The Virginia Department of Education has implicated Nelson Simpkins, Montgomery County’s supervisor of secondary education, in its investigation of Standards of Learning irregularities at Eastern Montgomery High School.

A report released to the media on Wednesday said that students were dropped from courses late in the semester once it was established that they wouldn’t be able to pass the course or the SOL exam attached to it. It said the school’s former principal "did not follow the MCPS policy regarding dropping courses in a Four-by-Four Block schedule."

State regulations say that all students should be tested, and its the cornerstone of federal testing legislation, No Child Left Behind.

Virginia school divisions do have the authority to create their own policies regarding changing schedules.

Montgomery County policy says that a student who drops a course after being enrolled for five days should receive a grade of "WF," which is the equivalent of an F. However, the school’s principal can grant exception to the policy "in the cases of extenuating circumstances."

In July, the state spent two days interviewing staff at the school after it received a report that students who were potentially at risk of failing SOL tests were removed from courses that required testing during the 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years.

The report released to the media does not includes Simpkins’ name, but he was principal at the high school in the 2006-07 academic year. Simpkins is working today, but he has not returned messages left with him.

Interim Superintendent Walt Shannon said he did not know if any disciplinary action would be taken against Simpkins.

He said the school system received the report Tuesday and that the district will now begin its own review.

He could not say how long that would take.

"It [the report] doesn’t address any other actions that may have been taken to assist the students or if the students actually took that particular SOL test," Shannon said.