Rio representative Jim Dillenbeck resigned from the Albemarle County School Board October 7, after making comments at an October 1 town hall that appeared to allude to a Burley Middle School teacher who died the following weekend.
Paul Regan, a seventh-grade teacher at Burley, died the weekend of October 3, according to a statement sent to Burley parents and families by principal William Schaffer. “He was well regarded by his students and staff throughout his career,” Schaffer wrote. In a statement to Cville Right Now, Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis said city police were investigating Regan’s death as a suicide, and did not suspect foul play.
In his town hall meeting with constituents at Northside Library October 1, Dillenbeck said, “I can tell you there’s a staff member at Burley right now who demonstrated some inappropriate behavior with the staff at Henley last year.” Dillenbeck described that personnel move as an example of a “trash transfer,” in which “somebody does something inappropriate at one school, [and] we transfer him to another school.” Regan was transferred from Henley to Burley at the beginning of the school year…