Morale, discipline at Poe Middle School plummet since principal's arrest

Since former Poe Middle School Principal Sonya Swansbrough was arrested for embezzlement in November, school staff and parents report morale at the school has plummeted, student behavior has gotten worse, and there’s been a lack of effective communication from Fairfax County Public Schoolsofficials.  

“My son’s teachers have felt pummeled, demoralized, beaten, and then spit out, first, by the actions of its principal, and second by the lack of action of the administration,” said one parent. “As for the parents, I feel we have been lied to, abandoned, and forsaken by the administration. And nothing has been done to remedy the situation.”

More than half the teachers at the Annandale school are trying to transfer to other schools or retire from teaching, people in the Poe community say, and parents are concerned that students are missing out on field trips because of the embezzled funds.

Swansbrough, her son Brent Rusnak, and former Poe financial officer Bethany Speed were charged with money laundering after an investigation by police revealed at least $100,000 was reportedly taken from the school’s funds, starting about four years ago.

Swansbrough’s trial is slated to start May 19. She’s been on administrative leave without pay since the arrest. If she is found innocent, she is guaranteed a job in the FCPS central office.

Principal selection delay

People in the Poe community question why it’s taking so long for the FCPS administration to begin the process of selecting a new principal. There was only one email sent to parents after the arrest, and students were never given an official explanation. One parent didn’t know how to respond when her child asked, “why is my principal on the news?”

Another parent noted that Douglas Tyson, the FCPS assistant superintendent for Cluster 3, didn’t meet with parents until March, four months after Swansbrough was arrested. Meanwhile, another parent said, there’s a climate of “pettiness, in-house fighting, and lots of rumors going around.”

Tyson told the Annandale Blog a letter outlining the timeline for the principal selection process will be distributed no later than April 29 and that he and members of the FCPS human resources staff will be at meetings for staff and parents at Poe May 5 to explain the selection process.

“Parents and staff members will be enthusiastically encouraged to volunteer to participate in the interviewing process of the selected candidates,” Tyson said. The interviews will be conducted on May 29. “Our goal continues to be for the new principal to be in place prior to the conclusion of this academic year.”

Parents praised Mason school board member Sandy Evans for being a good listener but expressed doubts about how much she can do with regard to what is essentially an administrative matter. “Obviously we could have communicated better,” Evans acknowledged.

Another parent complained that principal vacancies at other schools that happened more recently are getting a higher priority. For example, the principal at Frost Middle School retired in April, that the selection process to find a new principal is already under way.

Tyson told the Annandale Blog he has “no knowledge of anyone being put ahead of anyone else.” In an email to a parent, he wrote, “the delay has been centered around a tangible desire to implement a process to attract the best candidates for a school that is extraordinarily deserving.” He dismissed the parent’s concern that the demographics of Poe—it serves a large population of lower-income, immigrant students—had anything to do with the delay.

“We’re in a situation where people are considered innocent until proven guilty,” and that has added some complexity to the matter, Evans said. Now that a court date has been set, the selection process can move forward, she said.

Evans denied rumors that Colleen Noone, who served briefly as acting principal, is a shoe-in for the job, noting, “the process hasn’t even started yet.” The current interim principal is Glynn Bates.

Noone, the seventh-grade administrator, reportedly resigned as acting principal because she plans to apply for the position of permanent principal. If she gets the job, more teachers will head for the door, Poe employees said. They characterize Noone as “highly confrontational,” a “micromanager,” and “extremely difficult to work with.”

The recent turmoil and drama at Poe has taken a toll on students in the form of more discipline problems, including sexual harassment and sexting, according to staff members, who added that Poe students involved with the MS-13 gang have been caught trying to recruit young kids at Braddock Elementary School. 

There have also been an increasing number of “California knockout” incidents where a student comes from behind and chokes another student while holding their feet off the floor.

Regarding the $16,000 in field trip funds that was reportedly embezzled by Swansbrough and Speed, one parent said, “I feel like my son has been cheated out of many opportunities at Poe because the school’s money was stolen.” A Poe staff member told her school accounts have been frozen and can’t be accessed.

Tyson acknowledged that one sixth-grade trip was affected due to lack of funds. He worked with Bates “to eliminate that gap,” he said, “and I am confident that the planning for that trip is underway. I have no knowledge that any previously scheduled field trips have been cancelled because of funding gaps.”

The confusion apparently stems from an email from a Poe administrator stating that the field trip money was gone. But Bates later denied that the money was missing and indicated it had been found. That prompted students to circulate photos of dislodged ceiling tiles showing the possible hiding place.

Although Swansbrough was well-liked and had a good reputation among parents, she had a “completely different persona” among people who worked with her. One employee called her “very manipulative” and said she inspired “instant distrust” among subordinates.

The details of the alleged embezzlement—and why the defendants thought they could get away with it—aren’t clear, but it appears investigators discovered falsified time sheets.

Swansbrough’s son, Brent Rusnak, was on the Poe payroll, but few employees saw him doing much work there. At the time, he was a student at Radford University and was supposed to be working remotely on scheduling for Poe staff.

During the investigation, police found computers, iPads, and other school property at Speed’s house that had been reported as stolen, as well as school files.

People close to the school question why FCPS allowed Speed to work as a financial officer when she was reportedly $250,000 in debt and had filed for bankruptcy in 2012. At the time of the arrest, Speed had transferred to an administrative position at JEB Stuart High School.

People who worked at Poe said, when they asked questions about what appeared to be financial irregularities, they were told to trust Speed and let staff do their jobs.