Grade-fixing alleged at Franklin High

Three of Franklin High School's four counselors apparently changed grades improperly last school year to inflate the academic records of about 50 students, Seattle Public Schools officials said yesterday.

The counselors involved have been placed on paid leave while the district's investigation into grade-tampering continues. Teachers, parents and students at the school said they were surprised and dismayed by the disciplinary action.


		Meryl Schenker / P-I
	Franklin High School principal Jennifer Wiley listens to interim district Superintendent Raj Manhas talk to reporters yesterday about alleged improper changes that were made to students' grades. Wiley was named principal in June and was informed of the investigation when she took over the job in July.

The changes to student transcripts affected mostly seniors with grade-point averages close to the 2.0 threshold for a diploma, officials said. But some students with higher GPAs also benefited -- getting false credit for honors courses.

Interim district Superintendent Raj Manhas and district lawyer Mark Green said hundreds of grades were changed, apparently through unilateral action by the counselors altering computer records. It's not clear why the counselors changed the grades, they said.

The investigation, which started last spring, has turned up no evidence that parents, students or teachers requested the changes, the officials said.

"We will not allow the conduct of a few individuals to undermine the integrity of this school system or erode the public trust which we've been working hard to build, to rebuild since our financial problem," Manhas said. That "problem" was a $35 million budgetary miscalculation that led to the resignation in April of Superintendent Joseph Olchefske.

Franklin, a neoclassical red-brick school on Mount Baker Boulevard in South Seattle, enrolled 376 12th-graders last fall and graduated 339 in June. Asians make up the largest group in the ethnically diverse student body, followed by black students and white students. About 40 percent of the students qualify for federal meal subsidies for low-income families.

Green stopped short of saying that some students who graduated this year otherwise would not have if their grades hadn't been changed. Students who fall short of the 2.0 hurdle in June often can clear it by taking additional classes, he said.

The district does not plan to restore the improperly altered grades to the original marks, Manhas said. "We have no intention of hurting our students for adult behavior," he said.

None of the parents of students whose grades were changed have been notified by the district.

Manhas called the altered transcripts "significant violations of standard educational practices, district policies, and in some cases professional ethics."

The district did not name the counselors linked to the tampering, but sources identified them as Acie Dubose, Kory Kumasaka and Jolyon Raymond. None could be reached yesterday for comment.

Kumasaka is the son of Seattle School Board member Jan Kumasaka, the sources said.

Substitute counselors will be named to fill in for the three suspended. Franklin's fourth counselor, Susan Hagist, remains at the school.

The grade changes did not seem engineered to benefit athletes seeking to retain academic eligibility or any other specific group, officials said.

The investigation was sparked by allegations from "Franklin educators and other district staff," officials said. They declined to be more specific, other than to say it was not prompted by teacher complaints.

Teachers reacted with "shock and sadness" when they were informed of the investigation at a meeting at the school yesterday, industrial arts teacher Mike Lawson said. While decrying grade-changing, Lawson praised the work of the three suspended counselors in assisting students.

"I'm real sad about this," he said. "I don't want to see those guys go down."

Sara Thompson, membership chairwoman of the Franklin Parent-Teacher-Student Association, said Kory Kumasaka was the counselor assigned to her son, who graduated last year, and to her daughter, a senior this year. She said she was also familiar with Raymond's work.

"Jol and Kory bust their butts to work with kids," she said. "I think they're highly principled people.

"Jol and Kory have never been anything but supportive and positive. They've made a huge difference at that school in terms of kids getting their needs met."

Outside the school yesterday, senior Julian Scott, 17, said, "This stuff is ludicrous, it's stupid. All the counselors are really strict about the rules. I definitely think they would not do that."

But Tiana Tensely, 16, a junior, said it seems some students who receive diplomas haven't earned them.

"They don't do any work, they slide by, and all of a sudden they're graduating," she said.

The alterations included changing grades in courses that were taken years ago, Green said. But district spokeswoman Lynn Steinberg said the investigation has focused on the counselors' behavior in the 2002-03 school year and it may not extend beyond that.

Manhas emphasized that grades may be properly changed after the fact with the approval of the course instructor. But he said the investigation found many grades changed without teacher approval or appropriate documentation.

Franklin Principal Jennifer Wiley said she was informed of the investigation when she took the job in July -- the sixth principal at the school in 10 years.

"Every time you water down one diploma, you've watered down all of them," she said. "Our academic integrity, there's nothing more important than that in the schoolhouse."

District officials blamed part of the problem on the turnover in leadership at the school. Franklin High also has not filled a vacancy for a registrar, who oversees recording of grades and transcripts.

The awarding of some college scholarships, such as those sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for minority students, depends on student GPAs. But officials did not trace a connection between such programs and the grade-changing at Franklin, a school that has aggressively pursued Gates grants for its students in the past.

The scandal dominated last night's regularly scheduled parent-teacher association meeting.

"You have to ask yourself, what are they (the counselors) getting motivated by?" said one parent, Dan Caracciolo, whose daughter is a junior. "For something like this to happen, you have to wonder what might have led to this.

"This used to be a flagship school. It's not a flagship school anymore."

Caracciolo said test scores are down, the school has lost a lot of highly qualified teachers and vandalism is on the rise.

"The school has not been doing good for the last three years and the district knows that," he said.

Wiley's arrival, however, has helped turn things around this year, he said.

Earl Riley's son was a senior last year, but because he didn't earn a 2.0 in a couple of classes, he didn't graduate and he's now working to get those credits.

"I just wanted to ask if there was a pattern of ethnic groups," said Riley, who is African American. "It wasn't given to my son."

Of the counselors, he said: "If you're in that position, you just don't mess with somebody's record. Either they weren't supervised or I just don't know."

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