Perry district cuts ties with two educators
PERRY — School board members voted unanimously Monday night to accept the resignations of a principal and a teacher accused of failing to report molestation accusations.
The board, which met for 30 minutes behind closed doors, also approved resignation agreements with Upper Elementary School Principal Kenda Miller and math teacher Jeffrey Sullins, effective June 30.
Miller and Sullins are facing misdemeanor charges. Both had been suspended without pay.
Arnold Cowen, 86, is accused of molesting multiple girls at the school.
Board members declined to comment following the 5-0 vote. Some parents cheered the decision.
One parent asked the board, “What about Chenoweth? He was referring to Perry Public Schools Superintendent Scott Chenoweth, who was suspended by the school board without explanation on Feb. 13, but continues to draw a monthly salary of $8,800.
Chenoweth has not been charged with a crime.
The school district is also paying an interim superintendent $8,800 per month.
Perry Public Schools stopped paying Miller and Sullins on Feb. 23, the same day the state Board of Education suspended their teaching certificates.
Sullins will remain on unpaid administrative leave unless the state reinstates his certificate before June 30, his resignation agreement states.
Either way, Sullins will be paid a lump sum of $1,000.
Miller subsequently sued the state board for suspending her certificate. She complained in a lawsuit filed in Oklahoma County District Court that the board wrongly sanctioned her by issuing an emergency order.
Miller, according to her resignation agreement, will be placed immediately on paid leave at a “compromised pay amount” of approximately $13,000, which will be made in three monthly payments.
Miller, 51, is charged in Noble County District Court with one misdemeanor count of failure to promptly report child abuse or neglect while Sullins, 51, is charged with two misdemeanor counts.
Oklahoma City attorney Cameron Spradling is representing the parents of several girls in the case. Spradling criticized the local board for not cutting ties with Miller and Sullins sooner.
“These little girls were called frauds and liars but they have been vindicated through the efforts of the Perry moms,” he said. “These resignations are a victory for these little girls.”
Cowen, a former volunteer teacher’s aide at Upper Elementary, is accused of inappropriately touching 10 girls ranging in age from 10 to 13.
Cowen is charged in Noble County District Court with 18 felony counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, two felony counts of lewd or indecent proposals and one felony count of possession of child pornography.
Cowen told a police investigator he “fondled” and “molested” female students in math class and in the hallways of the school, an affidavit states.