Former principal accuses Clay County superintendent of fraud, plagiarism

CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — A Clay County school board member is calling for an investigation into Superintendent Charlie Van Zant after accusations of illegal and unethical behavior.

A former high school principal accused Van Zant of cheating on his master’s degree homework and defrauding the Department of Education to inflate graduation rates.

District 1 school board member Janice Kerekes has added a discussion of the accusations as an action item on the school board’s agenda for its next meeting on Aug. 18.

Members of the Clay County School Board received a letter Thursday morning from former Keystone Heights High School Principal Dr. Susan Sailor, accusing Van Zant of knowing several of his high school principals falsely labeled struggling students as having a learning disability to inflate high school graduation rates and minority graduation rates.

Students labeled as ESE, or exceptional student education, do not count against districts’ graduation rates.

Kerekes said that means that the district receives more funding.

She said such falsification could be both a state and a federal offense.

Sailor’s email to the school board said the Clay County Education Association has emails from guidance counselors that prove her claim.

CCEA President Renna Lee Paiva said that’s not true.

“I do not have any emails that say that. I would be absolutely – I am alarmed by this, what Dr. Sailor says. I’m not totally surprised, but absolutely alarmed,” said Paiva.

Sailor’s letter also accused Van Zant of instructing her and another district employee to write research papers that he submitted as homework for his online master’s degree from Regent University.

“We would never accept that from our children. If our students plagiarized a paper, they would get an F and they would be reprimanded,” said Kerekes.

A Regent University spokesperson tells Action News Jax that federal law prevents her from confirming whether Van Zant plagiarized his homework.

“Dr. Sailor told me that when Mr. Van Zant came to her and asked her to do this paper, with him he brought a sample research paper for her to use as a guide and four textbooks from Regent University,” said Kerekes.

Since Sailor sent her letter on Thursday, she said she has been locked out of her school district email account.

She said this is making it difficult to do her job as a high school English teacher for Clay Virtual Academy, where she begins teaching classes next week.

“I believe that that’s an intimidation tactic,” said Kerekes.

Sailor has been a school district employee for 23 years and was awarded Florida Teacher of the Year in 1996.

She said in her email, Van Zant moved her from her position as principal of Keystone Heights High School last year after she was diagnosed with secondary post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. She said those conditions were the result of two KHHS students committing suicide.

Action News Jax left Charlie Van Zant two voicemails, emailed him, emailed his assistant, and called and emailed the school district communications director.

The school district responded with the following statement:

"District administration has obtained a copy of the email sent from a district employee to school board members dated August 4th. Administration categorically denies the statements contained within. In light of the fact that we are in the midst of political season, the timing of the email is both questionable and unfortunate."

We have not heard back from Van Zant himself. Van Zant's father tells us he left town Thursday night.

However, Van Zant issued a video response on his campaign page. In the video, Van Zant said of his opponent, Addison Davis, "The timing of this was so very intentional. Several sources have indicated that Mr. Davis may have possibly offered a high-level position to this employee so they would say these completely untrue statements."

(WATCH VAN ZANT'S FULL RESPONSE IN THE VIDEO BELOW)

Van Zant is up for reelection. Sailor sent her letter weeks before this month’s primary.

“I don’t know if that has anything to do with why Dr. Sailor came forward,” said Kerekes.

These accusations come two days after Action News Jax reported that the superintendent's parents paid up nearly $9,000 after the Bradford County Property Appraiser accused them of falsifying a homestead tax exemption for eight years.

State Rep. Charles Van Zant’s term is coming to an end and his wife Katherine Van Zant is running to take over his seat. She faces off against two other Republicans in this month’s primary.

Katherine Van Zant said they’re appealing the property appraiser’s evaluation.

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