Update: Credentialing Of Concord's Acting Super Could Take Months

CONCORD, NH — State officials won't comment on whether or not the Concord School District is under investigation due to the latest problem with employees at SAU 8 – the appointment of an assistant school superintendent to the superintendent's position even though she is not credentialed for either position. Donna Palley, the district's acting superintendent since 2011, was elevated to the position Friday. The decision was made by Concord Board of Education President Jennifer Patterson after School Superintendent Terri Forsten and Concord High School Principal Tom Sica were placed on paid administrative leave, after school board members spent two nonpublic meetings poring over an internal investigation of the district's actions in the wake of allegations of inappropriate behavior against Special Education Advisor and teacher, Primo "Howie" Leung.

Patch revealed Sunday that Palley was not credentialed to hold either position, according to the New Hampshire Department of Education website. Palley, who was promoted from a SPED coordinator position to assistant superintendent in July 2011, failed to meet the deadline for certification during the first three years of her employment – and worked for five years in the position without certification.

Grant Bosse, the director of communications for the New Hampshire Department of Education, would not comment on whether or not the Concord School District was being investigated Tuesday.

"The commissioner is well aware of the situation," he said. "I can't obviously talk about any investigations that may or may not be going on."

Kate Spiner, the director of communications for the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office, said the department was in the process of gathering information about the district.

"When we have reviewed the information gathered, we will determine what, if any, further steps will be taken by this office," she added.

The 60-Day Credentialing Warning

It could be months before Palley is credentialed by the NH DOE, assuming all goes well with her transcripts, filings, and other information that will need to be analyzed, based on a timeline warning given to all educator applicants by the department.

Stephen Appleby, the administrator of the Bureau of Credentialing at the New Hampshire Department of Education, wouldn't speak specifically about Palley's case. In general though, he said all applicants for credentialing are warned that it could take up to 60 days before certification occurs. That is also with a presumption that all the requirements are met and the proper paperwork has been filed, he stated.

"We process applications in the order with which they are received," Appleby said. "You know, there is a queue. There are applications waiting in the queue."

The 60-day notification, which is also posted on the department's website, "sets an expectation" for educators that it might take a while to get through the approval process, he added. If there are snafus with the filings, it could take longer.

A situation where a school district has an employee in a position of authority who is allowed to work without credentials, unchecked for years and years, is "varying degrees of rare," Appleby said. With teachers, many hold a "minor assignment" credential which allows them to teach a subject they are not fully credentialed to teach, on a short-term basis, in case of emergencies or other issues inside a district. The tracking of these assignments muddies the data water, he said. But once you remove all of the teachers from the equation and look at other employees, it is "very rare" to have a situation like an assistant superintendent or superintendent working for years without an active credential.

The bureau, Appleby added, was responsible for notifying districts of employees who are not credentialed. Those notifications would go to the superintendent. The superintendent, on behalf of the district, would then be required to act upon the information provided by the NH DOE. If a superintendent knowingly hired, re-employed, or allowed the continued employment of a non-credentialed educator, the NH State Board of Education could target the license of the superintendent, he said.

If, as an example, the NH DOE found out that Forsten or even the previous SAU 8 school superintendent, Chris Rath, knew that Palley was not credentialed and yet, allowed her to stay employed for the five years she failed to get certified, their licenses could be in jeopardy.

Neither Appleby nor Bosse would comment on what the NH DOE might or could do in the event that Palley shows up for work on Wednesday as the acting superintendent, a position which she is not credentialed to work in.

A district that allowed a non-credentialed superintendent to stay employed in the position could lose its school approval with the NH DOE.

The new Code of Conduct and Code of Ethics also lists a myriad of reasons how and why a credentialed educator could lose their certification – or be denied certification.

While not speaking to a specific educator or situation, Appleby said, "The Code of Conduct has provisions in it that give us the ability to investigate actions and behaviors. That's all I can say about that."

Palley was unavailable for comment due to the Rosh Hashanah holiday.

Parents Group Responds, Prepares To Act

The founder of a new group aimed at increasing transparency and accountability in the Concord School District says she was shocked to learn that Palley was not credentialed and is now calling for her resignation.

Darlene Gildersleeve of Protect Concord Students Now, who lives in Hopkinton and was involved in the initial petition that led to nearly 3,000 signatures calling for Forsten and Sica to be fired, said, "it's too little, too late," even if Palley claims she is working to complete the requirements, which is what she told Patch on Saturday.

"This pattern of purposely avoiding a critical credential forces the group, Protect Concord Students Now, to call on Donna Palley to resign at the Oct. 7, school board meeting," Gildersleeve said in an email. "Should she choose not to do the right thing and resign, I ask the full board to terminate her position. We have no confidence, yet again."

Betsy McNamara and Dan Habib, who are active in the CSD Advocates for Change group, sent this following letter to Concord Board of Education members Tuesday:

To Members of the School Board,

We appreciate the board’s action in putting both Superintendent Forsten and Principal Sica on leave soon after reading the independent report from Attorney Perkins. This is a good first step.

However, communication and media reports since Friday, September 27th do not engender confidence in the process. Instead, each day that passes is deepening the community’s lack of confidence in the board’s ability to help lead us out of this crisis.

From the outside looking in the perception is that some decisions are being made unilaterally by a small subset of the board, that the board is not committed to transparency in this process, and that board is supporting the placement into the Interim Superintendent position a person who has been lacking the qualifications to serve in her Assistant Superintendent position since 2014.

What is happening here?

We urge the board to turn decision-making about what parts of the report are to be released over to Attorney Perkins, who should write a comprehensive overview that will both meet the community’s right to know and the District’s requirements to protect student privacy and safety.

This public version of the report MUST contain a complete picture of what happened at CHS in the Howie Leung case, when it happened, and who was responsible for any actions (or inactions) that may have put students at risk. If related information has come to light during the investigation that exposes serious systemic or cultural problems in the district, that information should also be released.

Here are some additional actions we hope you consider taking that we believe would move the community forward in a positive direction:

*The school board should state publicly that it is committed to releasing the information in the full report to the maximum extent allowable under the law.

*If any school board members are implicated in the report, or if any school board members knew of any allegations against Howie Leung during the period of the internal CSD investigation, those school board members should recuse themselves from discussions and decisions about the report’s release.

*If any key decisions – like naming an interim superintendent – are being made unilaterally by one or two school board members (i.e. the "executive committee" of the board), stop that practice immediately. The community needs to know that the entire school board is functioning cohesively, through a collaborative process, during this tense and high stakes period.

*Release the report in its entirety to Concord Police.

We are sure there will be many more key junctures ahead. But it is difficult for us to imagine a more critical crossroads for our community than right now. Each school board member needs to put student safety, transparency, and accountability first and foremost.

The current trajectory is not positive. But it can be changed.

St. Paul's School Case

While the NH DOE was not involved in the St. Paul's School investigation, since it is a private school and the department has no oversight of it, the NH AG's Office does have some precedence to act.

Investigators inside the department were very active in uncovering allegations against the posh prep school after a single rape case involving a student, Owen Labrie, by an underage student, Chessy Prout. Labrie was later found non-guilty on the felony sexual assault charges but found guilty on other charges, including a felony computer services charge, misdemeanor sexual assault charges, and endangering the welfare of a child, requiring him to register as a sex offender.

The AG's investigation into the school revealed many other crimes and charges against former staffers.

ALSO READ:

• Acting Concord School Superintendent Not Credentialed With NH DOE
• Concord Superintendent Forsten, Principal Sica Placed On Leave
• Concord Board Of Education Considering Personnel 'Next Steps'
• Concord Board Of Education Members Eyeing Investigative Report
• Parents, Students Vent About Issues With Concord School District
• Concord School Board To Update Public About Investigation Tuesday
• Concord School Superintendent: Letter To Staff 'A Serious Error'
• Petition To Remove Officials From Concord Schools Cracks 2,000
• Concord School Board Holds Emergency Meeting Sunday With Counsel
• Online Petition Launched To Have Concord School Officials Removed
• Concord Superintendent Lashes Out At Media Coverage Of District
• Concord School Board To Revise 'Professional Expectations' Policy
• Concord High School Principal Takes A Leave Of Absence
• Labrie's Former Counsel Not Hired To Probe Teacher Rape Case
• Concord School Board Opens New Investigation Into Leung Rape Case
• How A Distinguished Concord Teacher Became A Student Rape Suspect
• Students Saw Concord Teacher Kiss, Hug Another Student: Docs
• Should The Concord School District Have Responded Faster To Case?
• NH Teacher Held Without Bail After Bay State Arraignment
• Concord Teacher Accused Of Raping Student In Newton, MA
• Distinguished Educators for 2012

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