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LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — The Fayette County school board is holding a special Sunday meeting to discuss allegations involving the company it hired to find a new superintendent.
The Chicago Sun-Times has reported that PROACT Search CEO Gary Solomon made racial slurs in a 1999 e-mail when he was a school administrator and teacher in Illinois.
In a Friday statement to the Lexington Herald-Leader (http://bit.ly/1I1nRFK ) Solomon apologized for the language. He said it was a fleeting statement that does not reflect his beliefs.
Fayette school board chairman John Price said the group needs time to review the allegations.
Price said one of the reasons the school board selected PROACT Search was its record of success in recruiting diverse candidate pools for other school districts.
The Sun-Times also said Solomon was accused of sending an inappropriate email to a female student. Solomon later resigned and received $50,000 from the district.
Dennis Culloton, a spokesman for PROACT, said in a written statement, "No law enforcement authority of any kind, including the police and (social services), then or since, ever filed charges or rendered any adverse finding against Mr. Solomon for the alleged occurrences."
The Sun-Times earlier reported that another Solomon company is under federal investigation for a deal with Chicago Public Schools.
Fayette school board chairman Price said that before hiring PROACT Search, the district searched news coverage and legal cases involving eh company back to 1999 and didn't find any of the problems that have since come to light.
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Information from: Lexington Herald-Leader, http://www.kentucky.com
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