WILMINGTON — Questions remain about the New Hanover County Schools administration’s ‘review’ of all personnel files on Monday, but it is now clear that district officials neither informed the school board or received authorization for the move.
The move followed revelations contained in a search warrant for Roland Grise band teacher Peter Michael Frank, 47, who has been arrested on numerous felony child sex charges. According to the search warrant, evidence of past misconduct and “inappropriate relationships” with students was kept in Frank’s ‘school-level’ file.
The warrant was issued to seize Frank’s complete record — which is kept in the central administration office. Last week, the Board of Education said it will consider releasing part of this complete record but has not yet done so.
Related: A long hard look at New Hanover County Schools’ arrests, allegations, and administration [Free read]
On Tuesday, the district confirmed that all of the principals in the New Hanover County Schools (NHCS) district had been “instructed to review their school level personnel files for all employees” to “ensure school-level administrators are familiar with the files of their staff as well as identify potential concerns.”
The move also appeared to directly follow the Board of Commissioner’s Monday-afternoon proposal to send multiple teams of detectives, social workers, and counselors into the schools — an offer welcomed by the Board of Education during its Tuesday evening meeting.
It remained unclear who had initiated the move or why the administration had chosen this particular time for such a sweeping review of all personnel files — instead of, for example, after the arrest of Michael Earl Kelly or Nicholas Lavon Oates, or after an investigation into the district’s potential failure to report sexual predators was announced last year.
Follow-up emails sent to Superintendent Dr. Tim Markley, Deputy Superintendent Dr. LaChawn Smith, and the district’s spokesperson on Tuesday morning received no response.
[Note: An additional email sent this morning, asking if such a comprehensive review had ever been conducted before has also not yet received a reply.]
Board of Education Chairwoman Lisa Estep, who was also included on those emails did respond, stating that the board had “absolutely no knowledge” of the administration’s actions and had not authorized them in any away.
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