WARRENTON — Warrior Academy Principal Mindy Little has been dismissed from her role with the district following investigations into alleged misconduct, including falsifying grades.

Little has been a full-time employee with the Warrenton-Hammond School District since 2010, and began serving as principal of Warrior Academy — the district’s alternative school — in 2022. In an open hearing held at her request by the school board Feb. 24, she denied the allegations brought against her, arguing that she was a target of retaliation for standing up to troubling behavior by district staff.

At the meeting, Superintendent Tom Rogozinski presented a formal recommendation to the board to dismiss Little, citing three independent investigations into reports filed against her during the 2023-24 school year.

Outside investigations

During her time with the district, Little received high praise for her work as an educator, including a teacher of the year award. In her first year overseeing Warrior Academy, which offers an online learning option for students who face barriers to graduation, Little helped 10 students earn their diplomas and received exemplary marks on her end-of-year evaluation, with feedback describing her as “effective,” “proactive,” “flexible” and “responsive,” she told board members.

“I poured my heart and soul into this district, and most importantly, my students, going above and beyond to make sure they always knew someone was in their corner,” Little said at the hearing. “They weren’t perfect. None of us are. But they knew I would never give up on them.”

But beginning in November 2023, Little became the subject of three complaints by district staff.

The district initially received a complaint against Little from a teacher claiming she had crossed professional boundaries in a way that negatively affected the school environment, Rogozinski told the board. Shortly thereafter, an administrator filed a separate report claiming she had conflated personal and professional interests and alleging harassment of an administrator who had disciplined her children.

An outside investigation into the complaints concluded in March 2024. Rogozinski said the investigation substantiated claims that Little had violated professional boundaries by intervening in matters involving her family and conflating her role as an administrator with her role as a parent. The findings also went on to “partially substantiate claims that Little harassed or threatened teachers and administrators” when they made decisions she disagreed with regarding the discipline of her children, Rogozinski told the board.

In April, Little took medical leave from her role as principal through the end of the school year.

In June, the district received another report raising concerns over potential academic irregularities at Warrior Academy.

Warrior Academy uses an online learning management system called K12, created by a company called Stride. Teachers manage the pace at which students advance through the curriculum and provide support, but most assignments are graded in the online program, removing the need for teachers to manually grade outside of a small number of written assignments, Rogozinski said. The district also uses a program called Synergy, which is used to track grades for transcripts for the Oregon Department of Education and federal programs.

Concerns raised in the report included claims that students were being exempted from assignments on the online program but still earning credit, that some students were completing a large number of courses very quickly and that students received grades on tests but hadn’t accessed any of the learning materials leading up to the tests.

An outside investigation substantiated claims that Little “regularly exempted students from most of the online coursework with their assigned classes, and as a result, course content often no longer met the state standards,” Rogozinski told the board. The investigation also found that Little submitted grades and gave students credit for in-person work or courses without required documentation that students completed the activity or assessments.

“Absolutely I valued greatly Mrs. Little’s work through 22-23,” Rogozinski said. “The question is, what changed? What changed was what came to light in 23-24, and what came to light was a combination of complaints that raised the profile of very unprofessional communication, collaboration with colleagues, right?”

Board members voted 5-1 to dismiss Little on three separate statutory grounds for termination: neglect of duty, inadequate performance and any cause which constitutes grounds of any revocation of such contract administrator’s license. Board member Mark Simonsen, who is related to Little, abstained.

Alex Cabalona, who voted against dismissing Little, questioned whether she had ever been offered any form of training or coaching documents in response to the allegations against her. Because the district received the investigation report into unprofessional conduct in March 2024 and Little took leave in April 2024 before academic irregularities came to light, Rogozinski said training was not a viable option.

Denying charges

Little, who has been on paid administrative leave since August 2024, denied claims that she had given students credit for work they did not complete.

“I absolutely deny 100% that my students did not work their bottoms off,” Little said. “These kids overcame so much and to get them in to complete the assignments was amazing to watch. That’s what I can tell you, no matter what happens, I mean, I’m beyond proud of my students.”

In the past, Little noted she has been praised by Rogozinski for providing flexible, individualized education for her students at Warrior Academy.

She told The Astorian that she worked with students to provide one-on-one support through home visits and Zoom calls, and would sometimes use supplementary materials like videos in addition to the online curriculum. However, the content and standards of the curriculum never changed, she said, adding that she updated all of her students’ grades in Synergy before going on leave partway through the school year.

Little said she was also in communication with Rogozniski about specific in-person learning opportunities, including an art program, a leadership program and an academic potential program that involved activities like resume-writing. While Rogozinski acknowledged that he had signaled his support for those activities at the time, he said he never approved formal in-person courses.

Little said she sees the reports filed against her as a form of retaliation for vocalizing concerns as a parent over district shortcomings and being a “whistleblower.”

In September 2023, Little and her husband engaged in a voluntary Office of Civil Rights mediation after raising concerns that their daughter had been discriminated against because of a disability and had been excessively disciplined.

The mediation resulted in a districtwide training and an agreement that the district would provide additional communication. However, the Littles have since filed a report with the Office of Civil Rights over alleged violations of the agreement. Little said the federal office is reviewing the report.

In November 2023, Little filed a hostile workplace complaint. The Littles also filed a formal complaint with the district, claiming that staff had failed to report ongoing sexual harassment, as is required by law. She said the investigation into the complaint found a violation of the victim’s rights under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, but did not substantiate the charge that mandatory reporting laws had been violated.

The same month, an initial complaint was filed against Little accusing her of crossing professional boundaries as a parent working for the district.

“My husband and I have the right to be parents, and I, as an employee of the district, had the right to be the mother of my children,” Little told the board.

As an educator, Little said, her duty is to ensure the safety of her students, not to “cover up the actions of the district.”

“Was I wrong to attend my children’s meetings? Was I wrong to stand up against injustice? Was I wrong to reach out to the board for help?” she said. “I wasn’t. I wasn’t wrong for speaking up. I wasn’t wrong for advocating for my students, my children and my community, and I wasn’t wrong for expecting a safe, supportive environment to do my work I love.”

Impacts

Rogozinski said Little’s claims of retaliation have not been independently substantiated, but added that those claims don’t change the findings in the investigation reports.

“I point out to the board, that’s what you didn’t hear,” Rogozinski said at the hearing. “You didn’t hear anything about why the rigor that is observed in these documents is so lacking.”

It’s not out of the ordinary for the district to cut off access to school accounts for staff that go on extended leave. Little has not had access to her grade book since April, which she said has limited her ability to provide documentation of work completed or to defend herself. She also was not given a copy of the investigation report. In her experience, it is not a standard practice for teachers to keep paper copies of individual assignments, but if she’d known the board would be asking for them, she would have.

In some instances, academic fraud can lead students to lose their diplomas. However, Rogozinski said the Oregon Department of Education is aware of the situation, and at this point, there is no indication that there will be an impact on student records. Little said she has no immediate plans for next steps.