Albemarle County Public Schools

And we're gonna discuss what happened yesterday with supervisors, um, who want answers.

They d- are demanding answers, and they want the Virginia Department of Education to determine, um, whether Albemarle County Public Schools has followed the letter of the law.

Ned Galloway, the chairman of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, said this is the hardest thing the man's ever done as an elected official in Albemarle County.

And there's an intriguing storyline here.

They want answers to questions now.

They have timelines that have been set.

They're basically wanting to know if there's criminality within the Albemarle County Public Schools, specifically what has led to this cover-up.

And you know what? Thank you, supervisors.

Uh, he and his colleague, they're both our colleagues, by the way, but they're, they are at cvilleretnow.com, and, uh, they, uh, along with, uh, the entire team, there's been a lot of coverage about what happens in Albemarle County Public Schools.

And let's just first acknowledge it has been extremely difficult for ev- for, for parents, for kids, for administrators, for teachers.

Keep in mind, there are 2,792 employees of Albemarle County and over 13,600 students, so everybody's being impacted.

But the idea that you paint the whole division with this brush, it's just Look, it's, it's the old 2%, right?

Mm-hmm.

Um, but you don't let a, a couple of rotten apples spoil the bunch, and I think overall, I can only speak from personal experience, we're very happy with what's happening in Albemarle County Public Schools on a micro level.

You are part of a number of parent groups and things, and so you...

I want, y- you know, objectively, you can't, you've s- you can speak for you and your family, but what do you hear from other families about what it's going to take for them to trust the oversight and the leadership of the division?

The story by Lefty Velasquez in the Daily Newspaper continues.

The trio of current and former Albemarle County Public Schools administrators has been charged with knowing and intentionally failing to report information, evidencing aggravated sexual battery, as well as failing to report allegations of child abuse as required by Virginia law.

So that's why this frivolity strikes me as strange and odd.

These are very serious charges against these individuals.

There's a lot to cover on the docket.

From Friday, our last piece of content this past Friday, which finished at 1:30 PM, until today at 12:30 PM, there's a lot of momentum and movement with a scandal that has absolutely demoralized and devastated Albemarle County Public Schools.

Mike Sweeney, unfortunately a household name, is an alleged child sexual assault offender to the many different, uh, degrees and counts, and he has been granted bail, Judah.

Yep.

We're gonna talk about Erin Stone, Brody Downes, and Joe Macaulay, who were all in court.

I had a very astute viewer and listener who asked for anonymity, who highlighted the, um, the fact that Macaulay and Downes both had their spouses with them, along with their attorneys, when they were in court this past week.

While Erin Sto- Erin Stone, the Title IX coordinator, who frankly led the investigation on this child sexual assault scandal, was only flanked by legal representation, including Josiah Black, the Albemarle County Public Schools chief legal counsel and Erin Stone's direct boss.

Let's talk about that on the show today.

Just imagine for a minute that, and I don't mean to tweak people, but let's just say it was a Catholic priest in the Richmond Archdiocese.

Do you think this would have made a headline or two? Because that's exactly what the, the, the behavior of the Albemarle schools were.

Let's move this guy around.

Let's keep it quiet.

Unbelievable.

Tied to a child sexual assault horrific storyline that has, without question, plagued what previously was the gold star of the Commonwealth of Virginia's school systems, Albemarle County Public Schools.

Folks, three Albemarle County School administrators have been arrested in a child abuse investigation, indicted following a months-long police investigation into allegations that suspected child abuse was not properly reported.

The individuals charged include the school's, school division's deputy chief human resources officer, its assistant school division counsel, and a Title IX co-- and its Title IX coordinator, along with a former principal of the school.

Brody Downs, Erin Stone, and Joe Macaulay, indicted as of now.

The question: How much more significant, um, does this storyline become? Who else will be included in what certainly reeks of a massive cover-up within Albemarle County Public Schools? Are we to believe that Joe Macaulay, Erin Stone, and Brody Downs acted alone with failing to report these alleged child sexual assaults? Or do we believe that Erin Stone, Brody Downs, and Joe Macaulay were instructed to strategically maneuver in this capacity to minimize risk, exposure, fallout, and collateral damage for the school system? Is disgraced former superintendent Dr.

Matthew Haas, who is now on-- being paid for the next year and change, including, as Judah pointed out yesterday, also earning a raise in any capacity tied to this failure, failure to report nightmare? What does this do with Kate Acuff? Kate Acuff.

January of this year, Superintendent Matthew Haas mentioned to Kate Acuff, Albemarle County School Board member, that the police were investigating the schools.

I mean, he called it an effing crisis.

He said, "Albemarle County Public Schools is in effing crisis mode right now." And today, Jim Dillenbeck has resigned under the fire and fury and pressure of his contemporaries and colleagues on the board: Judy Lee, Kate Acuff, Bob Beard, Alan Osborne, Rebecca Berlin, I guess David Storm.

I mean, David Storm has been on the school board for, what? A New York minute?

[laughs]

So in 48 hours, he's scheduled to appeal- appear in court.

The broader Albemarle County Public School accountability question remains separate from Sweeney's criminal guilt.

Albemarle County Public Schools has already moved toward an independent third-party review following the case amid questions from parents and public officials about how the school division handled the situation.

Mm-hmm.

Is this a cause and effect of the Dewberry Hotel and the eighteen years of nuisance and, and, and nightmare it has caused the downtown mall? I'll unpack that storyline on the program today.

Judah Wittkauer is gonna offer insight into Mike Sweeney, the alleged child sexual assaulter who is in the slammer right now, uh, for doing some of the most awful things with kids at elementary school in Albemarle County Public Schools, at least one elementary school.

Everyone's curious if there's a trail of tears there.

He's, uh, got a second chance at bail.

We'll talk about that on the show today.

And speaking of development, the Dewberry skeleton, its next act is ninety-eight apartments downtown.

We'll give you updates on those ninety-eight apartments on the program today, and we'll brainstorm what the crystal ball says for Albemarle County Public Schools as the 2026/2027 enrollment data will, will be released later this month.

Do we anticipate that data suggesting, uh, enrollment to increase or decrease? I think you know my answer, but we're truly gonna know the answer once the data is released in, in, in about, uh, a month's time.