Friday, November 06, 2009
Editorial: Make SOL report public
A principal accused of cheating says testimony clears her. She should release the transcript.
From the RoundTable blog
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William Fleming High School Principal Susan Willis told a reporter she feels "vindicated" by a hearing into allegations that she manipulated students' schedules in order to boost state Standards of Learning scores.
She expects the public to take her word that she did not cheat, despite what state Department of Education officials found. Willis could easily back up the claim that she did nothing wrong by releasing a report by the panel investigating the charges.
Willis called for the grievance panel and also had the sole authority to decide whether the process would be conducted in public or in private, as is her right under the personnel exclusion to the state's open meeting and records law.
The panel listened to nine days of testimony and delivered the transcript and its recommendation to the Roanoke school board on Wednesday. Board members are forbidden to disclose or discuss it. But Willis is not. She could give the board permission to discuss the matter openly.
The school board plans to act on the report's recommendation Monday, and it is possible the recommendation, but not the entire report, could then be made public.
It should be. Willis, in thrusting herself into the public arena to proclaim her innocence, seems willing to abandon some privacy protections.
If she has a document that exonerates her, she should want to share it -- especially if it refutes the Department of Education report that found her culpable in a scheme to manipulate the schedules of special education students in order to exclude them from SOL testing.
Willis told Roanoke Times reporter Courtney Cutright, "I am fighting for my integrity. I am fighting for my good name, for everything I have devoted my life to."
There are two ways her good name could be restored: If, come Monday, the school board removes her from administrative leave and places her back at the helm of William Fleming, then she will have been exonerated. If that does not happen and Willis still feels she is being wrongly accused, she can release the transcripts and recommendation of the investigative panel.
That would certainly clear up the matter.
