Lawyers for county school board question ex-principal’s record

Augusta County Schools charge that a district administrator cost himself two jobs he sought because he was difficult to manage, failed to lead and struggled to control students and staff, resulting in a string of high-profile incidents that drew negative local and national media scrutiny.

The claims are made in more than 150 pages of documents filed in U.S. District Court in Harrisonburg in response to former Fort Defiance High School Principal Paul E. “Chip” Hill’s age discrimination lawsuit.

Five times in a 24-page motion the district refers to Hill’s management style at Fort Defiance as “my way or the highway,” leading to clashes with Superintendent Gary McQuain and parents. “McQuain had continual concerns with [Hill’s] ‘my way or the highway’ approach to leadership as well as his inability to follow or accept instruction from Dr. McQuain’s office,” the motion says.

As a result, the district transferred Hill before the 2006-07 school year to an administrative post as director of truancy and alternative education and passed him over for positions as assistant superintendent for operations and principal at Wilson Memorial High School, the motion says. Hill kept the same pay but did not get the 6.25 percent pay increase other employees received that school year, according to court documents.

Hill, who was 51 when he filed the suit last summer, declined to comment Tuesday. In a deposition, he defends his conduct and charges that his relationship with McQuain became increasingly antagonistic and that the superintendent saw him as a “professional threat.”

“It is our belief that Chip was discriminated against on the basis of age,” said Hill’s attorney, Douglas Noland, who pledged he will soon file a response to the district motion.

What that document calls “a crisis in the School Board’s confidence in [Hill’s] ability to effectively manage and perform in a building administrator position” culminated in the 2005-06 school year, one the district says Hill told officials and a reporter was “the worst year of his career.” That reference is repeated almost a half-dozen times in the motion.

Two incidents captured headlines in Hill’s final year at Fort, the most infamous one in which a student defecated in a Styrofoam bowl and sent the vessel into the kitchen on a conveyor belt. That, according to the motion, led to a walkout by cafeteria workers after one was fired for intervening in an altercation between her son and a student involved in what The News Virginian referred to in a headline as the “poop prank.” Six students were suspended or expelled.

“This was another example of a lack of supervision at Fort Defiance resulting in serious consequences,” the motion states. “... Subsequently, due to dismissals, resignations and transfers, most of the kitchen staff had to be replaced quickly.”

When Sandy Neff, the district’s school nutritional program supervisor, stepped in to hire new staff, she found “deplorable conditions [in] the cafeteria and kitchen,” the motion said. “... Substantial oversight and intervention by ... Neff was necessary to bring the kitchen and cafeteria into compliance with Department of Health standards.”

That school year began with a flap in the fall over a student passing out religious fliers, leading to a confrontation in the cafeteria between the student and a schoolmate. The motion acknowledges that Hill was on medical leave at the time but blames him for failing in “his responsibility as principal either directly or indirectly or by delegation to provide adequate supervision of student activities.”

Parents complained after Hill’s return to work that his “demeanor was ‘inappropriate and unprofessional,’ ” the motion says.

Other incidents that school year drew school officials’ attention, according to the motion. Students set fire to a plastic toilet paper holder in a bathroom in November. A soccer coach alerted Hill in the spring to concerns over players possibly smoking marijuana, but the administrator failed to follow through with immediate drug tests, the motion claims.

In addition, the motion charges that Hill announced that a school grading policy would be changed without getting the required approval for the move from the school board, twice failed to keep the school’s General Account in balance and failed to form a review system to police showings of videos in class, allowing students to view such films as “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” and “The Longest Yard.”

Hill claims in his lawsuit that he was passed over for district advancement five times and was only awarded the Fort position “after the specific involvement of a school board member.” Hill wants back pay, future earnings, a pension adjustment and a court order requiring his employment as principal or assistant superintendent upon the next opening.

In February, a federal judge dismissed part of Hill’s suit, but allowed the Age Discrimination and Employment Act claim to continue. Hill was interviewed for a deposition May 5, before the motion last week for summary judgment.

The motion argues Hill offered “nothing other than ... self-serving opinions” about his job performance and unsupported speculation about the qualifications of candidates who landed the jobs he sought. The motion also provides a list of district hirings of principals and assistant superintendents since 1997. The average ages of candidates who landed the jobs were 45 and 47, respectively, the motion says. Hill was 44 during the interview process, according to the motion.

Hill has been employed at Augusta County Schools since 1979, except for a four-year military tour in the 1980s.