Despite a public announcement that Concord High School Principal Tom Sica was on a voluntary paid leave of absence between June and September, Sica was allowed to remain on the job throughout the summer and into the new school year outside of the public eye.
The move left the public with the impression that Sica was stepping aside while an independent investigator examined the school district’s handling of student complaints about Howie Leung, a high school teacher facing sexual assault charges. The student complaints were made in 2014 and 2018, and in both cases, Sica was the principal, moving from Rundlett Middle School and then to Concord High at the same time as Leung.
In the days and weeks following his abrupt absence from graduation in June, Sica continued to work from home and at locations outside Concord High, like Abbot-Downing Elementary School, Bow Public Library and Laconia Public Library, the Monitor has learned through more than 300 pages of emails obtained through a right-to-know request.
On June 19, Sica and Superintendent Terri Forsten agreed he would work away from the high school and avoid any issues related to student discipline or the investigation.
Outwardly, Forsten communicated something else. In a letter to the community on June 21, she announced the independent investigation and Sica’s “absence” from the district.
“In light of the board’s actions, Concord High School Principal Tom Sica has decided to take a voluntary leave of absence, effective June 24,” Forsten said. “The district agrees with and is supportive of Mr. Sica’s decision.”
The plan for Sica to keep working was quickly communicated to the school district’s leadership team, who were encouraged to continue to communicate with Sica regarding school business.
In a letter to district leaders dated June 29, Assistant Principal Steve Rothenberg urged school leaders, including other assistant principals, to reach out to Sica “without reservation.”
“As you have undoubtedly read and heard, he is on a paid leave of absence,” Rothenberg wrote. “Despite the vagueness in the Monitor’s headlines, this was a voluntary decision by him (for up to a four-week span) in conjunction with the superintendent. The goal is to allow the investigation to take place in a seamless and thorough manner.”
“What does a LOA (leave of absence) look like for Tom?” Rothenberg continued. “The details of it have not been announced publicly by the SAU, but I want to let you know that he is still working.”
“Tom is in a very complicated situation,” Rothenberg concluded. “The district administrators are in 100% support of him – and his quality decision-making methods. The current news is sourced from one side at this time and therefore we are very much in support of the district contracting with the outside independent investigator to sort through this.”
Sica’s absence from the public eye followed a story published by the Monitor about Sica’s suspension of student Ana Goble after she told friends at Rundlett she felt Leung’s behavior with female students made her uncomfortable.
Goble, who was in seventh grade at the time in 2014, was called into Sica’s office the day before Christmas break, accused of spreading “malicious and slanderous gossip” and suspended for three days.
Leung was arrested in April. He is accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a Rundlett student starting in the 2014-15 school year, around the time Goble was suspended and silenced.
As the investigation into Goble’s suspension and the high school’s response to a report in December 2018 that Leung was seen kissing a female student in a car outside school continued, Sica continued to work off-site, scheduling meetings and attending mandatory training for Concord educators over the summer.
One thing he didn’t do was personally apologize to Goble and her parents, something the district agreed to do in order to settle legal action from the family. School Board President Jennifer Patterson and Forsten attended the meeting in August with Goble and her family, who were told Sica couldn’t be present because of his leave of absence.
Goble’s mother, Kate Frey, said she felt betrayed after learning that Sica had been working all along.
“If they’re telling the public that he’s on voluntary leave, they give the impression that he was nowhere near the school district,” she said. “This is one more example of how the district continues to not be transparent or accountable to the point that they’re lying to the public.”
Sica’s last email – one of more than a hundred obtained by the Monitor – was sent on Sept. 23, the day the Concord School Board received a report from independent investigator Djuna Perkins.
The board held a non-meeting with legal counsel that night. It was announced that Sica and Forsten were being placed on paid administrative leave a few days later.
For the three months Sica was on a paid “voluntary leave of absence,” district administrators did not provide the public with details of his working agreement.
The Monitor asked district staff and school board members multiple times what his “voluntary leave” meant, and was not provided details. On Sept. 26, School Board President Jennifer Patterson was asked again, this time in an interview with the Monitor.
“It’s a good question,” Patterson said. “I’m not going to answer it. But it’s a good question.”
Following the release of Sica’s emails, the Monitor asked each school board member to answer whether they knew Sica had continued to work while on leave and whether they believe the public was misled about Sica’s leave of absence. Patterson responded to the questions on behalf of the board.
“In June, Supt. Forsten directed that Mr. Sica limit his duties to specific school projects. Mr. Sica was not present at the high school overseeing daily operations during the summer,” Patterson said in an email Friday. “The board placed Mr. Sica on administrative leave effective on September 27th after reviewing Attorney Perkins’ report. Mr Sica has not participated in school matters since being placed on administrative leave by the board.”
Rothenberg told the Monitor on Friday that Sica’s leave of absence was formalized in a meeting he had with Forsten and Sica on June 19, four days after graduation.
He explained that he sent his email to staff to “let them know what was going on, and ultimately to help guide them to do their jobs effectively.” He did not answer if he thought the public was misled.
The formal announcement from Forsten that Sica “decided to take a voluntary leave of absence,” came on June 21, six days after his absence from graduation. The leave of absence was effective June 24, she said.
On the day of graduation, June 15, Sica sent an email to Christa McAuliffe School principal Kris Gallo explaining his decision to not be present.
“Today is a day for joy-filled celebrations. The risk of graduation turning into a media circus that robs our students and families of a beautiful commencement ceremony drove me to make this decision,” he wrote. “I asked Steve Rothenberg to stand in for me.”
Sica’s emails show that he continued working up to and after Fosten announced he was on leave.
Throughout his three months he worked off-campus, Sica continued to perform his duties as a supervisor: He corresponded with staff about applications for substitute teaching and science teacher positions that needed to be filled. He gave permission for Concord High’s new assistant principal, Tim Herbert, to miss a day of the district administrators’ retreat for a wedding. He instructed his administrative assistant, Lisa Lamb, on how to keep track of teachers’ use of classroom keys over the summer when they came into work. He created an orientation plan for the new school resource officer that was set to start at the beginning of the school year.
Many of his emails were routine, but some show he was struggling to stay connected remotely.
On June 25, on the day after his leave began, Sica emailed Concord School District’s Director of Technology Pam McLeod saying that he needed help accessing Munis, a site used for budget approvals and other administrative tasks.
When he logged onto a mobile app, he found that his regular workflow had been re-directed to district business administrator Jack Dunn.
“I am working off of campus,” he wrote to Dunn. “I am happy to maintain this responsibility.”
“No problem,” Dunn wrote. “If you have access. I’ll turn it off.”
During his time away, administrators sent Sica notes of encouragement and expressed hope that the investigation would examine more sides of the story of how Leung’s case was handled.
“I’m thinking of you every day as we go about the business of working with our school board and the greater community. I’ve had moments of great sadness and also some moments of hope in the last days,” assistant superintendent Donna Palley wrote in a message to Sica on July 12. “I hope that you can have faith in this next process – I hear that the investigator hired is very skilled and I am focusing on the positive as we now have an opportunity for all aspects of these stories to be told.”
“Terri tells me that you are working from home, and that I shouldn’t hesitate to connect with you on various items as they emerge, so I will be doing that over the next days,” Palley continued.
Sica responded, thanking Palley for the note.
“I am grateful for your words of encouragement. It has not been an easy time,” he wrote. “However, I am doing my best to keep my days structured, focused and productive. Family and friends have been a tremendous support.”
In the early weeks of being on leave, Sica wrote emails about working from the Laconia Public Library and phoning into conference calls with the Concord High administrative team. He met with Hebert at Bow Public Library after receiving an email from him asking to go over his orientation materials.
On June 26, Gallo reached out, offering Sica office space at the Christa McAuliffe School.
“Carol and I are in our offices (not too often right now!) and right next to us is our conference room. You are so welcome to use it as your office space while away from CHS,” she wrote.
Anthony Blinn, principal at Abbot-Downing School, gave Sica permission to use the conference room to work in his school.
On July 18, Sica sent his first email indicating that he had been meeting with members of district staff in a conference room at Abbot-Downing School.
Sica continued to plan other meetings with Lamb and the Concord High administrative team, discussing agenda items for meeting with curriculum facilitators, costs for graduation and building projects at the high school. At one point, he held three meetings at Abbot-Downing in one week.
While he was staying involved, he was rarely seen, despite rumors and speculation that he was still working. Sica wasn’t present on the first day of school in August but prepared for the opening from afar. He continued to work into September sending emails on student schedules, the replacement of a sign that had been vandalized at Concord High School, school budgets and building repairs.
Concord School Board members voted in early August to push back the first day of school in Concord so the district could train all staff in “Know and Tell,” which is a program from the New Hampshire Children’s Alliance for professionals who are required to report any suspected child abuse. The district also committed to reviewing its new sexual harassment policy with staff that day.
At that meeting, Patterson said Sica would not be at school for opening day and that his leave would continue as the investigation continued.
“One question that I’m sure is on people’s minds has to do with Principal Tom Sica,” Patterson said to a crowd of more than 100 members of the public at the meeting. “Tom Sica went on voluntary leave in June, that status will continue until the board receives and reviews the report and considers what is in the report. So what that means is Mr. Sica will not be there on opening day at school. We do have a strong administrative team in place and they will be there.”
The day after the meeting, Forsten sent out an email to building principals notifying them of the change in the date of the start of school. Sica emailed back, confirming Concord High’s opening-week schedule, asking if each building would be offering educators “teacher time” built into the teacher training day.
Before the “Know & Tell” training was held for teachers, a select number of district staff took the training during the summer. On July 24, Sica emailed Forsten saying he planned to attend the training for administrators.
“Please reserve a space for the August 12 session for me,” he wrote. He asked if spots were available if they could be taken by school counselors.
On July 25, he wrote, “If there are extra seats available at this training, I think it would be helpful to increase the female participation at CHS. With the exception of Michele Speckman, the CHS Admin team is all male.” He suggested four female employees to take the training.
He emailed Lamb on Aug. 16 and asked her to make a sheet with important dates for staff. He helped make arrangements for mini muffins, yogurt parfaits, coffee and tea to be available for teachers on opening day.
On Aug. 22, assistant principal Jim Corkum emailed Sica to ask if he thought the school should offer an extended advisory period, where students would meet in groups of 10 to 12 to talk about the start of school and ask questions.
“I like the idea of the advisors having extended time,” Sica wrote in response. “However, I think it is important to get a good gauge on how the faculty is feeling. Not all advisors bring the same skills/strengths to the table. I am going to guess that some faculty might feel a bit anxious dealing with any questions that students might have.”
The last email Sica sent from his district account was to Jeff Fullam, an art teacher at Concord High School.
There was no text in the emails, just two photos of artwork hanging in a brick background: one of a guitar, fish and bread, and another of two crabs.
The subject line of the email reads, “Inspiration for Art Projects.”
Fullam was one of the union reps who along with guidance counselor Karen Slick tried to cast doubt on the most recent allegations against Leung, challenging whether the three girls who said they saw Leung kissing a classmate in a car could have actually seen what they reported.
There were fewer emails written by Sica in his last few weeks working. The last email before that was sent on Sept. 13. He answered an email from Herbert, the new assistant principal.
“Just checking in, I hope you’ve been able to spend time with family and friends and tune out all noise even if for a little while,” Herbert wrote. “I just wanted to touch base, is there anything off the top of your head that you think I should have on my radar. I’ll share a list of the admin duties I have. If anything sticks out feel free to give me input.”
Sica emailed back, noting that Herbert should make sure to work on his duty of being in charge of school clubs. Sica reminded him of a club fair that was scheduled to happen the following week. He sent a few more suggestions and told Herbert he could reach out if he thought of anything else.
“If there are any specific items that you want me to address, please don’t hesitate to let me know,” Sica wrote.
As of Thursday – the four-month anniversary of Sica’s administrative leave – he has made $42,449.84 while on leave. His regular salary for this year is $137,962.
All emails sent from Concord High Principal Tom Sica’s district email account from June 10 – September 30 are available below.