Albemarle County Public Schools was hit with another resignation on Aug. 4, as a School Board member announced her plans to step down just before the Board voted on moving ahead with an independent investigation into the school district.
Crammed into a small meeting room, the Albemarle County School Board was surrounded by members of the community and media, and were about to start their special meeting session, when one of its members made an unexpected announcement.
“I’m announcing that I’ve made the difficult decision to step down from the county School Board,” Allison Spillman, at-large representative and current vice chair, said to the room. “My final meeting will be next Thursday, August 15.”
Fighting tears, Spillman continued to read from a prepared statement, as Board Chair Rebecca Berlin moved in closer to comfort her.
“This is not a sudden decision, nor is it a reaction to the very few people who have recently demanded the resignation of this Board,” Spillman said. “I’ve been considering this transition for months and had originally intended to step down at the end of the last school year, but recent events made that difficult.”
The recent events that Spillman was referring to were the arrests of two ACPS staffers for sexual crimes involving children. In the wake of the arrests, the School Board asked former Superintendent Matthew Haas to resign. Soon after Haas’ resignation, Joseph McCauley, the former principal of Hollymead Elementary, was placed on leave and ultimately resigned. McCauley’s resignation came after the division hosted a community conversation June 10, during which parents raised concerns about McCauley being unresponsive to their concerns about Hollymead’s former Social Emotional Learning coach, Michael Swiney.
Swiney turned himself in to authorities on June 3 after being indicted on 11 charges of sexual crimes involving children, two days after the indictment was issued. Swiney is alleged to have committed these crimes while on school grounds. He is currently being held at the Charlottesville-Albemarle County Jail without bond. ACPS Interim Superintendent Chandra Hayes said in July that the district will eliminate the SEL coach role.
“I’m leaving because I feel confident in the job I’ve done,” Spillman said. “I’ve served this community with integrity, worked tirelessly on behalf of our students and families and consistently gone above and beyond what this role has required. I’m really proud of my service and the work we’ve accomplished.”
Spillman continued reading from the prepared statement, adding that her children deserve to have her as a present parent, and they should not be subject to “harassment, hatred, and criticism because their mother serves in public office.”
Spillman was elected in November 2023, defeating conservative Meg Bryce and winning 63% of the votes for the seat.
In October 2025, Spillman came under fire from some community members for one of her social media posts, as reported by Cville Right now. In it, Spillman compared Turning Point USA to the Ku Klux Klan, on the eve of conservative speaker Victoria Cobb coming to speak at ACPS.
Spillman has been considered by some parents as an advocate for those who say they struggle to be heard by the school district.
“It’s just such a loss for the families of Albemarle County Public Schools,” Holly Odom, an ACPS parent, told Charlottesville Tomorrow. “She’s just one of the first people on the School Board to really listen to the concerns and the things that we were seeing at Greer Elementary in the spring.”
Odom was referring to Haas’ decision to transfer former Greer Elementary Principal Steven Saunders to Crozet Elementary with little notice. His departure in April left the school temporarily without a principal, until Erica Broudy was announced as the new principal on May 28.
Odom went on to say that Spillman was fair when listening to parents, “I just felt like she was for all different viewpoints, even viewpoints that may not align with hers directly, she was building bridges. You could just feel that.”
Because Spillman’s resignation comes in the middle of an election year, someone will be appointed to her seat until the next election. At that point they will need to be elected if they intend to remain on the Board.
The School Board has 45 days, after Spillman’s last official day, to appoint someone to her seat.
School Board approves independent review of policies and practices
After Spillman’s announcement, the Board proceeded to enter into a closed session to decide if they were going to move forward with an independent review of the school district’s practices and policies.
After the hour-long closed session, the school board opened the meeting and promptly voted, unanimously, on moving forward with the independent review which will be performed by civil litigation firm Harman Claytor Corrigan & Wellman. The Richmond-based attorneys previously represented the School Board and the district in a lawsuit over the district’s anti-racism policy as reported by The Daily Progress (subscription required).
Some parents did not agree that the firm was the right choice for the job.
“An investigator examining ACPS should have no history of representing it,” Phil Riese, an ACPS parent, said in an email sent to ACPS teachers and parents. “An investigation of ACPS requires someone whose independence and impartiality is beyond question. I am asking the Board to retain an investigator with no past or present attorney-client relationship with ACPS.”
Board members however, all agree that this is the right choice, and are looking forward to the review findings.
“I would just like to say that we want a thorough, timely, and robust investigation by Harman Claytor, and we anticipate that ACPS will give them full access to the facts,” Board member Jim Dillenbeck said.
Dillenbeck also said that he would encourage the firm to look into identifying any problematic patterns of behavior. He also said he would encourage the firm to look into reporting practices, as well as communication and supervision “from the ground up.”
“The goal isn’t to relitigate one case; it’s to find every point where a signal failed and to fix those systems so that the next time a concern is caught at the first signal rather than the fifth,” Dillenbeck said.
