North Elementary: Report on Campbell's desk, vice principal takes early retirement
Apr. 3—A report regarding particulars of a January incident that led to sanctions against the principal and vice principal at North Elementary School is now on Eddie Campbell Jr.'s desk.
However, the Monongalia Schools superintendent said Monday afternoon, that document doesn't necessarily mean the final word on the matter.
"We're going to need to do follow-ups with employees who might still be involved in the investigation, " Campbell said.
The district's central office got going quick on that investigation, but it was still after the act, according to the timeline.
That was because central office wasn't informed until days after — according to that same narrative.
Adam Henkins, the district's director of school safety, took a call Feb. 7 alleging an assault in a classroom at North, which houses five students on the autism spectrum.
The incident, the caller said, happened in late January.
Henkins, in his professional capacity, rang up MECCA 911 to report the "abuse of child, " he said in the one-minute exchange with a dispatcher.
His second call, as per protocol, was to Child Protective Services.
Meanwhile, the mother of one of those children in that classroom told the district her son, who is 8, grew increasingly fearful, sleepless and agitated in that same time frame and didn't want to go to school.
Something was wrong, she said, and he wasn't able to tell her.
In the days following the initial call, the district placed a substitute teacher and two aides in that classroom on administrative leave — along with Natalie Webb and Carol Muniz, North's principal and vice principal, respectively.
The aides have since returned to school. The substitute's contract with the district wasn't renewed.
While Webb remains on administrative leave, Muniz, who last fall had announced she was retiring at the end of this school year, asked last week to step down early.
Retirement was effective this past Friday for Muniz, a physical science teacher and technology specialist who garnered state and national accolades for her classroom work before moving to administration.
Muniz began her career in 2003 as a technology integration facilitator and trainer at the Edventure Group in Morgantown, according to her LinkedIn page.
In 2011, that page further notes, she was bestowed a $10, 000 educational enrichment grant sponsored by Toyota and administered through National Science Teachers Association.
She was also recognized as an a honorable mention nominee in a Teacher of the Year competition by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, as chronicled on her page.
Muniz didn't immediately return messages in time for this report.
Campbell said he discussed the investigation with her and said her name will still be reflected the additional reports the district will have to file with the state Department of Education and Child Protective Services.
"It was a matter of her not wanting to come back, " Campbell said of the request, which received a sign-off by Board of Education members.
The BOE, Campbell added, will have the final call on any other punishments that could come down — if any, he said — including additional terminations of contract.
In February the district retained the services of Charleston attorney Heather L. Hutchens, a former general counsel for the state Department of Education, to compile that report now on Campbell's desk.
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