The Virginia Department of Education has implicated a former principal in its investigation of Standards of Learning irregularities at Eastern Montgomery High School.

Nelson Simpkins is now the school system's supervisor of secondary education, but he was the principal at the school until last year. Simpkins declined to comment, referring questions to Interim Superintendent Walt Shannon..

A report released to the media 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 courses or the SOL exam attached to them.

In the 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years, 24 students were excluded from 39 SOL courses, according to the report.

The report comes as a grievance hearing resumes today for Susan Willis, principal at William Fleming High School. A separate report about alleged schedule manipulation at that school pointed to Willis as the ringleader and now she's refuting the report.

That report may have led to other tips to the Department of Education.

In July, the state spent two days interviewing staff at Eastern Montgomery after it received e-mail reports and phone calls that students who were potentially at risk of failing SOL tests were removed from required testing courses in those years.

The report released to the media does not include Simpkins' name, but he was principal at the high school before taking a job with the central office last year.

Administrators and counselors at the school told investigators the principal would give teachers a student roster by demographic grouping at midsemester and ask them, among other things, if the student would pass their SOL exams.

In some cases, the student's schedule was changed with input from staff, student, parents and teacher, the report said. Often students were placed in an "independent or self-guided" study.

The former principal did not offer an explanation to investigators, the report said.

It's unclear just who knew about the switches. According to the report, Simpkins said "the central office and superintendent" knew about the schedule changes.

State regulations say that all students should be tested, and it's 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 a failing grade. Levels of a course -- from Algebra II to Algebra I for example -- can be changed within three weeks, under the policy.

The school's principal ultimately can grant exception to the policy "in the cases of extenuating circumstances," the policy states. The report said the school's former principal "did not follow the [county's] policy regarding dropping courses in a Four-by-Four Block schedule."

Department investigators found that of the 39 cases, 38 did not have proof of extenuating circumstances. Also, most were not given a "WF" grade.

Student transcripts and schedule data did show that in 35 of the 39 cases, students actually stayed in the same classroom, with the same teacher, but they were enrolled in a different course title. In some cases, those course codes were not listed with the Department of Education.

Shannon said the division received the report Tuesday and that the district will now begin its own review. He could not say how long that would take.

However, Shannon said he's not dismissing the report and that it is a concern. He said he and staff will review all high school testing schedules to ensure accuracy.

He also said that he did not know whether Simpkins would undergo disciplinary action.

The report indicates the division has 30 days to submit a "corrective action plan" and that the current administration at the school will be monitored this year.

Shannon said what's left out of the report opens the possibility that the students actually were tested or that special circumstances existed that just weren't documented.

"In all circumstances that [removing them] may have not have been a bad thing," he said.

"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."