Mineola superintendent Michael Nagler suspended over Build Your Own Grade controversy

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. The investigation found that no written notice was provided to the board of its forming and Nagler did not notify the board of Quave before last September.

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 district on Friday also released Nichols’ 35-page report with witnesses' identifying information redacted.

The crowd gasped and scoffed after Nichols said Nagler reportedly told the board he formed the company to obtain a tax write-off and to protect his son’s intellectual property.

In early October, 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 presentation that he was surprised by some of the findings but declined to comment further, noting he needed some time to process the report.

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. A newly designed program, known as “Build Your Own Grade,” utilizes competency-based learning and Nichols said Nagler told him that staffers began working on its curriculum in summer 2024.

Meanwhile, the district approached four companies to find a LMS that could host the curriculum. The system they wanted would compute student grades by building a score based on what was completed, according to the report released Friday.

One company offered a quote of $100,000 for a possible product, which was viewed as cost prohibitive, Nichols said at the meeting. In January 2025, Nichols said, Nagler told the board his son would create it.

As the curriculum 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.

In his report, Nichols said two witnesses described Nagler as “authoritarian” and several said Nagler was prone to yell at staff. Others described Nagler as "the idea man" and Nichols summarized that many reported they were drawn to Mineola because of his reputation. Nichols wrote Nagler was "universally seen as an individual who remains at the cutting edge of educational theory."

Several board members said they trusted Nagler as he had demonstrated a record of achievement.

Under Nagler’s tenure, Mineola has been touted for its innovation in education and Nagler was named the New York State Superintendent of the Year in 2020. Nagler frequently spoke at national conferences representing the district.

Nichols said Nagler directed his son to register buildyourowngrade.com, which occurred in December 2024, and later formed Quave at his own expense — about $10,000 — 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.

“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,” Nichols said.

Nagler told Nichols he formed Quave to protect his son from liability and that he would be willing to sell or gift the IP to the district since the LMS is not a “money-maker." Other reasons he gave included that "he determined he needed to be able to" write off some of those expenses and that he believed the company was needed as the district needed another party with whom to enter a privacy agreement, Nichols wrote in his report.

Nichols wrote Nagler told him he did not feel he violated the ethics code because everyone knew of his son’s involvement and that he “incurred a loss” while making the LMS.

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. Nichols wrote one staffer told him that the district showed visitors from a Pennsylvania school last summer the test LMS, and Nagler reportedly said “soon” when asked when it would be available for sale. Another said Nagler said the LMS and BYOG would be his “retirement gig.”

“Although no financial gain was to be had at present, the interest is no less present,” Nichols wrote.

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 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 attorney, Jacinda Conboy, general counsel for the New York State Council of School Superintendents, did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

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. Twenty-five 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.”

By Dandan Zou

dandan.zou@newsday.com@DandanZou

Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.