Principal of alternative school in Norfolk resigns

NORFOLK

The principal of the city's alternative school has resigned after administrators placed him on paid leave last month.

Michael L. McIntosh was placed on leave in April pending a review of the instructional program at Madison Career Center, school officials said.

Superintendent Stephen C. Jones said Tuesday that the review led to "some concerns," but he declined to elaborate, calling it a personnel matter.

Efforts to find a telephone number or other contact information for McIntosh were unsuccessful.

Madison teachers said they were concerned that the school had become more dangerous since McIntosh's departure.

Police last week took a student at the school into custody after a fight there.

A computer recently was thrown from the third floor, and students were caught with a knife and a razor blade in one week, according to a teacher who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal.

Marian Flickinger, president of the Norfolk Federation of Teachers, said her organization has received "a number of calls from Madison in the last couple of weeks," with concerns about class sizes and discipline.

Stanley Harrison, a retired Norfolk educator, is serving as Madison's interim principal.

The Madison center, on Bowdens Ferry Road, serves students in grades 6 through 12 who have committed serious discipline infractions at their zoned schools. They attend Madison from 30 days to a complete school year.

McIntosh, 47, took the helm at the school in July. He made some changes, including expanding a GED program for teens, adding recognition programs for teachers and students and instituting a morning security check-in, said Michael Spencer, chief operations officer for Norfolk schools.

McIntosh's departure comes as the school division works on plans to consolidate alternative education programs - including Madison - into one campus from four separate facilities. The programs work with hundreds of students who are pregnant, working toward a GED, on long-term suspension or need special education services.

This is not the first time McIntosh has left a job under uncertain circumstances, according to published reports.

In 1996, he was suspended as principal of a Roanoke alternative school after he was criminally charged with slapping a student. A judge later dismissed the charge, but McIntosh resigned from the school division. He had also clashed with administrators on other issues there, according to a report published in The Roanoke Times.

Two years later, McIntosh was suspended and eventually resigned from a job as a high school assistant principal and athletic director in North Carolina.

The Charlotte Observer newspaper reported at the time that McIntosh was accused of insubordination after a disagreement with a newspaper reporter. McIntosh countered with a racial discrimination complaint against the school system, which led to a U.S. Department of Education investigation. As a result, the school system agreed to implement measures to better serve minority students and teachers.

Between 1998 and summer 2007, McIntosh held 10 jobs in three states and Washington, D.C., according to a resume provided by Norfolk Public Schools. He worked as an education consultant, assistant professor and principal of three different schools, as well as in other education-related jobs.

Jones said reference checks satisfied questions about McIntosh's employment history. He was hired at a salary of $77,677.

"By all accounts, he started out doing the things that we wanted to have done," Jones said.

Amy Jeter, (757) 446-2730, amy.jeter@pilotonline.com