CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has formally called upon the school board to tighten its mandated reporting policies and improve transparency with the public in the wake of recent scandals.

During a special meeting Thursday, the board unanimously passed a resolution that formally requested the school board, among other things, confirm that adequate protection is provided to safeguard mandated reporters, establish an anonymous whistle-blower reporting mechanism, develop and publicize a crisis-management plan, and have an independent audit to evaluate its FOIA compliance.

The board also formally sent the resolution to the Virginia Department of Education, and requested a review of Albemarle County Public Schools’ compliance with mandated-reporting laws and related regulations, as well as technical assistance, monitoring support or division-level review as deemed appropriate by the VDOE.

While acknowledging that the Board of Supervisors does not have direct control over the school board, the supervisors still maintained that it an obligation to represent the concerns of county citizens.

Chair and Rio representative Ned Gallaway told the media afterward that while the board’s authority is very limited in this situation, the supervisors do have “the ability to persuade and to ask and to strongly request of another legally elected body.”

“I think people have expected us at this point to be able to say something in public and use that persuasive ability to address the situation,” he said. “And that’s what we feel like we’re doing this evening.”

The special meeting was called a week after ACPS’s Deputy Chief Human Resources Officer Brodie Downs and Assistant School Division Counsel & Title IX Coordinator Erin Stone, as well as former Hollymead Elementary School Principal Joe McCauley, were all charged and arrested with three counts of failure to report a case of child abuse.

All three made their first appearances in court on Friday, 30 minutes before former Hollymead staffer Michael Swiney, who is facing felony charges of sex crimes against seven students, was freed on a $50,000 secured bond.

Swiney’s arrest on June 3 began a series of scandals that has continued to upend the division over the past four months. Just one week after the arrest was announced, superintendent Dr. Matthew Haas was asked to resign by the school board. Dr. Chandra Hayes is now Acting Superintendent for the 2026-27 school year.

In July, Assistant Superintendent for Strategic Planning Dr. Patrick McLaughlin was placed on administrative leave following accusations of sexual harassment made against him by Heidi Gilman Bennett, an outgoing officer with Albemarle County Public Schools Family Council.

The turmoil has even drawn the attention of Governor Abigail Spanberger, who’s comments on the division during a Friday visit to Glen Lea Elementary School in Henrico County were included in the resolution.

“From my vantage point as governor and certainly in coordination with our secretary of education and our state superintendent of schools, I think what we are focused is the failure of leadership that occurred in the particular county that would have allowed … a circumstance by which there are multiple people who took no action,” the included quote from Spanberger said.

In Gallaway’s view, as a former member and Chair of the School Board himself, the resolution puts “sunlight” on missteps the board has taken in recent months.

“At the end of the day, when an elected body is entrusted with oversight of what you’re elected to do, that’s a serious thing,” he said. “And I think that oversight, both the understanding of it and how it has played out, I think there are clear indications that has broken down.”

After reading the resolution, Gallaway said in his comments during the meeting it was “the most troubling resolution” he’s ever had to read as well as vote on in his 13 years as an elected official in Albemarle County.

“There’s not a single person that has served an elected body in Albemarle County’s history that does not support and want the best that’s possible for our children,” he said afterward. “And as I was reading it, it was just difficult, because you have to say, ‘Yeah, we’re in a crisis.’ And that’s a hard thing. That’s a hard thing to wrap my head around.”