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Residents denounce principal’s reassignment; council votes to ask all seven school‑board members to step down
Summary
Three residents urged Franklin City Council to hold the school board accountable after the reassignment of Franklin High principal Travis Felts; council members, citing a lack of transparency and escalating public meetings, voted to send a letter requesting all seven school‑board members resign and discussed pursuing a charter change to expand council authority.
Three residents used citizens time to press City Council for action after the reassignment of Franklin High principal Travis Felts, and council members voted to send a letter asking each of the seven school‑board members to step down.
Pam Lee opened public comment saying the community was “shaken” by Felts’s reassignment and demanding clearer communication with parents and staff about the process. “The removal of Travis Phils last month has left Community shaken,” Lee said, calling for transparent answers about how staff and families were told about the reassignment.
Carrie Johnson urged council oversight, noting Felts had served the high school “for over a decade” and that his removal without public explanation had raised concern among families and staff. Brenda Peterson echoed the calls for accountability and warned the boardroom climate had become more confrontational: “Schoolboard meetings are getting more and more testy and more and more almost to the point of violence...my concern is somebody’s going to get hurt,” she said.
In council comment, multiple members said the school‑board response and a recent board letter had inflamed tensions and that more robust remedies should be explored. Some council members argued the remedy requires a charter change to give the council removal authority; others said they would pursue both an immediate request and a longer‑term charter approach.
The council then moved and voted to send a letter requesting that each of the seven school‑board members step down. Discussion during the vote acknowledged that the request itself carries no guaranteed enforcement, but several council members said sending the letter was an important public step and pledged to pursue charter‑change options that would take longer and require General Assembly action.
Next steps: The mayor and city manager were asked to coordinate legal and procedural steps for a potential charter amendment and to return with information on options for pursuing a change that could give council greater appointment/removal authority.
Details: The motion to send the resignations request passed (recorded as “motion carried” in the meeting transcript). The council also discussed timing for school‑board reappointments and said two seats would come up in July.
