Ms. Porter was involuntarily reassigned to the classroom during the March 12 board meeting.
Without much notification or discussion among board members at the March 12 meeting, Mahomet-Seymour community members have asked questions over the following month and a half, including, “why is Ms. Porter being reassigned?”
Community members started a Porter Supporters Facebook group and placed banners around town. Students at Lincoln Trail Elementary also placed signs that stated, “We love Ms. Porter,” and “Ms. Porter is awesome,” on their lockers.
Students, however, were told to take the signs off their lockers Friday morning, as they were deemed a disruption or an advertisement.
Because Ms. Porter was involuntarily reassigned, she was granted a closed hearing before the Mahomet-Seymour School Board on April 30 to share her testimony.
Ms. Porter’s lawyer, Ron Langacker, accompanied her.
Ms. Porter was welcomed by a crowd of nearly 70 people, most wearing bright orange Porter Supporter t-shirts. They cheered, “Courtney Porter,” as she walked into Middletown Prairie, the site of school board meetings.
Mahomet-Seymour Junior High sixth-grade student Lexi Knerr was with her family and among those there to support Ms. Porter on Monday night.
“She cares about the students,” Lexi said.
While at Lincoln Trail, Lexi said Ms. Porter was consistently interactive with the students on the playground, at the Dawg Walk and in the hallways.
Anthony and Jenna, Lexi’s parents, said that administrative availability for students is essential.
“All the students know her,” Anthony said.
“She’s the face of Lincoln Trail,” Jenna said. “If (the students) aren’t feeling supported, then they aren’t going to make it through their school year. So they really need to have someone they can connect with to be there for them and listen to them, and she does that.”
Former Lincoln Trail teachers were also among the crowd to support an administrator who is described as being “the heart and soul” of the school.
Linda Meachum, who taught beside Porter as a fifth-grade teacher from 2008-2011, said she feels like the “whole Village is behind” Porter.
“What has been done to her is beyond belief,” Meachum said.
“Courtney has been an outstanding assistant principal, she is an outstanding woman with high ideals and values. She is totally there for the kids and she is totally there for her staff. She has done more good at Lincoln Trail than I can even name.
“I only got to work with her for a few years, but those years were really great.”
Without comment from the board or the district on the involuntary reassignment of Ms. Porter, Meachum and Mahomet-Seymour parent, Jason Hodges, are hoping for more answers.
“We feel that there’s not been a lot of information shared about what’s going on with her,” Hodges said. “And from what we can gather, it seems that there’s not enough information being disclosed. That to me is suspicious. If there is something that needed action and was important, then the public should know about it.”
The Mahomet-Seymour School District maintains that because the matter is a personnel issue, information will not be disclosed to the public. Ms. Porter and Mr. Langacker also have not commented on the reassignment.
But, in the boardroom where constituents were standing shoulder-to-shoulder, parents and children told stories of how Ms. Porter has impacted their child’s life.
Hodges spoke about the relationship Ms. Porter has with his son, who has a learning disability. He stated that she made sure to touch base with him daily, and that she treated him like “gold.”
In an interview outside the boardroom, Hodges illustrated their connection.
“His first initial is P, and her last name begins with P,” he said. “She was ‘Big P’ and he was ‘Little P.’ ”
Hodges, who is a Special Olympics coach, said it is “an honor to be a champion for those kids.
“And Mrs Porter was a champion for mine,” he continued. “She treated him like gold.”
Hodges’ statements came after other parents, including Tanya Knauff and Kris Rath, addressed the board.
Knauff and Rath illustrated the connection that Ms. Porter had with their children, who are now in junior high.
Knauff said that Ms. Porter helped her son through an assault situation by mediating a relationship between her child and the adult.
Rath said that Ms. Porter was the reason her son wanted to go to school everyday.
Rath cited a Mahomet Citizen article where Porter was asked to talk about what gets her fired up.
Porter said that things like triathlons, marathons, writing and helping people, get her fired up.
But, Porter also said, “I get fired up when people treat me and others unfairly and do not support or encourage my and/or their personal desires to be better, to be stronger, to do some good in this world and to just be who I am and/or who they are.”
Rath continued with, “Everyone here is fired up because Miss Porter is in jeopardy of an involuntary reassignment. We’re fired up because our school district has become a runaway train that is careening off the rails. We’re fired up because we, your constituents, don’t feel that you, our school board, is really listening to what we want for our children and our district.
“Don’t continue to careen off the track that has made our school district so desirable. Pull this train back on the rails and show us that you’re listening; that you’re committed to the well-being of the children in our district. To do that, you must start by retaining Miss Porter as the assistant principal of Lincoln Trail.”
Porter Supporters also included former colleagues who spoke about Ms. Porter’s work ethic, and a childhood friend, Kyle Wilcoxon, who also has a child in the Mahomet-Seymour School District.
Wilcoxon spoke to Ms. Porter’s resilient spirit, which not only earned her a spot on the playground basketball court with the boys when she was a child, but led her to an unprecedented high school basketball career, culminating with four consecutive state tournament trophies for her high school.
“What do I know about Courtney Porter?,” Wilcoxon asked. “I know from the time she was a little girl, she’s put all of her energy into everything that she has ever done. She doesn’t know what it means to not go all out for anything she does, anything she wants and everyone she knows. She’s always put it all on the line to make sure that she does everything the right way.
“I’m sure she’s made mistakes, but haven’t we all?”
He also highlighted Ms. Porter’s unrelenting spirit, which has helped her to run marathons even after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 14 years ago.
With a daughter who is now out of Lincoln Trail, Wilcoxon said, “Courtney believes in herself and exudes that out to the people she works with and interacts with on a daily basis. Students look up to her and seek her out for answers, and it says something about who she is as a person.”
Christine Augustine, whose daughter spent a year at Lincoln Trail, came to the meeting to show support for the adult who made a point to connect with her student.
Augustine said that what Ms. Porter does for Lincoln Trail students is a calling.
“(The connection) means that (the students) are important, that they are valued and this isn’t just a job. It’s a calling I think as an administrative person; I think it’s a calling to work with kids.”
The impact of Ms. Porter was witnessed when fourth-grade student Ollie Blackman peered over the podium to ask the school board to keep Ms. Porter as the Assistant Principal at Lincoln Trail.
“I love Ms. Porter,” she said.
The Mahomet-Seymour School Board will reconvene at a Special Board meeting on May 7 at 6 p.m. at Middletown Prairie Elementary to continue the discussion of the reassignment of Ms. Porter.
The Porter Supporters have created a Facebook event, asking people to support Ms. Porter beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.
