Harper appeal under way

By Trent Moore

An appeal over the termination of former Hanceville Elementary School principal Jeff Harper began Thursday.

It was revealed during the hearing that the school board began investigating Harper due to complaints filed by one teacher at the school shortly after Harper was subpoenaed and gave a deposition involving a situation with the teacher. Her complaints included harassment and sexual harassment among other grievances.

“That’s why we did the investigation, to see if there was any validity to those complaints,” Superintendent Hank Allen said.

The investigation found no truth to the sexual harassment claim, though Allen said other issues were uncovered that eventually led to Harper’s termination.

The hearing is slated to continue today at 9 a.m. with Judge Frank Brunner presiding.

Harper is appealing his termination by the Cullman County Board of Education, which was approved in March, 2009. Before being let go, Harper was placed on administrative leave for nearly two months while he was being investigated by the central office.

The school board cited failure to comply with board policy, neglect of duty, failure to fulfill his duties in a satisfactory manner and insubordination as the reasons for Harper’s termination.

Harper’s personnel file was submitted as evidence and showed that he had no previous written complaints on his record, though Allen said there had been some unofficial complaints.

All of the teachers and support personnel at Hanceville Elementary were interviewed by Allen and human resources director Ginger Hogeland as part of the central office’s investigation. The written answers to those interviews were submitted as evidence.

Some of the teacher’s statements about Harper included, “I don’t have respect for him,” “he has the potential but not the consistency,” and “he can’t separate his personal life from work.”

Teachers also noted that Harper was frequently on the telephone, unavailable to meet with them, unreliable and left school early at least four times during the 2008-2009 school year.

Harper’s attorney, Tim Culpepper, pointed out that though there were some negative comments given by teachers in the survey, more than half of the teachers at the school believed it to be a positive learning environment that promoted student learning.

Culpepper also said he believed some of the questions Allen asked the teachers were phrased in a negative way to invite a negative response.

One question used in the interview was “What situations have you witnessed that lacked professionalism and to what extent?”

Allen said he phrased the question in that manner to be specific.

“We were looking for the truth,” he said.

Another issue cited by the board for terminating Harper was improper use of school technology. Approximately a dozen messages sent on three different days were noted where Harper used his school e-mail program to send messages to his fiancee, a teacher at Harmony School.

In one e-mail, Harper told his fiancee, “Here is your first sweet e-mail of the day ... jelly, syrup, sugar, fruit juices and ME! That is the sweetest things I can think of.”

One of the last e-mails Harper sent read, “Be careful what you send me. I think they are monitoring my e-mail.”

“Those communications are inappropriate and have nothing to do with the job at hand,” Allen said. “The responsibility of a principal is to make sure the learning environment is what it should be.”

Culpepper noted that incidental use of e-mail for personal purposes is permissible under board policy.

“If it were just a couple of days of e-mailing it could be incidental,” he said.

Allen replied, “There is a fine line for everything but when you’re over it, you’re over it.”

The hard drive was also missing from Harper’s school-issued laptop, though he claims it was removed because it was damaged and he was attempting to repair it.

Low student test scores were another problem cited by the board for terminating Harper, though Culpepper pointed out that the scores in major tests, such as DIBELS, have improved during Harper’s years at Hanceville Elementary School.

He also said the fact that the school has the highest concentration of free and reduced lunch students also plays a part in the lower scores.

“There are some socio-economic concerns there,” Culpepper said. “The students may not have the opportunities or resources some other students might have.”

Allen said the scores have shown some improvement, just not enough.

“They’re going up, but still not meeting the county’s levels,” he said. “No matter what the free and reduced students, we still have to meet those levels.”

The school board also noted an instance reported by teachers where Harper said something “inappropriate.”

“Last Halloween we dressed up in costumes and Mr. Harper was in a costume as a cow,” fifth grade teacher Kim Brown said. “His daughter told him he looked like a ‘horny cow,’ and he told another teacher that while she was standing beside me ... she laughed.”

When asked if she could respect Harper if he were to return as principal at the school, Brown said she was “not comfortable” answering the question.

While none of the issues separately regarding Harper would likely warrant termination, Allen said when combined there is more than enough justification to fire Harper.

Since he was placed on administrative leave, Harper has been paid his regular salary of approximately $1,400 per week. He will continue to be paid until the matter is resolved.

For the remainder of the 2009 school year, Harper was replaced by former assistant principal LeeAnn Smith on an interim basis. Smith has since been appointed as the new principal at Hanceville Elementary School permanently.

• Trent Moore can be reached by e-mail at trentm@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 225.

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