NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Less than a week after the District Attorney’s office confirmed authorities were investigating the school administration and staff for non-reporting of possible child abuse, Dr. Rick Holliday, deputy superintendent of New Hanover County Schools, announced his retirement.
According to NHCS spokeswoman Valita Quattlebaum, “Deputy Superintendent Dr. Rick Holliday announced today that he is retiring from New Hanover County Schools effective August 1, 2019. He has been an educator for 41 years and has served the district for 37 years in various capacities.”
The school also issued a brief statement from Holliday: “I have enjoyed my time with New Hanover County Schools. I have always done my best. As I plan to retire, I wish the citizens of New Hanover County well.”
On Tuesday, during the sentencing hearing for former teacher Michael Ear Kelly, Assistant District Attorney Connie Jordan told a Superior Court Judge that Kelly had told law enforcement that he had been investigated for sexual misconduct in 2006 after being transferred to Isaac Bear Early College High School. Kelly told investigators he had been cleared of wrongdoing by the school. Jordan told the court she had found no evidence that the school district had attempted to contact law enforcement, something she found “upsetting and disturbing.”
The school district immediately issued a denial, saying no investigation into Kelly was ever conducted by the school. District Attorney Ben David confirmed that there was an active investigation into Kelly’s claim, which suggested that the schools had failed to report — a Class I misdemeanor. David did not say who, specifically, was being investigated. However, the investigation apparently includes claims dating back to 2003, when Kelly was a teacher at Laney High School and Holliday was the principal.
It’s the second such investigation launched into the schools by the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office in the last month; the first was started after a local citizen’s group, the Southern Coalition for Equal Protection Under the Law (SCEPUL), filed a complaint, naming Holliday among other administrators and principals.
Holliday was effectively replaced as Title IX director in June, when the New Hanover County Board of Education received $100,000 in funding from the county to create a dedicated Title IX position, as well as extensive training programs. The Board, which created a Title IX committee at the beginning of the year, had acknowledged serious shortcomings in the district’s Title IX program – including a lack of policy, training, and education – under Holliday’s supervision. They stopped short, however, of criticizing Holliday.
Board Chairwoman Lisa Estep said that the new position was a positive step and not related to outside pressure to remove Holliday from the Title IX position – or his job in general. Members of SCEPUL, including Pender County NAACP head Rev. Dante Murphy and UNCW professor Clyde Edgerton have called for Holliday’s resignation or firing on several emails.
SCEPUL has discussed the issue with the state’s Department of Instruction, and recently made arrangements to speak with New Hanover County Commissioners to discuss the issue, as well as plans to speak with the state Board of Education’s legal counsel this week.
It is not clear if Holliday’s retirement is directly linked to these efforts or the active investigations into failure to report. Emails posing that question have been sent to Chairwoman Estep, Superintendent Dr. Tim Markley, Quattlebaum, and Holliday himself.
On Thursday, June 27, the Board announced a special meeting for Monday, July 1, at 6 p.m. The only item on the agenda was a closed session meeting. The initial announcement did not include the reason for the meeting; Administrative Assistant Kelly Baugher later confirmed which statutory reasons were being cited.
Those two sections are NCGS 143-318.11(a)(3):
To consult with an attorney employed or retained by the public body in order to preserve the attorney-client privilege between the attorney and the public body, which privilege is hereby acknowledged. General policy matters may not be discussed in a closed session and nothing herein shall be construed to permit a public body to close a meeting that otherwise would be open merely because an attorney employed or retained by the public body is a participant.
The public body may consider and give instructions to an attorney concerning the handling or settlement of a claim, judicial action, mediation, arbitration, or administrative procedure. If the public body has approved or considered a settlement, other than a malpractice settlement by or on behalf of a hospital, in closed session, the terms of that settlement shall be reported to the public body and entered into its minutes as soon as possible within a reasonable time after the settlement is concluded.
And NCGS 143-318.11(a)(6):
To consider the qualifications, competence, performance, character, fitness, conditions of appointment, or conditions of initial employment of an individual public officer or employee or prospective public officer or employee; or to hear or investigate a complaint, charge, or grievance by or against an individual public officer or employee. General personnel policy
issues may not be considered in a closed session. A public body may not consider the qualifications, competence, performance, character, fitness, appointment, or removal of a member of the public body or another body and may not consider or fill a vacancy among its own membership except in an open meeting. Final action making an appointment or discharge or removal by a public body having final authority for the appointment or
discharge or removal shall be taken in an open meeting.
State personnel law will likely prohibit board members from discussing whether or not Monday evening’s special meeting concerned Holliday.
