A Fulton County grand jury could hand up indictments as early as Friday in the Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating scandal.
As grand jurors met again Thursday, their second day of hearing testimony this week, district attorney’s office spokeswoman Yvette Jones said the plan is for the grand jury to be finished before the weekend.
“If they move along at a decent pace, Friday would be good,” she said.
Former state Attorney General Mike Bowers said he is expected to testify Friday. Bowers was one of three special investigators who found test cheating at APS. He declined to comment on what he might say to the grand jury.
Defense attorneys familiar with the APS case said this week that dozens of educators could be indicted in the scandal. They also said racketeering charges are expected.
Tamara Johnson, a former area director for the school system, told Channel 2 Action News that she is prepared to be criminally charged. A state investigation in 2011 accused Johnson, then known as Tamara Cotman, of failing to properly supervise test security.
“I’m anxious for the truth to be told. I’m anxious for justice to be served and our cases to be heard because we’ve waited a very long time for our day in court,” Johnson said. “I sleep well at night.”
Gov. Nathan Deal said the process is following its natural course as it heads to the courts.
“If there’s sufficient evidence to indicate an indictment or prosecution is warranted, it’s going to be in the hands of the proper authorities,” Deal said.
Kathleen Mathers, the former executive director of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, confirmed in an email that she was among the witnesses who testified Wednesday before the grand jury. She declined further comment.
Mathers oversaw an analysis of erasures on answer sheets statewide from the 2009 administration of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test, the standardized exam that largely determines whether schools in Georgia meet federal standards. The analysis found strong indications of cheating at 191 elementary and middle schools across the state — 58 of them in Atlanta. The findings led Gov. Sonny Perdue to appoint special investigators Bowers, Bob Wilson and Richard Hyde.
The three investigators found cheating occurred at 44 Atlanta schools and involved 178 educators, including 38 principals. The probes were launched after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published numerous articles that raised questions about the validity of APS test scores.
A few teachers accused of cheating asked their attorney, Charles Brant, to visit the Fulton County courthouse Thursday to find out whether they had been indicted.
“Most teachers followed instructions and did what they were told to do, and later on when they found out there was an allegation of cheating, they were surprised,” Brant said.
He said he didn’t know whether his clients will be indicted.
“They want to clear their names,” Brant said. “Ultimately, the process is going to show that they’re not … guilty of what they’re accused of.”
In the last year, dozens of educators have gone before disciplinary tribunals in an effort to win their jobs back.
Of the 178 people implicated in the state investigative report, about 150 educators resigned, retired or lost their appeals to retain their jobs. Twenty-one educators have been reinstated and three people are still awaiting tribunal appeals, said Atlanta Public Schools spokesman Stephen Alford.
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