North Greenbush

Herman W. McLean was hired in June 2013 as a math teacher at the Vanderheyden Hall School for troubled teens. The 36-year-old Troy resident was promoted to provisional principal on Jan. 1.

But he was suspended on April 30 and fired a week later after the school discovered he had falsified his credentials.

On Saturday, town police charged him with second-degree criminal impersonation and five counts of possession of a forged document.

The key document that led to McLean's arrest was a forged state administrator's license, town police Chief Robert Durivage said Monday. Vanderheyden Hall lists that credential as a requirement for the job.

The chief said McLean voluntarily came to police headquarters on Saturday and a gave a statement to detectives that confirmed what the investigating had uncovered.

In a statement issued Monday, the independent nonprofit school said questions about McLean's educational and professional background arose "as a result of an internal audit process that reviewed the professional credentials of employees." The school then contacted town police and the state Education Department about what it "believed were falsified documents."

Durivage said police launched an investigation after school officials and his investigators determined McLean took someone else's administrator's certificate and forged it to appear that it had been issued to him. He also falsely claimed to have bachelor's and master's degrees and told detectives he had attended college in Jamaica in the Caribbean, Durivage said.

Police obtained the Education Department's assistance and determined that McLean lacked any state education credentials. An Education Department spokeswoman said McLean's name doesn't appear in the state databases.

"While this is an unfortunate incident, we are pleased that our internal review process identified the falsified documents and we are fully cooperating with authorities," Karen Carpenter Palumbo, CEO of Vanderheyden Hall, said in a statement.

Vanderheyden Hall, which provides services for children and adults who have experienced family disruption and emotional difficulties, dates to 1833 when the Benevolent Society of Troy, which was formed to assist indigent women and children, opened the Troy Orphan Asylum. Its name was changed to Vanderheyden Hall in 1942. The school for grades seven through 12 is located on a campus in Wynantskill, when it relocated in 1975. It has residential cottages there for youth ages 12 to 18 and operates supervised independent living apartments in Troy and group homes in Rensselaer and Saratoga counties.

Last month, the school announced it had received national certification from the Sanctuary Institute, which works with trauma-focused care and implementation of the sanctuary model of organizational change.

kcrowe@timesunion.com • 518-454-5084 • @KennethCrowe