Embattled former Atlanta Public Schools superintendent Beverly Hall has died, according to Channel 2 Action News.
A member of her legal team confirmed Hall’s death, the news station reported Monday afternoon.
In late January, Hall’s attorneys said she was too ill to be tried for allegedly conspiring to change students’ answers on standardized tests.
In 2008, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution broke the first of what would be several stories highlighting suspect test scores in Atlanta Public Schools and other Georgia districts. In the years that followed, the newspaper kept digging, and eventually special investigators appointed by the governor exposed widespread cheating in the APS district. The APS trial began Aug. 11, 2014, with jury selection. The trial has extended into this year.
Hall had Stage IV breast cancer, and her doctors said she was unable to endure the grueling schedule of the trial. Her case was separated from 12 former educators indicted with her who are now on trial.
Judge Jerry Baxter asked Hall’s lawyers Jan. 22 to update him on her health. “We need to try her, ” Baxter said. “Somebody said they saw her out eating the other day, so I need to know how she is doing.”
Hall’s lawyer, Richard Deane, said in an email in January that Hall was not well.
“She continues to fight Stage IV breast cancer and was, in fact, hospitalized as a result of complications from the disease on the day Judge Baxter asked for an update on her health,” he said.
Deane said Hall was in the hospital Jan. 20-24, but he did not give the reason.
Though Hall has not been in the courtroom since the trial began in September, she has been the focus of some testimony. A former APS staffer testified Hall ordered staff to shred all copies of a draft report of an internal investigation into cheating.
The investigation was launched after the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement said it suspected cheating took place on a 2008 makeup test for the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests for fifth-graders at Deerwood Academy.
APS investigated. Its former human resources director, Millicent Few, testified the investigation found there was a “high likelihood” of cheating. Few said Hall disagreed with investigator Penn Payne’s findings and ordered the drafts destroyed. Hall then assigned a member of her staff to work with Payne to downplay the criticism and produce a less-damaging final report, Few said.
— Staff writer Rhonda Cook contributed to this report.
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