Concord High Principal Did Not Influence Investigation: Attorney

CONCORD, NH — The commissioner for the New Hampshire Department of Education issued critical comments Monday after the revelation that while Concord's high school principal was being investigated in the wake of a teacher-student rape incident, he was allowed to play a role in the day-to-day operations at the school – even though he was on a voluntary leave. Concord High School Principal Tom Sica agreed to take a leave of absence in June after revelations that an accused teacher rapist, Primo "Howie" Leung, was allowed to stay in the classroom while on a performance improvement plan – despite a number of allegations against him, dating back to 2011. During the course of the investigation, it was revealed the school district suspended a Rundlett Middle School student, Ana Goble, for raising concerns about Leung's behavior five years ago, prompting Sica to step down just before the high school's graduation.

As part of the voluntary leave agreement between him and School Superintendent Terri Forsten, who is also now on paid leave, Sica was allowed to continue working, in a limited role, to assist in running the school during the summer and preparing it, and its students, for the new school year.

Frank Edelblut, the commissioner of the state's education department, chastised this decision which left the Concord community in the dark about his role.

"Allowing Principal Sica to work during an internal investigation of his conduct potentially undermines the integrity of that investigation," Edelblut said in a statement Monday. "We certainly hope that the investigator was aware of Mr. Sica’s continued involvement while out on leave and expect all school districts to be honest and transparent with their communities."

Grant Bosse, the director of communications for the New Hampshire Department of Education, refused to comment on whether or not the department had active investigations into SAU 8 or its staff, the state of any of those investigations, or how many investigations were underway at the department.

Stephen Bennett, of Wadleigh, Starr & Peters, PLLC, an attorney hired by the Concord Board of Education to assist it in subcontracting the services of Djuna Perkins to investigate of Sica, Leung, the Goble suspension, and other issues in the district, said they both knew Sica was working remotely but was not on campus during the investigation.

Perkins, he said, scheduled all her interviews through an SAU staff member who was not and had not been under the supervision of Sica. Bennet added that Perkins interviewed witnesses outside of Concord High School.

"Neither Attorney Perkins nor I are aware of any attempt by Mr. Sica to influence the statements of any witnesses," Bennett said in an email to Patch Monday. "No witness expressed an unwillingness to cooperate with the investigation because of a concern about repercussions from Mr. Sica or other administrators."

Steve Rothenberg, an assistant principal at Concord High School and the director of the school's career technical center, was present for all of the meetings between Forsten and Sica, including a meeting before the leave announcement and meetings afterward, as the three of them ironed out specifics of how Sica could assist the district in the wake of the investigation. Rothenberg was acting as Sica's representative, as president of the Concord Administrators' Association, and stated it was agreed that Sica would not be on campus, would not discipline any student, and would not interfere with or influence any aspect of the investigation.

Allowing Sica to stay on was based on "Forsten's directive," agreed to on June 19, to allow him to work off-site on "on regular school business like competency education, for example," and "(we) carefully confirmed the specifics by questioning and confirming the details with Superintendent Forsten," he stated.

But Rothenberg also stressed that at the time, Sica's leave was expected to be about a month.

For most of the summer, the remote work was not a challenge since there were limited things to do during the school year at Concord High. But by mid-August, with Sica in the restricted role, it became more and more difficult for him to be a part of the operations at the school.

"Tom agreed that the day-to-day operational influence was not possible and he would be in the background helping and advising our six-member administration team where he could," Rothenberg said. "He was supporting us and doing it in a dignified and realistic manner."

Sica's role, he said, was not any different than what administrators did for the late-Gene Connolly, a principal at the high school who contracted ALS while on the job.

"We took leadership roles, as needed, to support Gene," he said. "We did the same thing for Tom. Different circumstances but the same mindset: Do the job and serve our students, staff, faculty, and community."

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