pleasant it is when brother and sister dwell together in unity.’ 

“And we can even turn that version into, ‘Behold how good and how pleasant it is to see the Franklin High School students dwell together in unity,’” he added.

He noted that he has never seen students stand up for their principal.

“A lot of times students can’t wait to get rid of their principal, and here they are standing up for their principal,” he said.

Audrey Hill noted that the presentation earlier in the meeting on accreditation and accountability models was too confusing for parents and citizens to follow and needed to be made clearer.

She pleaded with the School Board to let Felts come back to his longtime role at FHS, indicating that everyone from students to parents to “citizens who are paying your salary, Dr. Carter, … are very upset by the fact that this man has been pulled out, in mid-year at that.”

Referencing Felts’ new Central Office position, she said, “The position he was put in, I mean we already have people doing basically what you asked him to do.”

In conclusion, Lee said, “Our goal now is to get rid of the whole School Board, Mr. Holt, the superintendent and all of you involved.”

Lamont Hill, who recently resigned as the varsity football coach at FHS, indicated that students’ development was not helped by the reassignment of Felts.

“I’ve been active in the school since I started coaching, and that was six years ago, and our kids aren’t ready,” he said. “We talked about resumé writing. I can tell you that they’re not ready to write a resumé. I’ve seen them. We talk about interviewing skills. They’re not ready for that either. But what they are ready for — they’re ready to stand behind their principal and support him every step of the way.”

Hill expressed criticism of the alleged move — reported by a student — to lock down FHS when students recently sought to protest Felts’ reassignment.

“It was a cowardly act by someone who’s supposed to lead the school district,” Hill said. “Maybe you should be the person reassigned. You lead by fear, but my faith is bigger than my fear.

“I’ve been told that when I talk to a man, look at a man,” he said, looking at Carter. “My message is for you. You thought so little of me as a football coach because I wouldn’t be your ‘yes’ man, you posted the position before we ever sat down and talked.”

He said Carter’s mind was made up before he presented him with a 51-slide presentation of an offseason, preseason and in-season plan for player development, continuing education of himself as a coach and academic success for the students.

“I even acknowledged areas that I needed to improve on, but it wasn’t about the wins and losses,” he added, noting that he helped nine student-athletes have the opportunity to play at the next level.