Board orders an outside investigation of how staff misconduct reports were handled

What happened

At a special meeting on August 4, 2026 called for that one purpose, the School Board voted 7-0 to direct the superintendent and chief legal officer to hire the law firm Harmon Claytor for a thorough, independent investigation of recent personnel matters and of how the division's policies and practices respond to allegations of sexually inappropriate conduct by staff. The firm is to be given access to all documents, data, witnesses and other evidence it needs. The board said it will take updates every 60 days and act on anything urgent in between.

Why it matters to families

The review is about the division's systems, not one case: board members asked the firm to find whether repeated concerns about the same staff member would ever have been recognised as a pattern, whether the reporting route worked without depending on one person getting it right, and whether concerns reached anyone with authority to act. What the firm finds will shape how reports about staff are handled in every Albemarle school. The board warned the work will take time and that some findings may not be shareable publicly.

The evidence

The recording of the August 4, 2026 special meeting carries the full motion naming Harmon Claytor and the scope of the investigation, the direction to give the firm access to all documents, data, witnesses and evidence, the individual board members' comments including the three questions to be put to the firm, the commitment to 60-day updates, and the roll call recorded as 7-0.

The source