School Board Votes to Fire Willis

The Roanoke City School Board voted 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. 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 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 SOL 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 whether 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, Willis said she has yet to make a decision on whether to appeal the case.

(From media partner WSLS-10)

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