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By Marc, September 27, 2011 10:09 pm

Per an announcement this evening from Stafford County Public Schools, Karen Spillman has resigned as Colonial Forge High School’s principal.

The Free-Lance Star has reported that the “Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education Lisa Martin will supervise the school until an interim principal is assigned. The division will conduct a search to fill the vacancy.”

I wish the best to our public school system as they search for her replacement.

Update: Here’s the updated story in the Free-Lance Star and a new favorite of mine the Potomac Local.

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By Marc, September 26, 2011 5:39 pm

Today, LeavingMyMarc.com decided to submit a Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Va. Code Section 22-3700 et seq.) request to get to the bottom of what was actually known when Dr. Karen Spillman was originally hired as an assistant principal in March 2011 and quickly elevated to principal in August 2011 of Colonial Forge High School.

Date: 09/26/11

Stafford County Public Schools
RE: FOIA Request
31 Stafford Avenue
Stafford, VA 22554

To Whom It May Concern:

LeavingMyMarc.com has reported publicly available information, this weekend, on the July 2007 arrest of Karen C. Spillman in Prince William County for public intoxication. The arrest preceded Dr. Spillman’s (2008) acceptance of the Strasburg High School principal post as well as her resignation from the job, fifteen days later for “health reasons.” So, we-like so many Colonial Forge parents, would like to know:

• When Dr. Spillman applied for employment to Stafford County Schools-to be an Assistant Principal-was she forthcoming about her July 2007 arrest in Prince William County for public intoxication?
• At the time of her recruitment for the Assistant Principal assignment, did Stafford County Public Schools run the proper [criminal and professional reference] background checks? Did they conduct thorough due-diligence?
• And this summer, when the principal’s position opened up, did the Stafford County Public Schools re-evaluate Dr. Spillman’s background to replace Colonial Forge High School principal Dr. Lisa Martin, or, did they just rubber stamp Dr. Spillman’s promotion to that role?

Per the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Va. Code Section 2.2-3700 et seq.), we request the following information be provided: (1) Any and all correspondence and documentation related to Dr. Spillman’s hiring for positions within Stafford County Public Schools – including, but not limited to, any pre-employment questionnaires and employment applications, (2) Information regarding who else may have applied for these positions and any consideration given to those other applicants, and (3) any and all employment contract(s) entered into with Dr. Spillman.

This information has a direct bearing on her public duties and therefore should be disclosed.

Thanks and I look forward to a speedy response.

The BananaMan incident and the subsequent fallout has brought quite a bit of attention to how Stafford County Public Schools recruit, vet and hire senior administrators and whether or not the chainsaw approach, led by Stafford County Board of Supervisors Chair Mark Dudenhefer, to the school system’s current operating budget may have forced folks to take time-saving shortcuts to complete critical hiring. This year, Chairman Dudenhefer gleefully reduced the school system’s budgets to the point of utter absurdity. Accountability doesn’t come cheap.

We think Stafford Superintendent Randy Bridges acted properly in bringing an end to the BananaMan controversy, but serious questions remain (we’ve documented them here) – which we have yet to receive answers.

If you have a child at Colonial Forge High School and think this is being overblown, you may be singing a different tune when it is your child facing suspension or expulsion over an expression of free speech or an innocent prank. Do you really want to take that chance?

In our just completed poll, we asked the community whether “Colonial Forge HS Principal Karen Spillman [was] capable of serving effectively, given revelations about her past and her handling of the BananaMan incident”? An overwhelming number of respondents believe the answer is No (94% No, 6% Yes – 215 respondents).

Taxpayers deserve answers and demand accountability. Our children’s futures depend on it.

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By Marc, September 25, 2011 7:37 pm

Colonial Forge’s Banana-Republic Dictator Has Record of Public Intoxication

Breaking News: Colonial Forge Principal’s Heavy-Handed Past

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By Marc, September 24, 2011 5:59 pm

Could a lack of accountability by the Stafford County School Board have led to the hiring of Dr. Karen Spillman, the Colonial Forge High School principal who we discovered—through publicly available sources—was convicted in 2007 in Prince William County, Virginia for public intoxication?

Dr. Spillman’s name is all over the internet and social media like Facebook for famously suspending Colonial Forge High School student Brian Thompson ten days following his benign Banana Man [high school football game half-time] prank.

Parents are asking administration officials and their school board members simple but serious questions, such as: what motivated Colonial Forge’s new principal and Sheriff’s Deputies to “go medieval” on the smart, funny, and high-functioning autistic kid running around the field in a store-bought banana costume? And, is [Principal Spillman] temperamentally well suited to lead Stafford County’s academics leading high school?

We believe Superintendent Randy Bridges acted properly in bringing an end to the BananaMan controversy. But does the school system Dr. Bridges runs have the necessary funding to run itself—and to assure proper administrative accountability? Budgets are stretched so far beyond tolerance—we know that because the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, led by its chair Mark Dudenhefer—took a chainsaw to the school system’s current operating budget.

Year-after-year, the chain-sawing of school operating budgets gets worse, thus year-after-year, staff members and administrators do even more with much less.

This year, Chairman Dudenhefer gleefully reduced the school system’s budgets to the point of utter absurdity. So, it is not outside the realm of possibility that decision-makers in Stafford Schools—who force themselves to do more work with less headcount—look over their shoulders and take time-saving shortcuts to complete critical hiring.

Did overwork and shortcuts [like not using Google or other search engines to query] lead Stafford Schools to avoid necessary due-diligence in regards to vetting candidates for its open assistant principal and principal assignments? Is it conceivable that an overworked senior administrator in Stafford Schools—under pressure from up on high to hire—have rushed the hiring of Dr. Karen Spillman?

We believe that it has.

Could a better-funded school board have identified the bright red flags in Dr. Spillman’s curriculum vitae?

Perhaps.

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By Marc, September 24, 2011 4:36 pm

As we reported last night, Stafford County Schools Superintendent Randy Bridges acted smartly and decisively to end the #BananaMan brouhaha; Superintendent Bridges’ formal statement apologized for actions taken [by the Colonial Forge High School principal Dr. Karen Spillman and deputies of the Stafford County Sheriff’s Department]. From the official statement:

My staff, under my direction, has reviewed the recent actions at Colonial Forge High School relating to the wearing of yellow tee shirts and other activities in support of a student who had been recently disciplined. We have concluded that many of the actions that were taken by the school were inappropriate. We are sorry for any embarrassment or inconvenience incurred by the students who were appropriately exercising their freedom of speech and by the families of those students. This administration and the School Board fully support the First Amendment rights of our students.

The BananaMan tsunami—which, over seven days, was covered as “weird news” by over 150 news-gathering outlets in the U.S. and abroad—is finally ebbing.

But let us be honest. We haven’t seen the end of controversy—far from it!

Dr. Spillman’s—and Stafford County Sheriff’s Deputies—heavy-handed response to fourteen year-old Colonial Forge student Brian Thompson’s halftime prank has led many Colonial Forge parents to ask important questions. Such as: who is Principal Karen Spillman? And, why did a harmless halftime prank result in handcuffs and [an initial] ten-day suspension from school?

A Colonial Forge parent living in the Augustine North sub-division spoke to us off-the-record; the parent thought it both odd—and troubling—that Stafford County’s SAT score-leading high school would actually deny one of its students two weeks of precious classroom instruction, adding that “[in this case], the punishment did not fit the [Banana Man] crime.”

So now, the focus turns to accountability. In regards to the recruitment, candidate-vetting and eventual hiring of Dr. Spillman by Stafford County Public Schools, people are rightly asking: what did Stafford County Schools and the school board know—and when did they know it?

This morning, we reported publicly available information on the July 2007 arrest of Karen C. Spillman in Prince William County for public intoxication. The arrest preceded Dr. Spillman’s (2008) acceptance of the Strasburg High School principal post as well as her resignation from the job, fifteen days later for “health reasons.” So, we—like so many Colonial Forge parents—wonder:

• When Dr. Spillman applied for employment to Stafford County Schools—to be an Assistant Principal—was she forthcoming about her July 2007 arrest in Prince William County for public intoxication?

• At the time of her recruitment for the Assistant Principal assignment, did Stafford County Public Schools run the proper [criminal and professional reference] background checks? Did they conduct thorough due-diligence?

• And this summer, when the principal’s position opened up, did the Stafford Count Public Schools re-evaluate Dr. Spillman’s background to replace Colonial Forge High School principal Dr. Lisa Martin, or, did they just rubber stamp Dr. Spillman’s promotion to that role?

Jobs are hard to come by these days, especially plum principal assignments in our public schools. In this difficult economy, there may be dozens of applications posted for each open public school principal assignment (even in under-performing school districts). But this is Stafford County—which touts the nation’s thirteenth-highest per-capita household income and its reputation for academic excellence. Can the Stafford County Schools and its school board assure us that they vetted Dr. Spillman properly? Were there no other candidates for the Colonial Forge principal’s job that could have done as well or better?

Let us be fair to Dr. Spillman: no one rises to the level of Associate Superintendent of Prince William County Schools unless they are truly talented educators and administrators. In fact, we know that in 2006 she applied for Superintendent of Prince William County Schools [to replace the late Superintendent Edward Kelly].

Sadly, Dr. Spillman’s 2007 arrest clouded what arguably [has been] a very bright career in the Commonwealth of Virginia’s third-largest school system.

But parents at Colonial Forge are wondering aloud about Dr. Spillman’s temperament. And are seriously concerned about the safety and civil-rights of their own children. What if [their kids] make a bad choice and take part in some benign high school high jinks: will they too end up in handcuffs, suspended from school, and risking all out expulsion?

Right now, Stafford County Schools has a lot of explaining to do about the hiring of Dr. Karen Spillman to run Colonial Forge High School. Taxpayers need to know.

[Image via Free-Lance Star.]

Comments (2)

By Marc, September 24, 2011 8:49 am

The recent “Banana Man” incident at Colonial Forge High School has brought to light some serious past actions regarding Principal Karen Spillman. LeavingMyMarc.com has uncovered that Prince William County police charged “Karen C. Spillman” with Public Intoxication in July 2007 (click to enlarge photo):

It now appears that this may be the “health reasons” on why Spillman resigned (was pushed out) her post at Strasburg High School in 2008 – 15 days after being hired.

Given Spillman’s checkered past, how on earth did the Stafford County School Board hire this woman in the first place? It’s clear to me that their “hiring standards” need some serious updating!

I have quite a bit of respect for our school board members, but their silence through this whole ordeal has been very disappointing. They need to IMMEDIATELY remove Spillman from her post as Colonial Forge’s Principal.

I also believe that we need to revise the “hiring standards” for senior positions in our school system. We need even wider community involvement and input!

We need leadership from our elected officials NOW and not more deafening silence. If I were on the school board, I would have shown some decisive leadership. Letting the “Banana Man” incident fester for a whole week and still not dealing with the issues surrounding Spillman is a complete failure by our elected officials (and those currently seeking office) and has allowed this situation to get so out of control. Stafford County is now the laughing stock of the entire world (check out our petition – and continue signing it to send a message that Spillman should be removed).

We need strong leadership NOW!

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By Marc, September 23, 2011 7:18 am

Professor Rao isn’t the only one speaking out about the violation of student’s free speech rights in the wake of the Banana Man controversy. His daughter, Tizrah Rao, is a Colonial Forge High School student who became engulfed in the controversy when she wore a yellow t-shirt that read “Free the banana man” in support of her classmate. An assistant principal confiscated the t-shirt.

Of Brian Thompson (a.k.a. Banana Man), Tizrah explains her support by saying “he’s a nice kid” and that the suspension was unfair and “didn’t match the crime.”

In response to her t-shirt being confiscated on Wednesday, she wore a yellow t-shirt that read “Free Speech” on Thursday. The result was that the same assistant principal asked her to take it off.

ACLU of Virginia Legal Director Rebecca Glenberg supports Tizrah’s constitutional right of free speech. On Thursday, she sent a letter to Colonial Forge High School Principal Karen Spillman that supported her right, “Based on our understanding of the facts, it appears that some students at your school have strong feelings about the discipline of a fellow student, and that they have chosen to express those feelings in a passive, non-disruptive manner. We ask that you respect their constitutional right to free speech.”

If all of this wasn’t enough already, we learned last night about Principal Spellman’s heavy-handed past in Prince William County. Given her checkered past, it is certainly fair to question her judgment (and the judgment of our school system who hired her).

It also appears that the Sheriff Jett is in damage control and is now claiming that Brian cursed at deputies, which is why he was handcuffed and thrown into a squad car. Another boy has already come forward and admitted to being the one who cursed. With violent crime up 66% in Stafford County, Jett is so focused on bananas and not on the real criminals. With him facing re-election this year, his prospects of re-election continue to plummet.

Please don’t forget to sign our online petition to Free Banana Man here. Over 200 signatures strong already!

[Image via Free-Lance Star.]