Lisa Phelps Seeks Hiring Documents
As the final two members of a four-person voting block that controlled the Spotsylvania School Board from 2022-24 prepare to leave, an "out of line" request rankles Board.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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In January, the Spotsylvania School Board will bring to an end a tumultuous chapter in its history. Lisa Phelps and April Gillespie—the final two members of a four-person voting block that controlled the Board from 2022 to 2024—will leave.
That two-year span saw a number of controversies, including the hiring of a superintendent with no prior education experience, the hiring of principal at Riverbend High School whose Texas teaching certificate was suspended for five years following allegations that he “submitted falsified information” to the Virginia Department of Education in 2013, a move to unilaterally remove books from school libraries, and the involuntary reassignment—in a manner that didn’t follow district policy—of teachers who had spoken out about Board leadership.
As she prepares to exit, however, Phelps is insisting that current Board Chair Megan Jackson “send the Board members a copy of the BWP recruitment package from 2024, including Dr. Mitchell’s college certifications and background check documents from that process.” [BWP was the recruitment firm used to hire Dr. Clint Mitchell as superintendent.]
That request came via an email from Phelps to Jackson on Sunday, October 12. The Advance received a copy of the email under the Freedom of Information Act.
The reason Phelps gave for her request was the “recent arrest of an Iowa superintendent and the surrounding allegations.”
Phelps repeated the request in an email dated October 17.
“Will you be providing the BWP recruitment package from 2024,” she wrote, “including Dr. Mitchell’s college certifications and background check documents from that process? This is my second request.”
Jackson told the Advance, however, that Phelps “had all the hiring information” when the Board was going through the hiring process.
Jackson shared Phelps’ email with Mitchell on October 12. She called the request “completely out of line.”
Mitchell thanked Jackson for sharing the email and noted that, “All recruitment, vetting, and background check documentation was conducted through the established process with BWP, in accordance with applicable guidelines.”
When contacted by the Advance, Mitchell said that in addition to the information that was provided to the Board during the hiring process, there was “another layer of background information [which was] a deep dive into my credit history,” as well as his I-9 employer verification documents.
Jackson told the Advance that Phelps and Gillespie “can view the information at the next regular meeting,” which is this evening.
Why Revisit Mitchell’s Hiring?
The Advance reached out to both Phelps and Gillespie, who was referenced in the October 12 email, to asked if they had received the forms they are now asking for during the hiring process. Further, the Advance asked why, if they have previously seen the information, they are asking to see it a second time.
Neither Phelps nor Gillespie responded.
The two gave no evidence that Mitchell’s background was suspect beyond citing the arrest of Ian Roberts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on September 26, 2025. He was hired in July 2023 to lead the Des Moines, Iowa, school system.
According to a story in Education Week, Roberts had previously worked as a superintendent of Millcreek Township school district in Erie, Pennsylvania.
BWP, the search firm used by the Spotsylvania County School Board in its search for Mitchell, was not involved in the hiring of Roberts in Pennsylvania or Iowa, according to information in the Education Week piece.
An Increasingly Hostile Environment
The Advance’s investigation has netted a number of emails to both Jackson and Mitchell that suggest the two over the past month are regularly on the receiving end of childish taunts and ridicule that sometimes elevate to more-threatening language.
On October 12, the same day that Phelps sent Jackson a request for files related to Mitchell’s hiring, Mitchell received an email, cc-ed to both Phelps and Gillespie, from a local organization. The opening salutation was to “Clint ‘DEI’ Mitchell.”
The acronym “DEI” is for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, which the Trump administration has relentlessly attacked throughout his second administration by threatening to withhold funds from public schools that adhere to the philosophy in any fashion.
The use of DEI as an insult has drawn scrutiny in some quarters. In a column for “The Conversation” by Jennifer Saul, chair in social and political philosophy of language, University of Waterloo, she writes that “the DEI label is often used to play upon racial resentments. It is increasingly appropriated … to question and undermine the positions, qualifications and abilities of racialized people.”
On October 14, Jackson received an email from the same organization with the salutation “Marxist Megan” and a reference to Jackson as “your royal highness.”
The taunts took a darker turn on October 15. In an email to Jackson from an unknown source, a writer complaining about Jackson’s removing a speaker from public comment for inappropriate language said:
You’re obviously quite the little Nazi. “Leaders” like you usually don’t last long…. You deserve whatever karma has in store for you…. THE WORLD IS WATCHING YOU!
That same day the School Board office received a phone call directed to Jackson. The office took a message and forwarded it to the Board chair. The caller, according to the message, said they “will be dropping off a load of Hispanics/illegal immigrants at the next Board meeting because the chair threw out a Hispanic speaker.”
The caller was then asked if they were at the meeting, and the individual replied “yes.”
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