The top attorney for Atlanta Public Schools has been restricted from dealing with matters related to the cheating investigation because of her connection to former Superintendent Beverly Hall.
Sharron Pitts was the chief of staff for Hall for about 10 years before being appointed interim general counsel by current Superintendent Erroll Davis. She was not implicated by state investigators in the 400-plus page report on cheating released in July.
But Pitts is expected to be called as a witness by criminal prosecutors who are investigating whether to press charges against Hall and dozens of other educators named in the report, according to an internal memo obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an open records request.
In the memo, which was addressed to school board members, principals and APS officials, Superintendent Davis instructs employees to “avoid all communication, directly or indirectly, with Ms. Pitts on anything related to [cheating] cases” in order to protect the integrity of future testimony.
Instead, employees are to direct cheating matters to Glenn Brock, a well-known education law attorney who is working on a contract basis with the district. Brock also worked with the school board on accreditation issues. So far, he has been paid almost $59,000 by APS for work related to cheating cases, according to school officials.
In July, a special investigation concluded that cheating occurred in 44 schools, involving more than 178 educators, including 38 principals. The investigation came after a series of articles in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution raised questions about unlikely test gains throughout the district.
The school district is spending about $600,000 per month to pay the salaries of some 120 educators named in the report who did not resign or retire.
Pitts, who earns $211,000 annually, said she has plenty to do without overseeing legal issues related to the cheating scandal. General counsel handles legal matters ranging from real estate transactions to vendor contracts to everyday employment dealings. She flatly denied any involvement or knowledge of cheating, and said she’s been fully cooperative with investigators.
“I was with the district before Dr. Hall came,” said Pitts, who joined APS in 1996. “This is my career, and I saw no reason not to stay on. I feel like I still have a lot to contribute to the organization.”
As chief of staff Pitts’ served as the liaison between the school board and the district. She also managed communication, charter schools, community affairs and legislative affairs and government relations.
Several of Hall’s high-ranking lieutenants not named in the report still work in the school district. But many others — particularly those who worked on the academic side — left or were suspended when Davis took over in July 2011.
“I don’t want to hold it against Ms. Pitts that she had connections with a previous administration. In fact, those connections have been beneficial to me, because she’s been able to explain why things were done and the motivation behind them,” he said.
One of Hall’s last actions as superintendent was to sign a contract for Pitts to serve another year as chief of staff, according to district documents. Pitts was also appointed to serve as interim general counsel and given a $35,000 salary increase for the double duty, which expired with Hall’s term.
Pitts expressed an interest in moving back to the legal side, where she started her career with APS. Davis said there were openings in legal, but added he would have “moved her to wherever she wanted to go.”
Davis said he asked special investigators who authored the APS cheating report about Pitts. They told him she was forthright and cooperative, he said.
Former state Attorney General Mike Bowers, a special investigator who worked on the probe, said if there had been evidence Pitts cheated or knew about cheating, it would have been included in the report.
“If we thought she had done something, or if we thought there was evidence she was culpable, we would have named her,” he said.
Former U.S. Attorney Kent Alexander, who now serves as general counsel for the humanitarian organization CARE, said the school district made the right decision by restricting Pitts’ access to the cheating case.
“Part of being general counsel is providing objective advice, and when you’re part of the matter in question that becomes difficult to do,” he said. “Also, even if she knows nothing about this, the public perception might be otherwise, so stepping aside makes sense.”
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