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Franklin City Council announced at the conclusion of its Monday, June 2, work session that it had reached consensus on nominees for the Ward 5 and Ward 2 seats on the Franklin City School Board.

“It’s the consensus of City Council to nominate Kent Grant and Wydia Bailey for the respective wards,” Franklin Mayor Paul Kaplan said.

Two seats on the School Board were up for appointment this year. Ward 5 School Board Member Danyelle Hunt is reaching the end of her partial term, which runs from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025, and Ward 2 School Board Member Arwen Councill is reaching the end of her term, which runs from July 14, 2022, through June 30, 2025.

The council voted 6-1 on March 24 to send a letter to the Franklin City School Board requesting that all seven members of the board step down.

The request came in connection with protests and public comments from community and council members expressing opposition to Franklin City Public Schools’ recent reassignment of longtime Franklin High School Principal Travis Felts.

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

The concerns expressed by community members about current FCPS leadership have grown more varied since February, with some citizens now contending the presence of significant salary increase inequities, data misrepresentation and nepotism.

Community members held a peaceful protest outside Franklin City Hall on Monday just prior to the council’s work session, calling on the City Council to vote for change on the School Board.

“We (recently) interviewed five candidates, two for Ward 5 and three for Ward 2, and all of the candidates brought unique and varied ideas on the school system, and they were all very professional and very well-spoken,” Kaplan said during a Tuesday, June 3, interview. “But in the end, I believe that council felt it was time for a change.”

At the conclusion of the council’s June 2 work session, Ward 6 Councilwoman Jessica G. Banks explained what the next steps would be toward the appointments of Bailey to the Ward 2 School Board seat and Grant to the Ward 5 seat. 

“(With) our intent for moving forward with the appointments of Wards 2 and 5 School Board members, we have to have a public hearing that has to be advertised within 10 days,” she said. “So at this point we are now referring to our city manager to get back to us on when the advertisement can take place either in The Virginian-Pilot or The Tidewater News.

“Once it is properly advertised and 10 days have gone past, we will have a public hearing for our nominations,” Banks added.