Suburban Dallas parents are outraged that their new superintendent wasn’t fired after she was implicated in an Atlanta standardized test cheating scandal.
Kathy Augustine, a former deputy superintendent at Atlanta Public Schools, only spent one day at the office before the DeSoto ISD Board of Trustees placed her on leave with pay so they could determine what to do about her contract.
Augustine has begun earning $188,000 a year without putting in the work, parents complain. The DeSoto board knew APS was under investigation for test cheating. But Augustine, APS’ former second in command, has consistently denied any wrongdoing. Parents say Augustine, who was hired on a 4-2 vote, should not have been chosen to run the 9,000-student district.
“They are paying her to sit,” said DeSoto mom Shannon Thomas, who has two children in the district. “Our board who hired Ms. Augustine could have done a better job. They looked past the fact that she was under investigation. We really want her out. We are petitioning for her to resign.”
Thomas was among more than 200 people in a standing-room-only crowd to attend the DeSoto Independent School District’s board meeting called Monday specifically to discuss Augustine’s future.
DeSoto ISD board president Warren Seay Jr. said Tuesday the board placed Augustine on leave because it needed some time to discuss whether they have cause to terminate her under the conditions set forth in her contract. The board also has questions about how much they would have to pay her if they let her go and is mulling whether the district could move on with Augustine at the helm under a cloud.
“Based on every indication we had, we were confident that she would not be named in the investigation,” Seay said. “There are some things in the report that troubled the board. We are taking all of that into consideration and we are working as a board and with Doctor Augustine to resolve things quickly.”
Augustine was one of several candidates referred for the job by Illinois-based BWP & Associates, which conducted a background check on Augustine.
“We communicated that to the Board of Trustees that there was an investigation involving cheating on standardized tests,” said George McShan, a director with BWP. “She discussed it during her interview. A board makes the decision to interview candidates and hire a superintendent. There were other people interviewed and they made that decision.”
With knowledge of the APS investigation, Augustine was approved as DeSoto’s new superintendent in May. At the same time a state special investigative team looked into her involvement in cheating on the 2009 Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test at Atlanta Public Schools, finding evidence of cheating at 44 campuses, involving 178 teachers and principals.
Investigators accused Augustine of “illegally” withholding public documents, making false statements and “aiding and abetting” former Atlanta schools Superintendent Beverly Hall in “falsifying, misrepresenting or erroneously reporting the evaluation of students.” According to the report, investigators said she “either knew or should have known that cheating and other misconduct was occurring in schools in the APS system.”
Augustine denies the allegations and told parents at the DeSoto board meeting not to rush to judgment.”I want to be clear that I was neither involved in or aware of the kind of behavior that has been uncovered,” Augustine said. “I’d like you to know how shocked and saddened I was about what I’ve learned. It literally broke my heart.”
Whether Augustine is fired may hinge on defining whether there is “good cause” to remove her as defined by her contract, which obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 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 they have been accused of something “regardless of whether that process has been finished,” said Joey Moore, general counsel of the Texas State Teachers Association.
Metro Atlanta prosecutors are weighing whether the allegations in the investigative report merit criminal charges.
Herb Garrett, executive director of the Georgia School Superintendents Association, said firing a superintendent can be costly even if they were only there a short time. “If they have a contract, they may have to pay,” Garrett said.
The Dallas Morning News contributed to this article.
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