FLEMING ISLAND – District 1 school board member Janice Kerekes is calling for an investigation in the wake of allegations of fraud made by a former Florida Teacher of the Year and friend of School Superintendent Charlie Van Zant Jr.

Former Keystone Heights High principal Susan Sailor told Clay Today that she wrote a scholarly paper for Superintendent Van Zant for a class he was taking in an online master’s degree in organizational leadership at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Van Zant graduated from the college’s school of business in December 2015, according to college spokesman Brennan Smith.

Sailor, named Clay County’s and Florida’s Teacher of the Year in 1996, outlined the allegations in an email to the full school board on Aug. 4. Since sending her email, Sailor’s district email account has been shut down. Clay Today has also submitted a public records request to obtain the full text of Sailor’s emails, but that request has not been fulfilled.

“I was shocked to hear of these accusations,” Kerekes said. “Dr. Sailor is one of the most well-respected educators in the State of Florida and a former Teacher of the Year for the state. That Superintendent Van Zant has instructed senior staff to literally do his homework and write research papers for him is appallingly unethical.”

Sailor said she wrote the paper titled “Clay County School District Employees’ Perceptions and Expectations of Communication Within the District” over a Memorial Day holiday in which she gave up time with her family. At that time in her 31-year career, Sailor was part of the district administrative staff where she was working under the title of “Principal on Assignment.”

“One of my assignments, in May of 2015, was to write a scholarly paper,” said Sailor, who holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from the University of Florida. “I was to survey the school district employees about the state of communication within the district. Then I was to compile the Survey Monkey results and write a scholarly paper for him and include citations and a work cited page and charts or graphs all in three days’ time.”

What she said she found in conducting the survey was a dysfunctional organization that had very little internal communication riddled with disrespect.

“I got a firsthand view of how dysfunctional the situation was,” Sailor said. There is a total lack of communication and respect for employees. I’ve been working as an educator for 31 years now and I’ve never been treated as poorly as I was at our district office.”

Sailor’s letter to the board also accused Van Zant of defrauding the U.S. Department of Education by falsely placing students in the Exceptional Student Education so they would not have to take the state’s new rigorous test required for earning a diploma. As an ESE student, students would receive a testing waver and be allowed to graduate. At the same time, the school district would receive more money per student from the federal government. Sailor said this fraudulent allegation is behind the reason Van Zant has been rigorously announcing for the past year that Clay County Schools have a higher graduation rate than the federal level.

“When students are labeled ESE they no longer count against our graduation rate and the district receives increased funding,” Kerekes said. “I believe that this was done in an effort to make it look like our graduation rate is higher than it really is. The truth is this tactic could potentially hurt these students in the long run.”

Sailor said she had to speak up about some of the things she witnessed while working at the district office after she learned the school district had received a “B” grade from the Florida Department of Education.

“It is a heavy burden to carry and when this year’s school grades were issued and our school district dropped to 20th in the state, I felt like I could no longer be quiet. That’s really what brought it up for me,” Sailor said Aug. 4 in a phone interview.

Sailor, who was also a finalist for Florida Principal of the Year and a gubernatorial appointee to the Southern Regional Education Board, said Van Zant moved her from Keystone Heights High to the district office in preparation for her to move into the position of assistant superintendent for curriculum, a position previously held by the current Deputy Superintendent Diane Kornegay. She said Van Zant and Kornegay first met with her in a conference room at M&S Bank to discuss the move to the Green Cove Springs office.

“In my eight months at the district office, two assignments were actually given to me by Mrs. Kornegay. I spent several weeks on these and when a meeting was called to discuss the projects, I learned that Dr. Weiskopf had been assigned to them before I got to the district office and they were done. So I wasted my time and saw firsthand that there was no communication within the instructional division,” Sailor wrote to board members.

Another factor playing into her decision to come forward, she said, was her concern that Van Zant gave no indication that he was going to change after a meeting she and her husband had with the superintendent. She said both she and her husband Joel Sailor donated to Van Zant’s campaign in the hope that he was going to listen and make appropriate changes she had requested. On Feb. 29, she and her husband made separate $500 donations to Van Zant’s re-election campaign.

Meanwhile, Kerekes has asked for the allegations to be addressed in the upcoming Aug. 18 school board meeting.

“These accusations are disheartening. Clay County expects better from its school leadership, to say the least.” Since sending her initial letter to the School Board, Dr. Sailor has reported she is now locked out of her school district email and can no longer access her data,” Kerekes said.

School Board Chairman Johnna McKinnon, who represents District 5, said she was aware of the allegations and would just have to see how things play out.

“Obviously, if there is something that has gone wrong, we will look into it. I’m not going to state my opinion on whether it’s right or wrong or whatever. We’ll just have to let it play and see what happens,” McKinnon said.

Calls to Van Zant were not returned by deadline.