APS fires back in CRCT probe: We’re doing our job
APS turned up the volume in its smack down with the investigatory team appointed last year by Gov. Sonny Perdue to probe CRCT cheating in district schools.
The embattled system fired off a three-page defense calling the investigators’ accusations of central office intimidation and obstruction “highly improper during a pending investigation.”
What’s interesting to me is that this intensifying battle between the state and APS pits two former DeKalb prosecutors against one another.
Former DeKalb District Attorney Bob Wilson is part of the three-person team assembled by Gov. Sonny Perdue to figure out where and how cheating occurred on the 2009 CRCT and who in APS is responsible.
One of the lawyers for APS is former DeKalb DA J. Tom. Morgan. (The other is notable Atlanta attorney Robert S. Highsmith Jr., who served as Deputy Executive Counsel for Perdue. )
Both Wilson and Morgan are well respected in DeKalb. Neither ever struck me as a wild-eyed, shoot-from-the-hip type. Wilson and Morgan both seem reasoned, rationale and calm. So, it is interesting to see them on opposite sides in this APS melt-down and trading charges.
I also find it interesting that Mike Bowers is part of the Perdue triumvirate looking into the CRCT score disparities in Atlanta schools. At the same time that Bowers is working on behalf of the state in the CRCT cheating probe, he is suing the state on behalf of Gwinnett County over the Legislature’s creation of a commission that can override local boards and approve charters.
(By the way, the Supreme Court decision in that charter school appeal should be coming soon. I hear now that a ruling could come next month, but I have been given two other dates from folks involved in the case and those dates have come and gone. In other words, the Supremes move at their own pace.)
–By Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get School blog.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
98 comments Add your comment
ScienceTeacher671
February 20th, 2011
7:08 pm
If they are working for the public, wouldn’t the bills have to be released per the state’s open government laws?
I still don’t understand why the AJC can’t provide a link to a copy of the letters, since it apparently does have such copies.
Dr. John Trotter
February 20th, 2011
7:10 pm
A careful reading of the State’s Open Records Act will reveal that all firms, SACS, companies, 501(c)3s, etc., which receive monies from the State (the Atlanta school system in this case) will have its documents subject to this act. Of course, there are many caveats within the law…like active investigations, etc. But, an entity does not have to be a government entity per se to be subject to the Open Records Act. If your company or firm is receiving State monies, it too is subject. I just re-read the statute the other day.
Dr. John Trotter
February 20th, 2011
7:13 pm
It is my understanding that Obstruction of Justice falls under RICO. I am not saying that anyone in APS has committed this crime, but the State Boys came mighty close to saying it in the three-page letter sent to APS this past week.
Georgia Coach
February 20th, 2011
7:15 pm
John, the law firms are charging more than $480 a year and are delivering far more value to their clients.
catlady
February 20th, 2011
7:20 pm
I think, given the broad nature of the problem, RICO indictments would be in order. How long would some of these folks last in the Pen?
Top School
February 20th, 2011
7:31 pm
Open Records do not apply to the Professional Standards Commission.
Warren Fortson and John Grant run the show…and expunge at will.
So their determination that BEVERLY HALL and Kathy Augustine…along with Principal Lorraine B. Reich are all a mystery???
…Reported… exonerated…Cleared…in Reich’s own words.
ScienceTeacher671
February 20th, 2011
7:55 pm
Dunno, catlady, isn’t the federal pen a nicer place than state prison? I remember Jim Bakker spent some time with the feds in Jesup.
Jay
February 20th, 2011
8:03 pm
Never before have I witnessed a group of people so drunk on so little power. And what are they even debating? Whether it’s okay for schools to cheat on the CRCT? No wonder their students are borderline retarded.
Teacher
February 20th, 2011
8:09 pm
RICO indictments, okay….. we are making progress in plans to deal with these APS criminals. Some bodies may really be going to jail!!! It couldn’t be too soon.
Judge Smails
February 20th, 2011
8:12 pm
What do all the schools have in common that are in trouble? Look at Dekalb BOE and APS…..looks like people who have absolutely no skills (or intellectual capability for that matter) at running anything are put in charge. Kind of like the saying “A ………could mess up an anvil”
Buckhead Elite
February 20th, 2011
8:14 pm
It is soooo easy to make money off you idiots and send my kids to Pace……
amazed
February 20th, 2011
8:20 pm
Hall and cohorts are the Mubaraks of Atlanta. They don’t realize it is over. They are just making things worse for the sytem and themselves. The problem with sending Hall packing early is that any interim superintendent from within the system would probably be worse.
And the board is being silent through all this indicating they approve. Hopefully the C of C advertises its endorsements in the next election so everyone can vote against them.
APS Parent #2
February 20th, 2011
8:22 pm
@Buckhead Elite, at least you are honest (so I guess you don’t work at 130 Trinity).
Too bad that so many us “idiots” have kids attending APS schools because your children who graduate from Pace (1) won’t have educated workers to fill the jobs in the companies they run and (2) will have to pay out the wazoo for the prisons needed to incarcerate the worst of our children. Atlanta is one community even if you are living in a gated-subdivision. What affects one will affect another.
Buckhead Elite
February 20th, 2011
8:31 pm
Uh…No. The educated workers I hire have obtained their work visas and realize what an opportunity it is to have an education. The “students” in APS should be wearing leg irons and incarcerated as this is the legacy they have chosen…….
APS Parent #2
February 20th, 2011
8:52 pm
As we are planning forward, please touch base with your state representative to ensure that they open the floodgate for immigrants with work visas. There are a lot of APS children (who did not chose at the age of 6 when they entered into school their legacy – that is a failure of their parents – I am one – I will bear that label) who are going to need a prison bed. If all of the APS children are wearing leg irons, someone will need to build those prisons.
PS – Can you do it sooner rather than later? I think they’ll be sharing the jail with many who are currently known as APS employees at the address of 130 Trinity!!
God bless you for being a better parent than me.
Yankee
February 20th, 2011
8:55 pm
@Buckhead Elite
Like all private schools south of the Mason-Dixon (save for St. Albans and Sidwell Friends), Pace is a joke. You’re obviously parvenu trash.
Burroughston Broch
February 20th, 2011
8:58 pm
Maureen, you wrote, “What’s interesting to me is that this intensifying battle between the state and APS pits two former DeKalb prosecutors against one another.” I hope that you are joking because the prosecutors involved are a sideline to the main event.
The last I remember you were still riding the fence about Beverly Hall’s culpability in this sordid matter. Do you still feel the same and, if so, why?
Old School
February 20th, 2011
9:03 pm
I don’t understand. Is APS ‘trying” to lose its accreditation?
Ralph Long
February 20th, 2011
9:05 pm
Enter your comments here
Karma
February 20th, 2011
9:05 pm
I agree with b. Beach above. I thought about posting the same earlier, but it’s so just not important. As long as the people with the handcuff keys know what the real issue is, I don’t really care what Maureen thinks.
Karma
February 20th, 2011
9:07 pm
Sorry broch not beach, my dyslexia is showing
Ralph Long
February 20th, 2011
9:07 pm
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/26933320/detail.html
Lawmaker Proposes Bill To Protect APS Whistleblowers
Posted: 5:36 pm EST February 20, 2011
Updated: 5:54 pm EST February 20, 2011
ATLANTA — State investigators said Atlanta Public School officials have been intimidating and threatening teachers who want to report cheating for 10 years. Now, Channel 2 Action News is learning about a lawmaker’s proposal to protect whistleblowers who were once too afraid to speak out.
Rep. Ralph Long said he is introducing legislation to put a stop to the threats and intimidation.
Long said it’s an injustice that some Georgians have been too scared to tell the truth. He said he believes the bill would help clear the air. He said he was hopeful Atlanta Public School leaders would read the fine print and realize change is coming.
Channel 2 Action News reporter Erica Byfield went by Superintendent Beverly Hall’s listed address on Sunday afternoon to ask her what she thinks of House Bill 206, but no one answered.
Long told Byfield he drafted the bill about two weeks ago after receiving e-mail after e-mail from concerned Atlanta Public School employees that were worried that speaking out could leave them with a black mark on their record. Some said they were worried they would be fired.
“This kind of reform gives…it a solution for what is kind of chaotic, for what is going on with APS,” said Long.
A former APS employee told Channel 2 Action News about his concerns on Friday.
“You knew to keep your mouth shut and stay in line and if you wanted to do right by your kids you just had to stay in your classroom,” said former teacher Michael Neville.
Long said House bill 206 will give leaders within the Office of Professional Standards greater powers while giving whistleblowers an arena to voice concerns without fear of retaliation. He said it will also improve the ability to punish those who file false claims.
In recent weeks, Channel 2 Action News broke the story that state investigators are accusing APS officials of intimidating and threatening educators, along with the so-called “go to Hell” memos that an executive allegedly asked principals to send to Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents.
Long said it was disgraceful.
“For that particular employee of APS, I send her a strong message that the law is going to come down on her and it’s going to come down very heavy,” said Long.
Long said a committee should hear the bill this week.
The Atlanta School Board is scheduled to hold an emergency meeting to talk about the new developments in the cheating investigation Monday at 4 p.m.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will have more about the investigation in Monday’s paper.
Channel 2 Action News and the AJC worked in partnership to break this story.
Copyright 2011 by WSBTV.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A dad
February 20th, 2011
9:09 pm
The arrogance of the Atlanta School Board is legend. They are more concerned with preserving their own power in their own little empire than doing anything constructuve for our children’s eduction, their future. FIRE THEM ALL I say, and hire real educators, not meglomaniacs. God riddance to them all.
Dr. John Trotter
February 20th, 2011
9:11 pm
As long as Beverly Hall and her minions stay, the stench of inpropriety remains. School board, what are you waiting on? Metaphorically speaking, the peasants have grabbed their pitchforks and are about to cross the moats and storm the castle. It will not get better. Only worse.
APS Parent #2
February 20th, 2011
9:14 pm
Take a look at the six-month gap in the SACS report. If SACS was willing to start its “story” with the November 2009 “paradigm shift” (which is a fancy word for the November elections); skip over the board leadership of LaChandra Butler-Burks which led to the state taking over the botched CRCT investigation that she worked so hard with Dr. Hall, the Chamber and the AEF to help cook up; and then return to the story in June after the 5 had taken over board leadership through a loophole (but it was a legal loophole), then of course APS knows that SACS will do anything they want.
The SACS issue is just a scare tactic to keep the parents in line. If the parents really figured this situation out, then APS and its leaders downtown would have mob rule for sure.
Dr. John Trotter
February 20th, 2011
9:19 pm
The SACS Report, in my opinion, was simply an attempt to defend Beverly Hall and the four minority school board members. Representative Ralph Long, keep up your good work! Kudos to you!
Chris Murphy, Atlanta, GA
February 20th, 2011
9:19 pm
@Dr Spinks: I took figures from the state and AJC finding the number of 8th & 9th graders in a year and then finding their respective classes 5 and 4 years later. The numbers enrolled as seniors were down almost 40%, and the graduation rate, using these figures, was about 45%- right where they were when Hall was hired.
Karma
February 20th, 2011
9:23 pm
Thank you, Ralph Long! You, sir, are awesome.
Now, what exactly is Hall’s address? Someone needs to roll her house and order 999 pizzas to be delivered. Well maybe not the pizzas. She’d pay for them with the SPLOST $$$ she keeps in her piggy bank then eat all of it in one sitting, afterwards she would be so huge that you couldn’t pry her out of APS with a tub of vaseline and a crowbar, which is how her driver now gets her into and out of the nail salon.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Augusta
February 20th, 2011
9:27 pm
Chris Murphy, ATL, GA:
Thanks for the information about the APS grad rate.
Where might we find answers to my other questions?
Chris Murphy, Atlanta, GA
February 20th, 2011
9:36 pm
Hasn’t the state/regents started to require to track students vis a vis their high school vs. their college record, and the number of ‘remedial’ students coming from each high school?
APS Parent #2
February 20th, 2011
9:43 pm
@Chris, come on – do you really think that APS and Dr. Hall’s office wouldn’t find some way to work those numbers out like they have the graduation rate and the CRCT scores? If you practice something long enough, you get really, really good at it. Read the Outliers book!
chillywilly
February 20th, 2011
9:59 pm
Rep. Long – Will HB 206 protect central office or “non teaching employees”? I believe that there are some central office employees who would like to blow the whistle on some folks in Finance, Human Resources, and Technology. They are reluctant to do so because they believe Penn Payne will investigate and then clear the administrators of any wrongdoing. I heard that she has investigated about 5 charges against Controller Nader Sohrab by female employees and cleared him in every one of them. Three of the five employees no longer work for APS. Two were terminated by him & I heard the other one resigned because she couldn’t take his abuse any more. Please reopen every case that Penn Payne investigated that involved APS Finance employees.
Thank you for taking a brave stand and speaking out on behalf of “The People”. You definitely have my vote.
Ralph Long
February 20th, 2011
11:38 pm
@chillywilly,
The legislation protects all state employees, not just teachers. Please feel free to review the bill on http://www.legis.ga.gov or on my Facebook page.
Thank you for your encouragement.
Larry Major
February 21st, 2011
3:54 am
If the Supremes wait a little longer, the reasons behind the lawsuit may not exist.
According to the 1/20 QBE update, the Charter Commission Local Revenue (the amount the Commission deducts from the host school systems) now stands at $2887 per student. Not only is this down dramatically from last year’s $4163 that prompted the lawsuit, but it’s within range of the $2534 mentioned in the original complaint.
When the Commission started applying the 5 mill buy-in to Commission Schools, the only public schools that were exempt from this deduction, their stated logic was, “This does result in a reduction in QBE funds available for Commissions schools, but it does ensure that all students are being funded equitably in QBE dollars.”
The inescapable conclusion is that if this year’s 30 percent reduction in Commission School funding made it equitable, then last year’s funding was significantly too high. Essentially, the Commission is now on record stating the plaintiff school systems’ complaints about over-funding were legitimate.
It would have been nice if the state addressed this issue before deciding to force a Supreme Court case.
catlady
February 21st, 2011
7:09 am
Representative Long, make it airtight, and REQUIRE the PSC to fairly investigate. Perhaps have a commission to whom you can appeal? I’ve been told by the lawyer that travels from school to school telling the teachers how they can lose their license, that there ARE actually no protections from retribution (which I think is what you want to address). It needs to be airtight, sir, and come with jail time for those who do not follow it!
Toto: Exposing naked body scanners...
February 21st, 2011
8:04 am
The world according to Bill Gates….
Why citizens can’t trust the MSM and how it enables government corruption:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014280379_gatesmedia.html
The original FOUNTAINHEAD of corruption: Congressman McFadden, Congressional floor speech, 1934.
http://home.hiwaay.net/~becraft/mcfadden.html
Dr NO
February 21st, 2011
8:20 am
This situation becomes more sad/hilarious by the day. Now we have administrators encouranging teachers to non-cooperative with the darn GBI investigation. This is the height of arrogance or ignorance. Not sure which.
I think RICO statutes, as one blogger previously indicated, will come into play. Some of these people are earning themselves some REAL jailtime. Perhaps the concerned black clergy needs to once again step in and save whatever they are trying to save, from itself.
The entire APS board should go strait to f-ing jail.
Inman Park Boy
February 21st, 2011
8:37 am
Lawyers have an old saying: “When you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull****.” Sounds like APS is doing the second. We have all seen the “Go To He**” memo produced by an APS administrator. That’s called prima facie evidence in most courts.
tim
February 21st, 2011
8:43 am
There’s a very bad odor coming from Beverly Halls lyin mouth. Time for the gov’t to bring down the hammer.
Bev…you need mouthwash!
David Sims
February 21st, 2011
8:57 am
@Bobby, who wrote: “Beverly Hall is a disgrace to her profession as well as APS. … MLK must be rolling in his crypt this month at what is posing as leadership at APS.”
You might not know about Martin Luther King Jr. as well as you think you do. He was at least as corrupt as Beverly Hall is. Beverly Hall hasn’t, so far as I know, committed repeated adultery against a spouse with gigolos at drunken sex parties, paying them with APS funds. Since she hasn’t yet stooped quite that low, she’s still “one up” on MLK.
justbrowsing
February 21st, 2011
9:28 am
Thank you Representative Long for proposing this legislation. I know far too many excellent teachers who have spoken out and lost their jobs, while others feared reprisal due to the threats, intimidation, and just plain bullying they witnessed. They bully teachers into a place of silence, and as a result, the dirt is shuffled under the rug, until issues such as a cheating scandal threaten to impact the economic conditions of the city. So much retaliation occurs in the schools it is just plain pathetic.
David Sims
February 21st, 2011
9:51 am
@Toto: I learned of the assassination of Louis T. McFadden in White Nationalist School. It was almost certainly carried out by persons contracted for that purpose by bankers within the Federal Reserve System, who wished to kill McFadden in revenge for his exposing their scheme to the American public. As things unfortunately turned out, the bankers got their way, anyhow, and the murder was disguised as “heart failure due to indigestion” or some such rot, after two previous attempts on McFadden’s life (one shooting and one poisoning) had failed.
Whereas I can easily imagine that Bill Gates knows why the mainstream media can’t be trusted to show the public a reasonably complete and accurate picture of events in our world, and whereas I expect that Bill Gates knows fully well how the media abuse emphasis, omission, and illusion in what they choose to cover, and to what extent, in order to lead the public to erroneous opinions without *quite* telling them lies, I would be very surprised if Bill Gates had the moral courage to say exactly who the bosses of the mainstream media are.
The media bosses will tolerate a bit of criticism. But the moment you convey, in one of your criticisms, that these media bosses mostly belong to the same ethnic group, and do you identify which, you’ll discover that nobody is quite so large socially that the media bosses can’t trash his reputation and then get law enforcement to hound him for crimes that were invented in the media bosses’ imaginations.
Ralph Long
February 21st, 2011
10:21 am
@Catlady,
The legislation is intended to give the PSC the power they need to protect our teachers and principals. This is just the start of the discussion. There will be amendments made during the Committee process. I sat down with the Commissioner of PSC when I wrote the bill and have his full support. I expect someone from the PSC to testify once we get a hearing on the bill.
Thanks for your support and suggestions.
PracticalWiz
February 21st, 2011
1:44 pm
During those times when a corrupt regimes are challenged, there is bound to be a great deal of fallout. Where are the leaders of ethical consciousness — Who should be trustees of whats right and whats wrong? Where are the teachers unions — who should be leading the protests? Where are the parents — who should know whether their kids are capable of passing reading and math tests?
observer of this place
February 21st, 2011
2:13 pm
Get ‘em APS- nobody tells you what to do. Not the state, not the parents, not the kids who need an education.
My gosh, when does this crap stop? It isn’t just an APS problem, but the adults who are running this place are running this place into the ground. Where is your pride, your dignity, your professionalism? When did you lose your love for what brought you into this craft? It isn’t just a job, it is a craft, a profession. There has to be a stopping point for all of this. When do we all stand up and demand accountability?
Top School
February 22nd, 2011
12:37 pm
This looks very familiar…
Just before noon on Feb. 11, Hawkins said, Cotman summoned her to a meeting. Cotman told her she was being relieved of duty at Scott and would be transferred to her former job as instructional specialist at W.T. Jackson Elementary. Hawkins said Cotman told her to clear out her office and relinquish keys to the school by 5 p.m. — and to leave without telling her staff.
Hawkins’ departure during school hours, however, elicited tears from her and her colleagues, leaving her feeling “publicly humiliated,” the investigators related.
Later that day, Channel 2 Action News reported on an AJC investigation of Cotman’s instructions to the principals. By the next morning, Mazyck had notified Hawkins that she would remain Scott’s interim principal.
On Feb. 14, a day after the AJC’s article appeared, the district reassigned Cotman. Hawkins went to work as usual.
They are attempting to get JACKSON PRINCIPAL , LORRAINE REICH, involved in the bullying of this individual.
Reich is the ring leader in this case. She has assured APS Administrators that the NORTHSIDE connected folk can handle this situation.
Reich is Cotman’s mentor.
http://www.TopPublicSchoolCorruptionAtlanta.com
Angry Parents
February 23rd, 2011
12:54 pm
@Buckhead Elite,
You must be a racist to say (The “students” in APS should be wearing leg irons and incarcerated as this is the legacy they have chosen…….). These are your exact words taken from above. I could hit below the belt and say something very ugly about you and your family. But what would it accomplish!! Watch what you say because it will come back to bite you in the butt!!!!
chillywilly
February 23rd, 2011
1:39 pm
Let’s get one thing straight once and for all; APS graduates some of the best and brightest students in the State. Below is a link to one of thier very bright graduates (Ralph Jones, Jr. from Douglass High School).
HOWEVER, I still think that Beverly Hall, Millicent Few, Chandra Burks, Penn Payne, Chuck Burbridge, Nader Sohrab, Veleter Mazyck and Keith Bromery should be sent to prison.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2agV6yggyhk