SOUTH HADLEY — Following head of school George Simpson’s arrest on drug charges last month, a Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School task force met Thursday to decide whether he should be allowed to resign or be fired.

The results of that decision will not be made public until a special meeting Monday of the PVPA trustees. However, Simpson wrote in an email to the Gazette that the task force’s recommendation is that the board fire him.

Task force members intended to meet Simpson at the Worcester law office of the firm representing the PVPA board of trustees because Simpson is not allowed on school grounds.

However, Simpson said he was hospitalized suddenly Thursday morning and unable to attend. He said the trustees did not respond to his request that the meeting be postponed.

Simpson, 45, submitted his resignation as head of the South Hadley school on Feb. 9, but the board declined to accept it because it would have required the school to keep him in his job and pay him through June 30.

Instead, he was placed on paid leave while the task force worked out the terms of his departure.

“The resignation was not accepted in that form because its terms would have allowed him to continue as head of school,” trustees president Melinda Winter said last week.

Attorney Jim O’Connell will prepare a report based on the task force’s vote. The report will be presented at a special board meeting on Monday at 5:30 in the school’s Ladenheim Library.

Simpson said he plans to attend Monday’s meeting and discuss the issues in public. He said the board has no cause to fire him.

“I have not been arraigned by the court due to very specific circumstances related to me,” he wrote. “My attorney is currently working through all of these issues with officials in the court and I am confident that when this has been completed this matter will be resolved in my favor.”

Simpson was arrested in Reading Jan. 27 on charges of possession of heroin and methamphetamine. At the time, had an active arrest warrant out of Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown for driving with a restricted license. He is expected back in court for a pretrial hearing March 14.

Simpson assumed his role as head of the school on July 3. He was one of 27 applicants, three of whom were brought in for in-person interviews.

Prior to joining PVPA, Simpson worked as chief innovation officer for the arts in the public school system in Newark, New Jersey. Before that, he worked as district coordinator for visual and performing arts in the Cambridge Public School system, as well as administrative roles in other school systems in Boston and Los Angeles. He also worked as a music teacher in Calgary, Alberta, and as chairman of the music department at the Boston Arts Academy from 1999 to 2006.

Sarah Robertson can be reached at srobertson@gazettenet.com