Dateline: December 14, 2006

HISD investigating allegations

A called meeting of the Hedley school board left some citizens unsatisfied Monday night, and they made their feelings known to officials afterward.

At issue is an ongoing investigation involving Hedley Superintendent Bryan Hill and an allegation of misusing a school computer.

The board first met in an emergency meeting December 1 when the allegations came to light and called in the Region 16 Education Service Center of Amarillo to conduct an investigation. The results of that investigation were given to the board in closed session December 5.

The board unanimously voted Monday to continue the investigation after a 45-minute closed session during which they conferred with an attorney for the district.

“We have investigated the allegations to an extent,” board president Cary Don Neeley said when the board reconvened in open session, “and we feel in fairness to Mr. Hill, the school, and the community, there are a couple of other steps we can take.”

Neeley also told the crowd of about 20 people that the board was not at liberty to discuss the steps it was going to take and assured that the results of the investigation would be revealed in a future public meeting.

“We are not computer experts, and there are people in the computer field that can help us,” he said. “We’d like to put this to rest, but we can’t tonight.”

In speaking with the press after the meeting, Neeley told the Enterprise that there is no timeline for the investigation and that it does center on computer usage and the superintendent but that no law has been broken.

As members of the local and Amarillo media readied to leave, two parents – Sandra Shields and Connie Wheatly – confronted Neeley and expressed their anger about not being able to speak at the meeting and the time the investigation is taking. They also wanted to know why Neeley was in Hill’s office prior to the December 1 meeting with no other board members.

“We would have to have had a posted agenda to have the board there,” Neeley said. “We looked at it (the computer), said this is here, and called the meeting.”

Board member Brannon Stephens then said these questions were all coming too early to be answered and that the board needed to complete its investigation.

“We’re tired of the rumors,” Stephens said, “and we’re trying to find out what happened.”

Former board member Bob White, whose wife works at the school, then confronted Neeley again about his presence in Hill’s office.

“What were you doing here on Thursday (November 30)?” White asked.

“He (Hill) wanted me to come in and look at the stuff on his computer,” Neeley replied.

White then said he had previously asked Neeley if an investigation had been conducted prior to Region 16 coming in and had been told no. Neeley said he was not conducting an investigation and that he was there to “preserve evidence.”

White then said maybe his original question should have been whether Neeley had looked at Hill’s computer prior to the December 1 meeting.

“If you had asked that question, then the answer would have been ‘yes,’” Neeley said.

“Then I think that was inappropriate,” White said.

“It possibly was, and I probably wouldn’t do it again,” Neeley said and later “officially apologized” to White.

Stephens and board member Abby O’Neal then said the whole incident could have been handled better if the board had received an official complaint rather than finding out about the allegations through the rumor mill. Now they have to have an investigation into what really happened, they said.

The board will hold its next regular meeting Monday at 7 p.m. Neeley did not know if the investigation would be a topic on that agenda.