TEACHERS BACK CHARLESTON PRINCIPAL

CHARLESTON -- Charleston High School faculty members will go before the Board of Education March 13 to tell members they want their principal back.

More than 30 high-school faculty and staff want to know why the board didn't seek their opinions before deciding against rehiring principal Joe Forrest on Feb. 13. Faculty members said they had no idea there was a question about his contract renewal.

Superintendent Terry Rowe recommended that the seven-member board rehire Forrest. A simple majority was needed to do so. Three members voted against rehiring, three voted for rehiring and one abstained.

"My main objection is, if the superintendent recommended the man be rehired, why didn't they rehire him?" said Preston Heard, a retired math teacher who worked part-time at the high school last year. "I think it's the politics of Charleston."

Forrest, a tenured teacher in the district, has not said whether he will remain in the district if given the opportunity. He refused to comment on possible reasons for the decision.

"I appreciate everything everybody's doing for me, but I don't want to say much more than that because of the situation," Forrest said.

A letter written by a group of faculty and staff members was sent to the Board of Education requesting a special meeting with the board so that teachers could voice their opinions. All but four high-school teachers signed the letter. Rowe said he has not prepared an agenda for the March meeting, but teachers will be scheduled on the final version.

"As far as we're concerned, this issue is not over until they hire a new principal, and hopefully that principal will be Joe Forrest," said social-studies teacher and head football and track coach Dan Kesselring.

Sally Goodin, a school secretary and an author of the letter, said the board didn't give anyone who works with Forrest the opportunity to describe his job performance. She said too often people hear complaints but miss compliments when they evaluate someone.

"My feelings are, had we known there was a chance, we would have liked the opportunity to come in and share input," said Goodin. "This is a community concern, but it's not an angry mob mentality. We just want the opportunity to tell the board some of the reasons we think he was a good principal."

School board president Edgar Barnhill announced the week after the decision that he would not call a special meeting of the board unless a board member who voted against rehiring Forrest or abstained requested a meeting. He would not comment on why Forrest was not rehired.

He said he has received many calls from faculty members and people in Charleston in support of Forrest, but no board member had requested a special meeting as of Friday afternoon.

Efforts to reach other board members to comment were unsuccessful.

Barnhill voted with board members Clay Shelby and John Bledsoe to rehire Forrest. Larry Peters, Junior Delay and Daniel Babb voted against rehiring him. Rosetta Bradley abstained.

A number of petitions are circulating in Charleston requesting that Forrest be reinstated for next school year. Rick Reed, a local real-estate agent, said he believed the decision was the result of bad feelings some people had against Forrest. He said he has heard positive comments from many people regarding Forrest's performance as a principal.

Melissa Graham, a pharmacist in Charleston, said both of her children went to school under Forrest and she thought he was a good administrator. She said she has been approached by a number of people who have told her they would like to sign the petition. She has about 100 names on her petition.

"I'm not soliciting names at all, but people have come in and asked to sign it because they heard from someone else that I have one," Graham said. "We're good friends, and I think a lot of him personally and as an administrator."

Pat McCollum, an English teacher at the high school, said Forrest has the support of faculty because he works well with both teachers and students.

"A lot of us have had disagreements with him from time to time, but he has been a good principal for our kids," McCollum said. "His office has always been open and he has sought our opinions. He's a good principal because he has always allowed us to disagree. Not many principals will allow you to do that."