Ashley Hunter - Greene Publishing, Inc.
After one of the former teachers from the Madison County Excel Alternative School brought some fairly hefty accusations to the attentions of the Madison County School Board and the Florida Inspector General for the Department of Education, the school has been cleared.
Eugene Hall, a former social studies teacher at the Excel School, accused the school, particularly Principal Jada Woods Williams of requiring teachers to push students to take tests, rather than teach them. Hall also attested that students were allowed to sleep through class undisturbed, that other staff members were disruptive in class or used foul language in the presence of the students, students were allowed to handle school lunches without proper oversight and unchecked disrespect was rampant.
The Madison County School Board launched an investigation into some of the accusations posed by Hall, and the completion of the probe revealed many, if not all, the accusations were unfounded.
Melanie Calhoun, another former Excel School teacher was undoubtably not surprised at the results.
According to Calhoun, the issues that Hall saw in his Excel School students were caused by his own behavior around them. “He chose to make his classroom relaxed. He was afraid of his students,” said Calhoun. “They did not respect him; he created that and it was his fault. Mr. Hall did this to himself.”
Calhoun further interjected that while many of Eugene Hall's accusations were false, some of the aspects, such as the behavior of Hall's paraprofessional, were true. Many of the students at Excel School have behavior problems and, according to Calhoun, Hall simply was not capable of handling them.
“His comments are baseless and, in my opinion, slanderous,” said Calhoun.
The Madison County School Board sent an investigations report to the Florida Department of Education on Wednesday, Oct. 12 and the report was approved on Friday, Oct. 21, which marked the end of the investigation.
“As far as we are concerned, the investigation is complete,” said Superintendent of Schools Doug Brown. “No further action is required.”