FAYETTEVILLE – The Lawrence County Independent Schools board hosted a meeting on Tuesday have completed their investigation into allegations of misconduct and financial misfeasance, resulting in two staff members being disciplined.
Alexandra Curlin, legal counsel to the LCIS board of trustees, announced during the meeting that the investigation conducted by attorney Amber Boyd, did not find any mismanagement of finances had occurred, but did conclude that two staff members had been engaged in an inappropriate relationship that they were both disciplined for.
“Certainly the board is not going to go into any detail as to any specific things. What we can say is that there was no finding of any financial misfeasance. There are no missing dollars and it looks it appears that there was no financial misfeasance so that’s good news,” she said. “It does appear that two staff members did have an inappropriate relationship. And so those two staff members have been disciplined and will no longer be at LCIS,” she said.
Curlin said the board took the allegations incredibly seriously, leading to the investigation, She later noted that all stakeholders with information related to the allegations were interviewed as part of the process.
“This board takes those allegations extremely seriously. And the allegations that came out, the board really wanted to make sure were investigated and an answer was determined as to what exactly occurred,” said Curlin. “The board certainly is appreciative of the community support and the community coming out and folks asking questions and bringing attention to concerns to the board. The board always wants to hear those concerns and always wants to react to those concerns. In addition to that, student safety is the most important thing to LCIS and to LCIS’ board so to the extent the board can do anything to make sure that the staff and students are safe and staff and students can learn in an environment that is not disruptive. That’s what the board is trying to do.”
Lindsay Omlor, executive director of charter schools from Trine University who authorized LCIS as a charter school, also spoke about the matter at the meeting.
I just want to say that as soon as allegations were made and we became aware of the allegations, we have a responsibility to all of you as taxpayers because it’s a public charter school, right? The board must be diligent to all taxpayers to make sure that they are following the appropriate protocols and processes when any allegations of this nature are made. And, it is our responsibility as your authorizer to make sure that the board is following through with those appropriate problems and protocols. And, that is what we’ve done”, she said. “As soon as we were made aware, we took appropriate steps, working in conjunction with the board of LCIS to make sure that the correct protocols and processes were followed.”
Omlor continued, speaking about the efforts of the school’s staff.
“I will say that beyond the investigation and the findings of the investigation, we firmly believe as your authorizer that the teachers and staff at this school are genuinely committed to kids and to your community and that they are continuing to and have consistently been providing a high quality choice option for kids in this community,” she said.
