The Mineola school board on Thursday suspended its longtime superintendent after an investigation found he violated the district’s ethics code and his employment contract, months after a failed rollout of a new digital system used in the district’s high school.
Superintendent Michael Nagler had been under investigation since October after parents complained about a learning management system used for eighth graders at the beginning of the school year.
The platform was developed by Quave, a private company formed last July by Nagler and his son James Nagler, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student. But the investigation found that no written notice was provided to the board of its forming and Nagler didn’t inform the board of Quave’s LLC status at an August retreat.
Nathaniel Nichols, an attorney with Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP, which the district hired to investigate the matter, said he interviewed 16 witnesses, including Nagler. He presented his findings Thursday night to a crowd of dozens of parents and residents at the high school auditorium.
The crowd gasped and scoffed after Nichols said Nagler reportedly told the board on Oct. 2 he formed the company to obtain a tax write-off and to protect his son’s intellectual property.
On the same day, Nichols said the board learned that the digital platform James Nagler built was housed on an external cloud-based server. Nichols said the board directed the system to be taken down, which occurred the next day.
Nichols also said board members believed the system was built by James Nagler as an internal, voluntary project.
“It never, ever crossed my mind to ask our superintendent if the volunteer service that his son was performing was going to be turned into a limited liability company with the intent of monetizing it,” board trustee Patrick Talty said. “I never thought that.”
Nagler, who has worked in the Mineola district since 1999 and served as its superintendent since 2009, heard Nichols’ presentation along with those in the audience for the first time Thursday night. He said after the meeting that he was surprised by some of the findings but declined to comment further, noting he needed some time to process the news.
Cheryl Lampasona, president of the school board, read aloud the resolution approving the suspension, which did not identify Nagler by name. The resolution stated the impacted employee would be suspended with pay until the next board meeting on Jan. 22 to give the board time to review Nichols’ findings.
Ownership concerns
The need for a new learning management system, or LMS as Nichols called it, arose after the board made the implementation of a competency-based learning system a goal in the 2024-25 school year.
Tasked with the implementation, the administration reached out to four companies and was quoted $100,000 from one for a possible product. This was viewed as cost prohibitive, Nichols said. In January 2025, Nichols said, Nagler told the board his son would create the system to be used for the “Build Your Own Grade” program.
As the curriculum for “Build Your Own Grade” was being finalized last spring, Nichols said individuals in the administration raised concern over the LMS’s ownership and James Nagler’s involvement. Nichols said he was intentionally vague about who those individuals were to protect confidentiality and said Michael Nagler was dismissive of those concerns.
Nichols said Michael Nagler formed Quave at his own expense and without the board’s authorization. The superintendent also did not disclose certain information to the board during an August retreat to prepare for the new school year, he said.
“At that retreat, Dr. Nagler gave a broad overview of the functionality and status of the LMS, but did not disclose the LLC, the website, nor any of the other issues or concerns,” he said.
Given Nagler’s investment in the company as a co-owner, Nichols said the superintendent violated the district’s code of ethics, which “enumerates that no person may invest or hold any investment directly or indirectly in any financial business, commercial or other private transaction that creates a conflict with his or her official duties.”
Nichols said Nagler also violated his employment contract, which states he is to keep the board advised of matters concerning the administration of the district and provide written notice to the board if he was to engage in other education-related activities.
Nichols noted that there was no expenditure of district funds related to the development of the LMS. The teachers and instructional leads who worked on the development of the Build Your Own Grade curriculum did so during their normal salaried hours, he said.
Community reaction
The Build Your Own Grade Learning Management System was branded as a “competency-based learning” and grading system that aimed to empower students to take ownership of their learning.
But parents said the program left eighth graders feeling “undervalued” and “unsupported” because much of their instruction in core subjects consisted of watching videos and completing tasks on iPads. Parents expressed worries over the safety of their children’s data privacy and concerns about the superintendent’s potential conflict of interest.
Some parents who spoke during public comment Thursday night thanked the board for taking action but urged more transparency and a restoration of trust.
“As we move forward, the healing won’t come from a new app or different digital platform,” Tony Dos Santos said. “It will come from turning to a model where the board, the administration and the parents actually look at each other in the eye and can have an open dialogue.”
Nagler’s contract is set to run until June 2027.
At a previous meeting, he had voiced confidence in his exoneration.
“I’m confident that there was no malice here,” he said in late October. “There was no negligence here. There’s nothing criminal here.”
Nager said at the time he believed the backlash was disproportional to what occurred.
“I’ve been here for 25 years. 25 years. I’ve worked my tail off to change this place. I don’t think I’m being treated fairly,” he said. “Because I’ve been here so long, a lot of people don’t like me. That’s OK, that’s the world we live in. But if it’s personal, it’s personal, it’s not educational.”
Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.
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