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School board votes to fire Farrell High principal
The embattled principal said he’ll appeal his firing.
FARRELL, Pa. — In a meeting that lasted about five minutes, Lee V. McFerren officially lost his job as Farrell High School principal.
The embattled administrator, who had been on an unpaid suspension since February, sat in the audience of about 75 people at the school district offices Monday evening and listened as the board voted 7-2 to oust him.
He had been facing 45 charges brought by the school district that had been aired in public at his request. A hearing began in March, ended after two days and began again in May for three more days.
The school board had heard testimony that suggested he’d been a poor administrator, leaving staff unprepared for scheduling issues and wasting instructional time by requiring more teachers to be in the cafeteria to take care of discipline problems there.
Staff testified that he yelled at teachers and put them down, even in front of students, and that morale was low.
Among the more outlandish charges were that he had appeared drunk or high during a 2007 graduation practice, and that he’d given a speech at the preceding senior breakfast in which he’d talked of hunting groundhogs in his underwear.
McFerren countered by saying that he had been hired to be tough on discipline problems that were out of control at the high school.
He said he’d made it clear to teachers that he expected them to do their jobs and teach, and he wanted them to stop “acting like they were on vacation.”
His attorney, Barbara Seman Ochs, called the reports that he was in some way intoxicated unsubstantiated, and said it was lies, innuendoes and rumors that had put him in the situation of defending his career.
McFerren and Seman Ochs both said Monday that he is prepared to appeal his dismissal to the state board of education.
As he accepted hugs from well-wishers in the audience who’d come out to support him, McFerren said he believes he has a bright future.
He said his firing wasn’t unexpected.
“I would like to thank the community for their support,” he said.
He joked, saying that his next move would be to “go take a nap.”
“We’ll regroup,” he said then, “and we’ll definitely go to the appeal process.”
Seman Ochs said McFerren has to receive a written notice, then he will have 30 days to appeal his dismissal.
Some supporters had expressed their disapproval over the short meeting with catcalls as the board adjourned.
Farrell resident Thelma Robinson said she is ashamed of the school board.
She defended McFerren: “I think he was trying to be a disciplinarian.”
Another Farrell resident, Martha Richards, agreed. “The things he’s being charged with, I don’t think were over and beyond what he was doing for our school system,” she said.
Terry Harrison, a school board member who’d voted not to fire McFerren, said he had a problem with the way the process was handled.
“I saw a lot of personality conflicts,” he said. “It could have been handled better.”
Harrison said he believes there is a need for discipline at Farrell and that he wants to see “our kids do better.”
“I think [McFerren] was on the right track,” Harrison said. “But there were difficulties along the way.”
Harrison said the school board will now focus on hiring a new principal. Assistant Principal Victoria Latzoo has stepped in as interim.
McFerren had come to Farrell in 2005 from the Franklin School District, where he’d been an elementary school principal. He was working under a five-year contract.