THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 11, 1996 TAG: 9605110310
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
A fire that destroyed teacher Frank C. Schulz's house in rural upstate New York in 1990 was ruled suspicious by fire officials.
``We concluded that it was an arson fire,'' Marv Lemery, the Warren County Fire Coordinator, said in a telephone interview Friday. ``But we were unable to to make any arrests.''
Lemery, who is also the administrator of the county's Arson Task Force, said investigators eliminated every other possible cause of the fire. He added that the file on the fire has not been closed.
Schulz had taught at Johnsburg Central Schools in North Creek, and reportedly resigned in 1989. He was hired as a teacher at Manteo Middle School on Aug. 17, 1989, and moved to Manteo High School the next year.
Schulz, 50, resigned in April as a chemistry teacher at Manteo High School. He is under investigation by the Dare County Sheriff's Department and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation for possible sexual offenses against juveniles.
Schult has not been charged here, and no charges were placed against him in New York.
Lemery said Schulz's Cooper Hill Road home in North Creek, N.Y., was destroyed by the blaze on Jan. 30, 1990. Highway workers, out plowing on the snowy morning, reported seeing flames at the residence, which Lemery said he remembered was fairly new and large.
North Creek is at the northern most end of Warren County in the Town of Johnsburg, near the popular upstate New York resort Lake George.
W.W. Williams, the assistant vice-president of property claims for Preferred Mutual Insurance Co., said the insurance claim on the house fire was not settled until about 18 months ago. Williams would not comment on the lengthy period between the fire and the settlement, except to say ``we were in contact with our attorneys and a payment was made.''
Williams also would not say if Preferred Mutual had investigated the claim or if arson was suspected. ``It was being closely scrutinized by this company,'' he said. He declined to report the amount of the settlement.
``Let's just say he was renumerated in some way or another,'' Williams said Friday.
Schulz taught college-level chemistry at Manteo High School for six years. He resigned unexpectedly April 3 after school administrators questioned him during the lunch hour, then asked him to meet them in the superintendent's office. Instead, Schulz left a hand-written resignation letter.
Superintendent of Schools Leon Holleman said May 1 that a ``concerned citizen'' had notified school administrators that some ``unlicensed material'' was possibly on Schulz's personal computer that he kept at the school.
Linda Holmes, principal of Manteo High School until last year, said she recalled three occasions that ``concerns'' were expressed to her about Schulz, and she said she investigated each complaint. She would not elaborate on the nature of the concerns, but said she believed they had been resolved. She said she spoke to Schulz separately and students were told to report any further problems.
Holmes, now principal of Dare County Alternative High School, said she was not aware of reports that Holleman has spoken of.
The Dare County sheriff's office has said that photos, tapes and names of several juveniles were found in a search of Schulz's Manteo home April 5.
A spokesman said a state computer specialists would download the files from Schulz's confiscated computer.
KEYWORDS: INVESTIGATION by CNB