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The longest running card game in Roanoke started sometime in May 2009, over at William Fleming High School.

Let’s call it SOL poker.

That is S-O-L as in state-mandated Standards of Learning tests, not the more common street acronym that stands for “you-know-what out of luck.”

The game has gone on for months. And the biggest hand so far was played Tuesday night at the Roanoke City School Board meeting.

The two remaining card players are Susan Willis, the school’s suspended-with-pay principal, and the school board, which sent the message that she has to go.

Tuesday night, Willis treated the board’s decision to fire her as a bluff, and she raised the ante. She threatened to sue and drag out this proceeding, potentially for many more months and who knows how many more thousands of taxpayer dollars.

But the hand didn’t end there.

The school board raised the ante too, by hinting it might sue Willis to recover all the money it’s paid her since her suspension, as well as taxpayer dollars it’s spent trying to assess and undo this scandal.

Lost in the drama of all that bluffing and raising are the hundreds of students – according to the school system – who were negatively affected by this mess.

You could call them Students Out of Luck.

Read the rest of the column here.

William Fleming High School Principal Susan Willis / By Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Last night the Roanoke City School Board voted 5-2 to fire William Fleming High School principal Susan Willis.

That action came in the wake of a test-rigging scandal at the high school, and a grievance hearing in which two of the three judges decided she was implicated in that scandal.

Willis' handpicked judge sided with her and Willis' argument that an unfriendly school administration had framed her.

One thing that was clear from the meeting Tuesday night: each of the seven school board members believe Willis needs to go. The lone, and minor, disagreement was about how that should happen.

How do we know that, with the school board not talking?

The two members who voted AGAINST firing her butt had earlier voted in favor of a resolution that would have allowed her to resign and given her a deadline for it. But that died on a 3-4 vote.

Willis responded by threatening to file a lawsuit against the board and releasing only the portion of the grievance panel's conclusions -- the part submitted by the judge she had placed on that panel.

What do YOU think, folks?

The Roanoke Times / File

Toniekia Poole got a surprise Tuesday afternoon as she tried to find out why her fifth-grade daughter's school bus was two hours late.

The Northwest Roanoke mom called Mountain Valley Transportation, the private contractor that now ferries Roanoke schoolchildren.

The Mountain Valley employee on the other end asked if she knew anyone who wanted a job - as a bus driver.

"The lady told me, ‘To tell you the truth we're really really really short staffed. The bus driver had to do a double run today,' " Poole said.

"She even proceeded to tell me because of the shortage they were in desperate need of drivers and asked if I knew anyone that needed a job."

India Bryson, who lives in Northeast Roanoke, said the same thing happened when she called. Her 5-year-old daughter was more than 90 minutes late getting home Tuesday.

"I called Mountain Valley, and Amy told me the same thing, that my daughter's bus driver had to run a double route," Bryson said.

"I asked her if I could be notified if the bus was going to be this late again. Amy told me to call them every day to find out if this bus route was going to be altered.

"So when I told her that I may not be able to do that every day, she suggested that I call my friends, and ask them if they're looking for a job, because they're short on bus drivers and maybe that would help alleviate the problem."

This method of job recruiting does not inspire confidence in Mountain Valley, the company Roanoke City Public Schools hired earlier this year to run the buses for some 13,000 Roanoke students.

Read the rest of the column here.

Read a previous column on this subject here.

Previous news coverage is here and here.

The Roanoke Times / File

I've had a bunch of email and phone calls from parents, ex-drivers and others in the wake of Sunday's column that described my son's travails at getting to Woodrow Wilson Middle School last week.

(He is walking now, by the way.)

The question on my mind: Are the buses running on time better this week than they were last week? What do you people on the ground out there know?

I'm hearing anecdotal stuff about a growing number of driver resignations, but nothing confirmed.

If anything, it's harder than ever to get through to Mountain Valley Transportation, the private contractor who took over that system from the city this year.

The two times I've called this week, I've been put on hold each time. Never could talk to the regional manager, Sue Kramer.

Btw, Mountain Valley is soliciting for drivers on their Web site.

Please tell us what you know by posting a comment. And use a real email address (viewable only by me) so that I'm able to follow up with you.

UPDATE

Mountain Valley general manager Andre Harris called me Wednesday and Thursday. I'll have a column Friday recounting that conversation.