Four Atlanta school principals, including those from campuses under the most suspicion in an ongoing test cheating probe, have retired from the city school system.

Two of the four principals — Gideons Elementary School’s Armstead Salters and Venetian Hills Elementary School’s Clarietta Davis — were reassigned to other jobs in August after a local investigating panel said wholesale changes were needed at their schools and 10 others. Salters, who was named Principal of the Year in 2008 by the National Alliance of Black School Educators, retired as of Nov. 30.

Reached at home Tuesday night, Salters, who turned 71 on Dec. 10, said he had been considering retirement for a number of years. He was principal of Gideons for 31 years.

“I thought I was needed in that community,” he told the AJC. “That’s why I stayed there so long. Technically, I could have retired a long time ago. My interest was in the children. I love children, and I wanted to be there with them. That’s why I stayed so long.”

He said the continuing investigation into test cheating “has nothing to do with my retirement. As a matter of fact, I stayed a little bit longer than I was supposed to, because I didn’t want that cloud over me.”

Davis’ last day also was Nov. 30. Venetian Hills was named a National Blue Ribbon School in 2007 in the “greatest gains” category, which was awarded to schools “with at least 40 percent economically disadvantaged students that have dramatically improved student achievement to high levels.”

The state early this year flagged 88 percent of Gideons Elementary’s classrooms for unusual erasures on student test answer sheets.

The Atlanta panel also reported several “qualified allegations” at Venetian Hills, including a student saying his teacher pointed to specific lines on his test sheet and whispered that he should erase his answers; a taped conversation during which students said their homework matched questions on the actual tests or that a teacher told them correct answers during testing; and a teacher who said some staff members returned to campus after hours to correct students’ answers.

Davis and the two other principals who retired could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

Former Whitefoord Elementary School Principal Patricia Lavant’s last day was Friday, the same day city schools closed for winter break. “I am proud to be the principal [of] Whitefoord Elementary!” says Lavant’s “principal’s message,” which was still posted on the school’s website Tuesday evening. “It is both a privilege and an honor to uphold the tradition of academic excellence that has been built here.”

Whitefoord was one of 58 city elementary and middle schools under investigation. That list also includes East Lake Elementary School, where the official last day of Principal Gwendolyn Benton will be Dec. 31, according to the system’s December personnel “gains and losses” report.

East Lake was named a 2010 National Excellence in Urban Education Honor Roll School by the National Center for Urban School Transformation.

Whitefoord and East Lake will be assigned interim leaders starting next semester. Otherwise, “the retirements don’t have any impact on the system,” spokesman Keith Bromery said.

The retirements also do not affect the state’s continuing investigation, which is expected to be completed early next year. The investigative team has subpoena power, meaning they can compel witnesses to testify.

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard has also designated two investigators as special assistant district attorneys, and said he may convene a special grand jury to decide whether criminal charges should be brought against any educators from Atlanta Public Schools.

There is no law specifically against cheating on tests, but state law prohibits falsifying state documents. Charges could also include perjury.

Already, more than 100 Atlanta educators have been reported to the state’s teacher certification commission for possible sanction, although their cases are on hold pending the outcome of the state investigation. Sanctions can range from a reprimand to loss of license.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Sunday that system officials received anonymous complaints accusing an administrator at East Lake Elementary of erasing and changing test answers on the state’s Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests but did not investigate or tell the local panel about it.

The panel conducted a local investigation from March until August into the cheating allegations, which involve the 2009 CRCT. Gov. Sonny Perdue directed state investigators in August to take over.