Three Boone County Schools administrators are in trouble for how they implemented a controversial learning program developed by Facebook.

Superintendent Randy Poe, Camp Ernst Middle School Principal Stephanie Hagerty and Conner Middle School Principal James Brewer didn’t follow the proper laws and procedures when they implemented the Summit Learning Platform, according to investigation reports from the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability.

Summit will remain in place with no disruptions, but Poe, Hagerty and Brewer have been ordered to complete training on the authority of school boards and local School-Based Decision Making councils. Poe has to complete three hours of training. Hagerty and Brewer have to complete nine hours each.

Brewer did not respond to requests for comment, but Poe, Hagerty and Boone County school board member Ed Massey downplayed the reports. The problem is not with Boone County Schools, Massey said, but with confusing, conflicting guidance from state agencies.

School leaders did what state officials advised them to do, Massey said. Now, those same school leaders are in trouble because different state officials are saying they messed up. And the punishment? State-led training.

The rulings are “wrong and misleading,” Massey said.

“(The law) is absolutely not clear. It’s conflicting,” he said. “My gut impression is that people are complaining, and people that are in a position of authority … sometimes cater to the loudest voices.”

Summit Learning Platform is an online program developed by Facebook and a group of California-based charter schools. Boone County Schools got the program for free and launched it at three middle schools this past year, with plans to expand in the future.

School officials say it allows students to work at their own pace and frees up teachers for more one-on-one instruction.

But some parents are so enraged by Summit and how it was implemented that they yanked their children from the district. They say school officials lied about what Summit is and pushed the program through too quickly.

Here’s what the Office of Education Accountability reports say:

Superintendent Poe “usurped the authority" of the Boone County Board of Education by allowing his principals to enter into agreements with Summit without first getting approval from the board.

Principals Hagerty and Brewer broke state rules by implementing Summit without getting approval from their School-Based Decision Making councils. The state says Summit is a curriculum and thus requires council approval. School officials disagree.

Hagerty called a special meeting to amend the council minutes from the previous year to show the council adopting Summit. Council members refused to amend the minutes, as there were new members who were not part of the prior year’s meetings. They later decided it was a moot point, as they do not consider Summit a curriculum that needs approval.

Two days before the start of the 2016-17 school year, the Summit program was expanded at Camp Ernst school. That resulted in “many additional teachers” assigned to use Summit who had not gone through the training.

It is unclear who determined that Summit aligns with Kentucky State Standards. Boone County middle school teachers spent a professional development day in February working to align Summit with the standards. However, that happened six months after the program had already been implemented.

More:Facebook program causes controversy at Boone County Schools

The state rulings confirm what many parents already knew, but the punishment – mandatory training – is paltry, said Jeremy Storms, who moved his daughter this year from Camp Ernst to a private school. Storms thinks Boone County officials broke the rules on purpose because they knew they would only get a slap on the wrist.

“It’s a joke,” he said. “Nobody has any consequences in any of this stuff. … Yeah, they have to go to training. Big deal. They get a day off to go sit in a seminar.”

Hagerty said parents, students and teachers are still excited and overwhelmingly supportive of Summit.

“I’ve been in education for almost 14 years, and I’ve never heard kids say, ‘Can we get going?’” That happens with Summit, she said. “Everyone wins here.”

Storms said that characterization is a lie.

“They are absolutely covering their butts,” he said. “So many people are so angry. … I don’t trust Boone County at this point, in any way, shape or form. Until the present administration leaves.”

Summit was born on the West Coast. It started with a group of charter schools in California and Washington, and then in 2014, Facebook got involved. Facebook devoted a team of engineers to help develop the technology side of the program, and Summit started offering its platform, for free, to schools around the country.

Now, more than 130 schools in more than 27 states are using Summit, including several in Kentucky.

Summit uses what's called blended learning, where students spend part of the day on a computer learning on their own, and part of the day in a more traditional classroom setting, often doing projects. Students have individual online profiles, where they, their parents and their teachers can track academic progress.

There’s a lot of hype surrounding the platform. Many believe it could be the answer to one of education’s biggest ails: How to best teach every student in a classroom when there are so many different levels and skill sets to consider.

There’s also a lot of wariness, particularly surrounding data-sharing and Facebook’s involvement.

Over Christmas break this past school year, Mirna Eads made a decision. Her son, then in seventh grade at Camp Ernst, was struggling with Summit and kept asking to be homeschooled. Eads tried pulling him out of all the Summit classes, but he was still so far behind. It wasn’t getting better.

So, she put her house on the market and moved to Fort Thomas. She enrolled her son in Highlands Middle School, and he’s doing great, she said.

Summit might work for some children, she said, but not for hers.

And, anyway, “my kid is not a guinea pig.”