Texas school board discussing employment of ex-APS official

By D. Aileen Dodd

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A former Atlanta Public Schools administrator named in the cheating scandal could step down from her new job as a superintendent in suburban Dallas tonight.

Enlarge photo

John F. Rhodes, The Dallas Morning News New School Desoto ISD Superintendent Dr. Kathy Augustine (left) and board President Warren C. Seay, Jr (right) head to a closed session regarding her andher involvement in an Atlanta schools cheating investigation.

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The Board of Trustees of DeSoto Independent School District held a business meeting that ran into late Monday night to discuss a possible voluntary exit agreement with Kathy Augustine, a former APS deputy superintendent.

Augustine spent only one day at work in her new post before the DeSoto school board placed her on leave with pay while they researched her involvement in cheating on state exams at APS. Augustine, who was the No. 2 administrator behind former APS chief Beverly Hall, is being paid $188,000 a year by DeSoto. Augustine would be the highest-ranking administrator to lose a job as a result of the cheating scandal.

The board also discussed discussed in closed session listed on its the legal ramifications of ending her contract early.

“Hopefully, we will come to some sort of resolution,” said board member Sandra Wheeler said late last week.

Augustine was accused of "illegally" withholding public documents, making false statements and "aiding and abetting" Hall in "falsifying, misrepresenting or erroneously reporting the evaluation of students" on the 2009 CRCT, according to the investigation. She denies any wrongdoing.

Augustine was among a list of candidates recommended for the DeSoto superintendent vacancy. She told board members about the pending investigation into allegations of cheating at APS on the state exam, but board president Warren Seay Jr. said he had no idea she would be named in the report by special investigators.

Some DeSoto parents have asked for Augustine to step down. DeSoto parent Kim Fatica, who spoke before Monday's meeting, however, urged the board not to rush to judgment.

“America is founded on the principle that you are innocent until proven guilty,” Fatica said.

The Texas Education Code gives administrators and teachers under contract the opportunity for a hearing to determine whether there is "good cause" for a termination.

But an administrator can be dismissed for "a lack of effectiveness" if he or she has been accused of something "regardless of whether that process has been finished, " said Joey Moore, general counsel of the Texas State Teachers Association.

According to the board agenda, the DeSoto board will negotiate in private with Augustine and come out of closed session to discuss a “possible exit agreement.”

DeSoto ISD officials confirmed Monday that another high-level APS official was hoping to follow Augustine to Texas. Joyce McCloud, who worked as special assistant to the superintendent at APS, was seeking employment at DeSoto ISD. McCloud recently retired and was not implicated in the cheating investigation, but she worked closely with Hall.

"She applied to the district," said Beth Trimble, spokeswoman for DeSoto ISD.

McCloud was in the process of applying online when the investigation was released. DeSoto ISD officials said the district had a chief of staff position open at the time, that has since been withdrawn. Trimble said it was unclear what job McCloud was seeking as her application "was incomplete."

State records show McCloud was paid $144,000 in 2010 as an APS employee.