William Fleming High School Principal Susan Willis has hired a Richmond employment lawyer and a Roanoke public relations firm to represent her in the wake of accusations that she manipulated state testing at the Roanoke school.

The moves suggest that Willis intends to challenge potential attempts to dismiss her. School board Chairman David Carson and other school officials have declined to say whether they plan to pursue any action against the Fleming principal. They've also declined to say whether she is suspended from her job, although Willis did not attend Fleming's graduation ceremony last week.

On Wednesday, Willis released a statement through the advertising and public relations firm of Neathawk Dubuque & Packett.

"I have dedicated the last 12 years of my career educating the children of the Roanoke Valley and I am looking forward to a fair and impartial process to resolve this matter," the statement said.

Ernest DelBuono, vice president of the crisis management practice at the firm, said he had been retained at the advice of Willis' attorney, Richmond-based James Thorsen.

Thorsen was traveling Wednesday and could not be reached.

A report from the Virginia Department of Education last week said Willis and four other school officials changed course schedules for dozens of students with disabilities, placing them in classes where they would not have to take state-mandated Standards of Learning tests, possibly boosting Fleming's pass rates on the tests.

That denied some students a chance to earn a standard high school diploma, shuffling them onto a track for the less-demanding modified standard diploma, according to the report.

School board members met for two hours in a closed meeting Monday but emerged without having reached a decision on their next steps. Under the state code, firing a school employee can be a months-long process.