Montgomery County school officials say it's too early to place blame based on results of the state's investigation into Standards of Learning irregularities at Eastern Montgomery High School.

And the man implicated in a report by the Virginia Department of Education remains on the job, pending an internal investigation.

The report says the school's principal removed 24 students who teachers believed would not pass their SOL subject exams from 39 classes between 2006 and 2008.

Nelson Simpkins, now the school system's director of secondary education, was the principal at the time. Principals do have the authority to change schedules if they can show extenuating circumstances, according to county policy, but the report shows that he failed to do so.

Simpkins is referring all questions on the report to interim Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Walt Shannon and has yet to share his rationale. Investigators found no violations during the 2008-09 academic year, the year Simpkins was promoted to the central office.

For now, Simpkins remains at work. Shannon and the school board's chairman said they see no need for suspension and that they have faith in Simpkins, who has more than 30 years of experience. It wouldn't be fair to assign guilt until complete details emerge, they said.

"I know Mr. Simpkins and I know that he has the best interest of the school system and the best interest of students as his best interest," Chairman Wendell Jones said Thursday.

In a closed session Tuesday, Shannon gave school board members a copy and a summary of the report, but Jones said Thursday that he had not had time to read the entire eight-page document.

Shannon said the school division will conduct its own review, including the motivation to remove students.

As part of the review, Shannon said school personnel would have to comb student records to see what happened after their removals.

For now, Shannon said that a "check and balance" would be put in place and that all testing at the middle and high school levels would be directly handled by him.

Teachers told investigators that the principal would ask at midterm if students would be able to pass their SOL exams. If the answer was no, they would sometimes be moved with parent, teacher and student input.

"I think that's a valid question," Shannon said.

He said it's one asked at all schools for the sake of students. He stopped short of saying it was used properly in all instances at Eastern Montgomery.

Still, comparing the Eastern Montgomery report to events at William Fleming High School is unfair because few people there knew about the schedule switches, he said. A similar report showed schedule manipulation among students at the Roanoke school. The school's principal, Susan Willis, is in an ongoing hearing over her job.

In Montgomery County's case, parents, and possibly central office staff and former Superintendent Tiffany Anderson, knew about the switches, according to the report.

"Everyone shares responsibility for what happens in the school system," Jones said. "I don't think that anybody involved in this had any malicious intent."

Anderson could not be reached for comment at her new position in Missouri. Shannon said he has not discussed the matter with her, but that she did know about the state's investigation.

The state's report says that the school division has 30 days from Tuesday to submit a "corrective action plan" and that department officials would oversee testing at the school this year.