Bethel principal lacked a license.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

Unbeknown to himself or his supervisors at the time, Larry Williams, the new principal at Edgewood Community Elementary in Eugene, spent the past two years without the necessary state license while working as an assistant principal at Bethel's Meadow View School - a clerical faux pas that has brought him a public reprimand from the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission.

Williams, who completed all of the necessary course work at the University of Oregon College of Education's Administrator Licensure program three years ago, said he had no clue he was lacking his license until he accepted his new job this spring and the Eugene School District asked him for it. He says he called the state commission to have it sent over, and learned they didn't have it.

"I was as surprised as anyone," said Williams, 38. He said he assumed - incorrectly - that the UO had sent in all the necessary paperwork to the state agency. But Pam LaFreniere, director of teacher licensing at the standards and practices commission, said it's incumbent on the graduate to send in those forms, plus a $100 fee.

Tim Keeley, assistant superintendent in the Bethel district, said he deserves much of the blame.

He said he always asks new hires for a copy of their license, makes a copy and puts it in their file. He said he can't explain why he neglected to do so with Williams, who came to Bethel highly recommended from Eugene, where he was a multicultural affairs coordinator and boys basketball coach at Churchill High School and an administrator intern at both Churchill and Kelly Middle School.

"I've been hiring teachers and administrators for 20 years and this is the only one I know of that I didn't ask," Keeley said. "Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa."

LaFreniere said her agency has the authority to withhold state funds from districts that employ unlicensed educators, but that it hasn't done so in recent years, and won't with Bethel.

"We just try to embarrass them a little bit and ask them to explain how the heck this happened, how they were asleep at the wheel, and we ask them to explain how this won't happen again, and we won't enforce the forfeiture," she said. "But we can, and we have."

She said the agency is still waiting for an explanation from the Eugene district about Williams' previous employment as an administrator at Churchill and Kelly. Wally Bryant, the district's human resources director, said Williams wasn't required to have a state license because he was an intern.

Bryant said the licensing error was a nonissue in the Eugene hiring decision, and that the district is delighted to have Williams back.

Williams, who is subject to no penalty beyond the reprimand, concedes he should have been more diligent about following through once he'd completed the UO program. As soon as the error came to light, he obtained an emergency license, and he's expecting his official license soon.