Testimony focuses on McFerren’s behavior

By Tom Davidson
THE HERALD (SHARON, Pa.)

FARRELL, Pa. March 20, 2008 11:16 am

— With his job on the line, Farrell High School Principal Lee McFerren listened without saying a word to seven hours of testimony from his former and current bosses as to why he was suspended without pay since Feb. 7.
The second day of the suspended principal’s removal hearing consisted of examination of the superintendents who worked with McFerren.
Retired Superintendent Richard R. Rubano and acting superintendent Carole Borkowski Tuesday recounted in sometimes excruciating detail how McFerren mishandled people and situations as he managed the high school the last three years.
In addition to being McFerren’s boss, Rubano said he acted as McFerren’s mentor as he settled into his job as high school principal.
After McFerren was hired in July 2005 and school started that year, “Mr. McFerren set a positive tone,” Rubano testified.
“He stressed student and staff accountabilities and creating a safe and orderly environment,” Rubano said.
He had big expectations — something that’s “a great quality for an administrator to have.”
That first year, things seemed to be going well at the high school. McFerren’s presence halted potentially bad practices such as students loitering in hallways and classroom doors decorated so people couldn’t see inside that was noticeable a couple weeks into the 2005-2006 school year, Rubano said.
McFerren also banned refrigerators and microwaves from classrooms, Rubano said.
The first hint of controversy happened when McFerren piggybacked on a previously-discussed change in school policy to toughen the performance standards from a “D” average to a “C” for students who participated in extracurricular activities.
Although McFerren has touted the idea as his own, it was actually the brainchild of former school board member Jerome Flynt and was supported by other board members, Rubano said.
McFerren helped to implement the policy, however, Rubano said.
McFerren “believed students should be challenged,” Rubano said.
It was met with stiff opposition from then-football coach Lou Falconi and the policy was lessened.
McFerren’s honeymoon didn’t last long.
During a spring 2006 meeting with Rubano and Lynne Powell, the district’s grant writer, McFerren “became rude and agitated” and had to be told to sit down three times, Rubano said.
After the meeting, Rubano gave him “a little criticism” — first, listen to the superintendent, and second, treat people with “dignity and respect.”
Mrs. Borkowski also was disturbed that McFerren took July 2007 off for vacation during a time when the building was being renovated and state performance test scores were being analyzed.
In August of that year, McFerren returned to work and got into another argument with other staff members over the employment of a high school secretary with whom he didn’t get along.
McFerren “became very rude and defensive” with the secretary’s lawyer and “it became very hostile,” Rubano said.
“At one point in time, Mr. McFerren said the superintendent of schools is not going to be here forever and said I don’t want an employee like (the secretary).
“I considered it insubordinate, unprofessional and embarrassing,” Rubano said.
McFerren received a written reprimand because of the incident, Rubano said.
That set in motion an “ongoing concern about McFerren’s behavior,” he said.
Still, school board members had confidence in McFerren and in 2007 they gave him the title “assistant to the superintendent” that didn’t boost his $82,500 per year salary or add any job duties.
“It was a title,” Rubano said.
McFerren also has problems dealing with some students and teachers who officially complained about him, Rubano said. He stopped a standout student from doing morning announcements and threatened teachers that he would use their evaluations against them, something Rubano termed “scare tactics.”
He also was threatening to school board members Marcena Cimoric and Sue Rado after a school board meeting. According to a letter Mrs. Cimoric wrote to school district solicitor James Nevant II, McFerren “stuck out his chest” and asked the women if they had anything to say to him.
After these incidents, Rubano testified he met with McFerren about his behavior.
“We had a very lively discussion about all of this and Lee accused me of not being in his corner. I said that’s not the case, that I witnessed with my own eyes situations where you’ve lost your temper,” Rubano said.
He had concerns about McFerren’s “anger management” and the problems he had treating people with dignity, Rubano said.
McFerren asked for and was given the responsibility for updating and improving the district’s Web site — something he didn’t do although he was paid $4,000 extra to do it, Rubano said.
“We discussed it and he said he was working on it,” Rubano said.
McFerren also didn’t complete state reports on time and had more problems when disciplining students, Rubano said.
It all constituted a “chain of behavior” that needed to change, Rubano said.
McFerren once told him “it’s going to get ugly” — something Rubano said he could have taken as a threat. “But I’ve been in the business too long,” Rubano, who has 37 years experience as an educator, said.
McFerren also left the building sometimes without notifying him, Rubano said.
Rubano also testified that Farrell’s policy is to require board approval for any schedule or curriculum changes.
Among the 45 accusations leveled against him are that he changed the high school class schedule and curriculum without authorization last year.
When Rubano retired in June 2007, McFerren sent a letter of interest in the vacant position, but 40-year district administrator Carole Borkowski was given the job of “acting superintendent” and became McFerren’s boss.
She recounted a litany of allegations of insubordination and unprofessionalism garnered from private notes she made about McFerren.
Soon after she started as “acting superintendent” in May 2007 — Rubano left early because of vacation time — Mrs. Borkowski had to meet with McFerren because of another incident with Ms. Powell.
She requested to meet with McFerren and he refused a face-to-face, instead calling her.
He “became difficult, failed to appear and his responses were irrelevant,” Mrs. Borkowski said.
She “regarded it as insubordination,” she said.
McFerren also refused to supply things like student counts, course counts and other year-end details that normally were gathered over summer break so the district could properly budget and figure out its staff, she said.
“It was a continued pattern of unprofessionalism that was being shown … within the school community,” she said.
She testified he also had problems dealing with state Department of Education “master educators” who were assigned to Farrell because of its less-than-stellar performance on state aptitude tests mandated by No Child Left Behind.
She concurred with Rubano that McFerren has an anger management problem and treats people with disrespect. She confirmed that he didn’t have the authorization to change the class schedule and add remedial reading and math classes that some advanced students were “dumped into,” according to Michael Levin, the Huntington, Pa., lawyer who is representing the district in the case.
The district hasn’t finished presenting its case against McFerren after the two-and-a-half hour hearing Monday and the almost-eight-hour marathon session Tuesday.
Nevant, Barbara Ochs, the Sharon attorney who is representing McFerren, and Levin will work to schedule more days for the hearing next month.
Andria Saia, a lawyer who is assisting Levin, said they still have several witnesses to call and Ochs said she plans to elicit testimony from several “current and former” employees of the district along with McFerren.
Ms. Ochs objected several times to testimony given Tuesday because she classified it as hearsay that Nevant, who presided at the hearing, overruled.
“Hearsay statements are not reliable evidence,” Ms. Ochs said.
Whenever the hearing concludes, the nine-member Farrell Area School Board will have a roll call vote on whether McFerren should keep his job. Two-thirds — six members — must support the firing for it to happen. Otherwise, McFerren will keep his job.
A Meadville resident, McFerren was hired in 2005 at $82,500 a year for 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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