The state Department of Education has taken over what began as an informal investigation into complaints against Honokaa High and Intermediate School’s embattled principal.
Art Souza, superintendent of the Honokaa-Kealakehe-Kohala-Konawaena Complex Area, placed Marcella McClelland on leave in May after a prolonged campaign by teachers and parents to have her removed permanently from the school.
Unrest over the principal’s management style boiled over in March and April, with McClelland walking out of a contentious School Community Council meeting, at which she received criticism for allegedly demoting qualified teaching staff and replacing them with unqualified teachers.
Last month, Souza said that he was placing the principal on leave both for her safety and to calm the atmosphere at the school as students, parents, faculty and staff prepared for the end of the year and graduation.
But on Tuesday, Souza said that as he continued to look into the allegations against McClelland, he decided to hand the investigation over to the state DOE.
“There’s no question there are some very serious allegations of mismanagement and financial mismanagement,” he said. “In my initial look at this thing, my purpose was to see if we could reconcile this. Subsequent to my doing all that work, I decided at this point we need to formalize an investigation,” he said.
McClelland’s official status with the DOE is now “on department directed leave pending investigation,” he said.
Among their complaints, the principal’s detractors say that she placed teachers in classrooms where they were unqualified to teach. They also claim that the School Community Council was bypassed in the approval process for the school’s academic plan and comprehensive financial plan for the next academic year.
“The principal was absent from the February 2015 meeting of the School Community Council of Honokaa High and Intermediate School. The principal canceled the March meeting, walked out on two meetings held in April, and was absent from the May meeting. The council was never presented a copy of the Comprehensive Financial Plan. Thus, there was no collaboration nor was it approved by the SCC. The academic plan, too, was never approved by the SCC,” reads a June 5 letter to Souza from the SCC’s acting president, Miles Okumura.
“If the academic plan and the (Comprehensive Financial Plan) have been submitted to you and the Department of Education by the principal, this has been done without the statutorily required approval of the SCC. It would also be in violation of Board of Education policies as well as Department of Education policies.”
Souza clarified Tuesday that the school community council should be afforded the opportunity to see the plans before they are forwarded to the DOE for approval, but the body has no power to approve.
“The School Community Council has certain responsibilities, including making a recommendation for approval, and they should have a full opportunity to see the plans, but the ultimate responsibility lies with the principal. The SCC also has no responsibility on personnel decisions,” he said.
However, he said, “the SCC did not have an opportunity to review the academic plan before it was submitted to me for approval. It does have a right to review the plan, and they can make recommendations. They have a right to review the plan and have the opportunity to sign off. That has not happened.”
Why that did not happen is one of the things being investigated, he added.
“There are many interpretations (of why the SCC did not have the opportunity to review the plans),” he said. “Some would say that (McClelland) walked out of the meetings. … Some would say the meetings were out of control, weren’t facilitated well, and she found herself under duress. Whatever the reasons were for her leaving, the plan was not reviewed by the SCC.”
Souza said he had already approved and submitted the plan in April, “so I’m not sure what can be done. I don’t know whether we’re going to reverse those positions.”
Okumura said Wednesday he was glad to see the complaints against McClelland were being considered by DOE investigators, although he lamented how much time it had taken for the process to reach this point.
“Realistically, an investigation like this can take six or seven months, and we realize that,” he said. “So, that puts the school in limbo. … (A temporary principal) is burdened a bit by not knowing if the past principal is returning. That can affect the way they make decisions. … We’re concerned and worried that administrators will be hamstrung.”
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
