District makes case against McFerren

By Tom Davidson
THE HERALD (SHARON, Pa.)

FARRELL, Pa. Tue, May 13 2008

— People were turned away from a due-process hearing for Lee McFerren held Monday at the Farrell City Building.
Forty-five minutes before the hearing was to start, city council chambers were filling to capacity. Some lined the walls of the back of the room — which holds 150 officially, fire Chief Joe Santell said.
He “had no choice” but to turn people away when the standing areas pushed that capacity to more than 200.
Interest in the case of the suspended Farrell High School principal is so great that the lobby and doorway areas of the city building remained packed with people who couldn’t hear what was going on inside.
The crowd included current and former teachers, administrators and coaches, along with parents, students and residents with no ties to the district.
Applause from some reverberated as McFerren and his lawyer Barbara Ochs of Sharon walked in at about 6:30 p.m.
James Nevant II, the school district’s solicitor, presided at the hearing and the nine-member Farrell school board sat as judge and jury.
The case against McFerren was laid out by Huntington Valley, Pa., attorney Michael Levin.
He presented an overview of the case against McFerren that alleges the principal “willfully neglected duty” … was in “violation of school standards” and acted in a way that was “immoral and intemperate.”
“You will hear evidence that will show Mr. McFerren has been out of control. He repeatedly said inappropriate things in inappropriate ways … and was at times threatening, demeaning, hostile and aggressive,” Levin said.
McFerren once told a student — along with the child’s father — that things will only get worse for the student.
“He (McFerren) said in the real world … wait till the white man knocks you on your a--” Levin said.
McFerren was repeatedly warned by his superiors, who included former Superintendent Richard Rubano and acting superintendent Carol Borkowski, to change his behavior, Levin said.
In 2006, Rubano told McFerren he had “anger management problems that need to be taken care of,” Levin said.
There are a “dozen or more incidents where Mr. McFerren engaged in inappropriate or unprofessional conduct,” Levin said.
“He does what he wants to do, how he wants to do it and when he wants to do it,” Levin said.
He changed the school day from a seven-period to an eight-period day without authorization or proper planning, Levin said, and “dumped” gifted students into classes designed for remedial students.
“He did not have the permission of the board or superintendent to make the change,” Levin said.
McFerren’s story is different.
He was hired after the 2004-2005 school year to clean up a school that was in disarray, Ms. Ochs said.
“Students and teachers arrived as they please, academics were in trouble,” she said.
McFerren made “his priorities known” to the board and administration, she said.
“His educational policy is academics first, athletics second,” she said. “He said ‘Black kids can do more than run, jump and dunk. We’ve got to get them prepared for the world.’ ”
He encountered a staff that was “resistant to change,” Ms. Ochs said.
The 45 allegations against McFerren are mostly “innuendo, gossip and rumors gathered from unnamed sources,” she said.
She objected to “the introduction of rumors and gossip” by Levin.
Nevant noted the objection, but let the hearing move forward.
Levin called McFerren as his first witness and took about two hours of sworn testimony.
During that time McFerren either denied, said he didn’t know or had forgotten details several times.
McFerren called Levin’s characterizations of how McFerren handled himself while administering the high school “subjective,” McFerren said.
Ms. Ochs disputed Levin’s claims during a break in the hearing.
He was hired to do a job and is being punished before he had a chance to do it properly, she said.
He “hasn’t been given an opportunity to make the changes he was supposed to make,” she said.
She was pleased at the overflow turnout and said she spoke to many who supported her client.
She also noted the number of Farrell students who came to the hearing, which she called a “real-life” civics lesson.
McFerren has been suspended without pay since Feb. 7.
A Meadville resident, he was hired in 2005 at $82,500 per year per a five-year deal that runs through 2010.
Before he came to Farrell, McFerren worked at Franklin Area School District in Venango County and Crawford Central School District in Meadville.

Tom Davidson writes for The Herald in Sharon, Pa.

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