Montgomery County's interim superintendent recommends that no disciplinary action be taken against any employee now that the school system's investigation into Standards of Learning irregularities at Eastern Montgomery High School is complete.

On Wednesday, Walt Shannon released his report to the Montgomery County School Board, which summarized a consultant's investigation into the matter. The report lists recommendations such as policy revisions, training and better record-keeping instead of placing blame on the school's former principal, Nelson Simpkins, who is now the county's director of secondary education.

According to a Virginia Department of Education report released in September, Simpkins removed 24 students who teachers believed would not pass their SOL subject exams from 39 classes between 2006 and 2008. In some cases, students were dropped or placed in independent study courses outside of the typical add/drop period.

Simpkins asked teachers midsemester about certain students' ability to pass the exams, and then the decision would be made to move them, according to the state. Eleven of those students had Individual Education Plans, which denotes they were in special education.

Those accusations are similar to those made against former William Fleming High School Principal Susan Willis. She was fired last week for her role in changing course schedules for students with disabilities to remove them from classes with end-of-class SOL exams, often without parent approval as federal law requires. The students remained in their original courses even though they were no longer officially enrolled in them.

Shannon has said Eastern Montgomery's situation is different, in part because the actions would have no effect on the school's accreditation status. This week, the Virginia Board of Education awarded William Fleming full accreditation even after taking into account failing scores from students who weren't tested because of irregularities.

Parents of Eastern Montgomery's students were notified, and the decisions were made with the "total child" in mind. That's the main reason disciplinary action is not warranted, Shannon said.

"SOLs were a factor, but they weren't the only factor," he said.

At times, the decision was an effort to "avoid having a student drop out of school because they're not doing well in the course," and those decision will continue, Shannon said.

However, Shannon did acknowledge that county policy was broken.

Because of that, he recommends school system administrators not give as much discretion to principals and that the county's add/drop regulations be revised to include VDOE and SOL testing requirements. In addition, he recommends that a detailed list of changes made to each middle and high school student's schedule be compiled each grading period, and he wants to ensure all courses are adequately described and count toward a diploma or SOL credit. Some of the independent study courses that students were moved to did not.

Extra training for staff has already started. In some cases, Simpkins will lead those trainings "because it's his job," Shannon said.

In a written statement, Simpkins labeled the SOL irregularities as a "misunderstanding" and said all decisions were made in the best interests of the 24 students and in line with policy.

Shannon hired Harold Fitrer to conduct the independent investigation. Fitrer also is the executive director of a nonprofit called Communities In Schools of Richmond and a former assistant superintendent in Richmond.

Fitrer, who said he has worked with Montgomery County in the past, will be paid $2,500 as agreed in an oral contract for his two months of work.

Shannon would not release Fitrer's report, saying it was a personnel matter.