CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — Albemarle County Superintendent Dr. Matthew Haas is expected to resign at the behest of the School Board, a source told to Cville Right Now.

The board asked Haas to resign in the wake of the arrest of former Hollymead staffer Michael Swiney, a request the board made public during its meeting Thursday.

Details of Haas’s departure were still being finalized Thursday.

Chair Rebecca Berlin said an interim will be announced in the next few days.

The announcement came following a meeting that featured a surprisingly brief public portion. The board suspended its scheduled business in favor of a second closed session following the public comment.

“We feel like we must have a conversation about Hollymead tonight,” Berlin said, after apologizing for the change in the agenda.

Swiney, a social emotional learning coach at Hollymead, was arrested last week and charged with 11 felony counts for sex crimes against children stemming from incidents while working at the school.

Haas has served as Superintendent since 2018. His contract was set to expire in June 2028. He was granted a one-year extension last June.

Haas’s exit was requested one day after a tense public meeting was held at Hollymead, during which many parents expressed their frustration, at times even anger, toward Haas, as well as Hollymead Principal Joe McCauley, and the ACPS division as a whole.

The anger toward Haas centered on a perceived lack of communication from him, his inability to answer specific questions regarding Swiney and a lack of a concrete plan on how to move forward. Haas, at one point, reiterated that parents can email him, with many responding that he would not reply, and that some had tried to email him multiple times over the course of years.

“Well, email me. Email me and find out,” he replied.

Toward the ending of the meeting, one parent drew a distinction between Haas’ comments and the Hollymead teachers in attendance, a few of whom took the opportunity to publicly apologize for any part they played in inadvertently putting children in harm’s way.

“Dr. Haas, I just want to say that these teachers were a masterclass in taking accountability, and that you need to learn from them,” one parent said during the public comments, drawing applause.

Following Wednesday’s meeting, Haas sent an email to ACPS families on Thursday before the school board meeting, highlighting the specific actions ACPS will be taking following the meeting, and thanking those who attended.

“I feel the anger, frustration, and heartbreak that you all shared,” he wrote in the email, “and I am committed to taking the necessary steps to address the shortcomings in the system that these allegations and our response have brought to light. I am grateful for the opportunity to listen to your feedback.

“Moving forward, I will focus my energy and direct our team of dedicated public servants here in ACPS to implement solutions.”

Hollymead parents and teachers were in attendance once again at Thursday’s school board meeting, wearing the school’s colors of green and gold.

“I think that the act of community shows that we are all standing together,” Hollymead parent Stacie Raab told Cville Right Now. “I am not entirely sure if my child was ever in Mr. Swiney’s presence, but I wholeheartedly support all the parents whose kids were.”

Hollymead community members said they were hoping to be seen and heard at Thursday night’s meeting, with many taking the opportunity to further voice their frustrations during public comment.

“It seems almost like they’re just trying to ignore us until it goes away, maybe just to minimize damage,” parent Christopher Williams told Cville Right Now. “But the damage has already been done, and we’re not gonna sit back and just let it ride.”

Hollymead third grade teacher and parent Claire Neill was one of many teachers apart of the group. She told Cville Right Now the staff is struggling, saying Swiney was a colleague and friend, one who she thought had a “great knowledge about how to support kids with behavioral struggles.”

“This sort of gut punch, when I read the indictment, when I read the charges, when I have read the news, sits with me that there were children that I couldn’t keep safe, even though I desperately, desperately work to every day,” she said.

McCauley said at Wednesday’s meeting his first priority was to “take this staff and get them through this.”

“There’s no way getting past it. There’s no way getting done with it,” he said. “We have to go through a journey of dealing with the trauma that this possibly happened, and help these people repair and heal, so that we can bring their best to your kids when we come back in the fall.”

Upon his arrival at Thursday’s meeting, McCauley sat in the row in front of the group, and was seen chatting with parents and teachers before the start of the meeting. During public comment, he joined the group in standing in solidarity with speakers addressing the Swiney arrest.

The lone item of business done openly before the public comment was the approval of three new principals — David Foreman at Stone Robinson Elementary, John Wheeler at Baker-Butler Elementary and Christa Livermon at Stony Point.