Some urge firing supt. who plagiarized

ZEELAND, Mich. (WOOD) - At the first school board meeting since the Zeeland superintendent admitted to plagiarism, several people said they think the board should fire him.

A May 2012 letter written by Superintendent Dave Barry was admittedly plagiarized from an online education blogger. Barry copied 396 words of the 437 in the blog verbatim into an employee newsletter with his name signed at the bottom.

-- Read a copy of the newsletter (jpg) --

When 24 Hour News 8 called to confront Barry early last week, he admitted he didn't cite the source of the letter, calling it "a mistake." Later that day, he released two apologies via email. One was addressed to his staff and the other to blogger Mike Rutherford.

Most of the public comments at the Monday night Zeeland school board meeting were about the incident.

The majority of those who commented were in favor of firing Barry.

The school board said it will take those comments into consideration and that it will make an announcement regarding Barry's future at Zeeland on Thursday.

On May 15, the head of the Zeeland school board released a statement about the incident:

"Superintendent Barry has made the Board aware of issues involving plagiarism in a recently published employee publication. The Zeeland Board of Education is taking this matter very seriously and we intend to review the incident thoroughly. We plan to conclude our review of the situation in a timely manner."