If Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Erroll Davis thought educators ensnared in a cheating investigation were going leave quietly, he now knows the district is in for a fight.
Four of APS's top administrators, each named in a state investigation into test cheating, denied any knowledge of cheating Tuesday and said they will fight for their jobs. Their stance appears to be typical of employees named in the report.
With only today left in a three-day grace period for APS employees named in the probe to walk away or otherwise face termination, only four of them had taken the district up on its encouragement for them to quit their jobs -- two on Tuesday and two on Monday. The district declined to release their names; a spokesman said it had not compiled a list.
APS, it appears, is on the verge of a long and costly journey to fire nearly 200 employees, as a mass of resignations appeared Tuesday to be a waning prospect.
Sharon Davis-Williams, Michael Pitts, Robin Hall and Tamara Cotman, all area superintendents named in the cheating report, told Channel 2 Action News they did not cheat or condone cheating in the local schools they oversaw. An attorney representing the four said there are no documents proving his clients cheated.
“I am going to fight not just for the job, but I had a reputation and career and a focus on serving children,” said Cotman, who the district reassigned earlier this year for allegedly telling principals during the probe to pen “go to hell” memos to GBI agents.
Barring a last-minute flood of departures, Davis will have to make good on his vow that those "who confessed to or were implicated in wrongdoing will lose the opportunity to serve the children," according to a letter he sent to those employees late last week.
Davis has already estimated that it will take at least four months to get through the process of firing them. It could take longer given the numbers who may stay on to fight. Davis has given no firm estimate for the cost of that fight, but it is likely to total millions of dollars given the legal rights of employees and the simultaneous need to replace them in classrooms. Some also continue to be paid while in limbo.
Professional groups and attorneys representing some of the teachers said Tuesday they were not surprised there was no exodus from the system.
"The appeal of that is you have a resignation on your record instead of a termination," said Tim Callahan of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE), the state's largest teachers' advocacy group. The group is providing legal assistance to nearly two dozen members implicated in the report.
"In some cases, the facts may well warrant a serious consideration of resigning. But in other cases, it does not," Callahan said. "The educators involved in this should not falsely believe just because you resign, it goes away."
Among complaints PAGE and other groups have heard from employees is that the report contains inaccuracies and inconsistencies, with some teachers complaining of bullying behavior. Sharona Thomas-Wilson, a teacher at Finch Elementary accused in the report of cheating, told the AJC Saturday that investigators interrogated her for more than three hours and yelled at her, saying she would "regret" denying that she cheated.
Employees have contractual and legal rights to due process. According to state law, when a district moves to suspend or fire a teacher, principal or other district employee, it must tell the employee for what cause. The employee is then entitled to a hearing to defend himself or herself. The employee can also appeal to the state.
Separate from the district's efforts, a state agency that polices state teaching credentials is also expected to review the cases and can issue its own punishments if it so chooses.
Sanctions by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission range from a reprimand to loss of a teaching license, which remain on an educator's record regardless of whether they resign. The commission is expected to review the APS cases starting in September.
Gov. Nathan Deal released the investigative report July 5. Culminating a 10-month investigation, it found widespread cheating and said ex-schools chief Beverly Hall ignored a culture of cover-ups and obstruction that blossomed during her 12-year tenure.
More than 800 pages in length, it named 178 educators, including 38 principals, as participants in cheating, including erasing and correcting mistakes on students' answer sheets. It concentrated on, but was not limited to, state tests given in 2009.
More than 80 APS employees confessed. The investigators said they uncovered evidence of cheating in 44 of 56 schools they examined. There are 104 schools in APS.
Some APS employees could face criminal charges. More than a half-dozen of Hall's top staff have already lost or left their jobs in the scandal's wake, with more likely to fall.
Robin Hall, the area superintendent who was accused of failing to properly monitor the CRCT while principal of Beecher Hills, said she believes there was some cheating at schools, just not hers.
“I don’t think cheating occurred at my school and I don’t see how I could have had anything to do with it,” she told Channel 2.
Staff writer Jamie Sarrio contributed to this report.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
- While there have been some calls for educators implicated in the scandal to lose their pensions, Jeffrey Ezell, executive director of the Teacher Retirement System of Georgia, said Tuesday state law first requires a criminal conviction. If that were to happen, members who joined the retirement system on or before July 1, 1985, could draw on existing benefits but would be prohibited from accruing more. Members who joined the system after July 1,1985, would lose benefits by an amount equal to three times the economic impact of their crime. Membership in the system is mandatory. Members normally start receiving their pension after 30 years of service, or after 10 years of service if they are at least 60 years old. -- Kristina Torres
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