Report details grade-fixing allegations at Wyandanch middle school
In April 2023, parents of many students at Milton L. Olive Middle School in Wyandanch received a letter from the school: Their child was failing two or more core courses, and their promotion to the next grade was in jeopardy.
To help reverse it, the students “must attend” a five-week-long program at the school called “Spring Credit Recovery Evening Academy,” the letter said.
Scores of students in grades 6-8 were enrolled in the program. But investigators the Wyandanch school board hired months later found that the program did not comply with state standards, and the course grades of at least 47 students who were in the program had been changed, according to findings from a report submitted to the board this past April. Those changes were made not necessarily based on performance but whatever numerical grade would allow the student to pass the course, investigators noted.
"It is not clear how many of these 47 students actually demonstrated the proficiency to be advanced to the next course," wrote investigators with the law firm Bond, Schoeneck & King, which has offices in Garden City and Melville.
What’s also unclear is how many of the eighth-graders among the nearly four dozen students went on to attend high school when they may not have demonstrated the proficiency to graduate from middle school.
The report, recently obtained by Newsday, sheds light on the details of the investigation into alleged grade-fixing at the middle school, problems with the credit recovery program at the heart of the probe, and the roles allegedly played by three administrators who were reassigned to work from home last fall. Newsday obtained a redacted copy of the report, totaling nearly 400 pages, months after filing a Freedom of Information Law request. The names of those interviewed by investigators were redacted.
Attorneys at Bond, Schoeneck & King interviewed 27 people and reviewed hundreds of pages of documentation.
The district paid Bond, Schoeneck & King $151,231 to conduct the investigation. In 2023-24, the three administrators’ pay totaled $549,191, according to a Newsday analysis of educators' pay.
The most serious allegation, that district employees inflated Regents exams scores, was unfounded, according to the investigators.
Two of the three reassigned administrators, Assistant Principal Kimberly Clinton and Christine Jordan, the district’s assistant superintendent for administrative and instructional accountability, continue to work in the district. They were reinstated by a new superintendent in July.
Interim Superintendent Larry Aronstein said the two are "doing a wonderful job" and he's "very pleased" with their performance.
The other reassigned administrator, Principal Shannon Burton, was reinstated at the same time as Clinton and Jordan but resigned in September before pleading guilty to disorderly conduct, a violation but not a crime, last month in connection to an incident where he allegedly threatened an ex-girlfriend's boyfriend.
Burton declined to comment for this story. Clinton and Jordan did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Investigators determined that the reassigned administrators "participated in the entry of illegitimate course grades for students.”
Two interim superintendents in charge of the district reached drastically different decisions on what to do with the three administrators.
Former interim Superintendent Arlise Carson, who led the district for the 2023-24 school year that ended in June, recommended firing them, while her successor, Aronstein, reinstated them July 2, the day after he took charge of the district.
Carson, through her attorney, Peter J. Famighetti, declined to comment on why she recommended termination.
Over the summer, Carson sent the district a notice of her intent to file a lawsuit against it, seeking $1.5 million in damages and citing emotional, economical and reputational losses when the board denied her a contract to become permanent superintendent.
Aronstein said the credit recovery program was well intended but not well developed. “It was a concept without a plan,” he said.
Much of the investigation centered on the program. It rose out of the ambition of a new principal, Burton, who said his goal was to make the district better than “Dix Hills, Islip and Manhasset" when he interviewed with the school board for the leadership role, according to interview notes included in the report.
Burton said he intended to do so by “removing the stigma" associated with the Wyandanch community by "raising the bar,” according to the same interview notes.
Burton was hired in July 2022. In 2022-23, the middle school had about 580 students and 94% of them were considered economically disadvantaged. Students there mostly performed below state averages when it comes to proficiency in tests, according to state assessment data. The district itself has been under state monitorship since 2020.
Burton, 45, of Yonkers, had worked in Yonkers public schools from 2000 through 2010. As of Friday, his certificates to work as an administrator and teach math in grades 7-12 were still effective.
To staff the credit recovery program, the school was to recruit 18 teachers and an administrator, according to budget plans included in the report. Each teacher was budgeted for $45 an hour for 30 hours, which translated to a five-week program with three days each week and two hours each of those days.
By April 2023, the letter went out to parents to enroll students in the program.
The state Education Department does not specify how a makeup credit program should run but stated that it shall ensure students receive “equivalent, intensive” instruction in the subject area.
The Wyandanch program was to close learning gaps, as the school noted in the letter to parents. What the parents didn’t know was how it was going to do that. Neither did the teachers.
In interviews with the investigators, teachers said they had no curriculum and minimal guidance from Burton on what students were supposed to accomplish.
One teacher said it functioned like a “study hall” where he or she did not teach but monitored as students finished their homework from their classroom teachers. Others described it as after-school extra help or a tutoring session. Some developed lessons for students, gave new assignments and graded classwork, according to interview notes from the report.
But in some cases, the sole metric was that students attend the sessions, which then conferred to a passing grade for the program, according to the same interview notes from the report.
In an email to teachers sent in May 2023 under the subject of “Have Fun With Credit Recovery,” Burton asked the teachers to provide work for the students to complete. It could be Regents review or writing, he wrote, according to a copy of the email included in the report.
After the program ended in June 2023, Clinton, an assistant principal, was directed to change numerical grades that were part of the overall course grades so that students who passed the credit recovery program would pass the overall course, the report said.
That change, however, was not based upon a student’s performance but “whatever number would allow the student to receive a passing grade for the overall course,” the report said.
It took a school staff member to notice that grades had been changed in the system called Infinite Campus. The staff member had prepared a chart with students in danger of retainment and discovered the discrepancies when she compared the grades in her chart versus those in Infinite Campus, according to interview notes included in the report.
No parents made any inquiries about the changed grades, according to interview notes in the report. Several parents, however, raised issues when they received conflicting guidance from school officials.
One parent, for example, asked the school why their son was required to attend summer school when the student successfully completed the credit recovery program. It was unclear how that case was resolved.
Before July 2023, Gina Talbert was Wyandanch’s superintendent, prior to leaving that summer to lead Amityville schools. In a statement, she said she “did not authorize any improprieties by district team members.”
“During my tenure I was certain to ensure all students had the opportunities and resources needed to thrive,” her statement read.
In August 2023, the staff member who noticed the grade changes requested a meeting with the school board to report the discrepancies. A few weeks later, Carson reassigned the three administrators to home.
The state Education Department had no comment Friday, beyond saying that it takes allegations of misconduct against educators seriously but does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations to "protect the fairness and integrity" of its processes.
The school board, which had only six trustees beginning in June when then-board president Jarod Morris was ousted from his seat, is now back to its typical seven.
State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa last week annulled the board’s action to remove Morris and reinstated him to his position, effective immediately. Rosa’s ruling came Monday after Morris filed an appeal.
The board had voted to remove Morris after a hearing officer found that Morris disclosed confidential information to a district employee, an allegation he has denied.
Rosa did not weigh in on the alleged misconduct but said in a ruling the hearing officer and the school board erred, resulting in a hearing where Morris was absent and could not cross-examine witnesses or introduce evidence in his defense.
As for the credit recovery program, it no longer exists. The middle school now has an acting principal, Michele Darby, who was an assistant principal at Wyandanch Memorial High School and a former middle school principal in the Amityville district.
The Wyandanch district is still searching for a permanent superintendent. But what happened in the spring of 2023 is in the past, Aronstein said.
"We moved on from there," he said. "It's no longer an issue here. The issue is dead."
In April 2023, parents of many students at Milton L. Olive Middle School in Wyandanch received a letter from the school: Their child was failing two or more core courses, and their promotion to the next grade was in jeopardy.
To help reverse it, the students “must attend” a five-week-long program at the school called “Spring Credit Recovery Evening Academy,” the letter said.
Scores of students in grades 6-8 were enrolled in the program. But investigators the Wyandanch school board hired months later found that the program did not comply with state standards, and the course grades of at least 47 students who were in the program had been changed, according to findings from a report submitted to the board this past April. Those changes were made not necessarily based on performance but whatever numerical grade would allow the student to pass the course, investigators noted.
"It is not clear how many of these 47 students actually demonstrated the proficiency to be advanced to the next course," wrote investigators with the law firm Bond, Schoeneck & King, which has offices in Garden City and Melville.
WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND
- Grade-fixing allegations at a Wyandanch middle school sent three administrators home in the fall of 2023.
- Investigators hired by the school board found that a credit recovery program, which operated in the spring of 2023, did not comply with state standards.
- The program was run without a concrete plan as to how it would close learning gaps, and at least 47 students’ grades were changed even though, investigators said, it’s unclear how many of them demonstrated the proficiency to be advanced to the next course.
What’s also unclear is how many of the eighth-graders among the nearly four dozen students went on to attend high school when they may not have demonstrated the proficiency to graduate from middle school.
The report, recently obtained by Newsday, sheds light on the details of the investigation into alleged grade-fixing at the middle school, problems with the credit recovery program at the heart of the probe, and the roles allegedly played by three administrators who were reassigned to work from home last fall. Newsday obtained a redacted copy of the report, totaling nearly 400 pages, months after filing a Freedom of Information Law request. The names of those interviewed by investigators were redacted.
Attorneys at Bond, Schoeneck & King interviewed 27 people and reviewed hundreds of pages of documentation.
The district paid Bond, Schoeneck & King $151,231 to conduct the investigation. In 2023-24, the three administrators’ pay totaled $549,191, according to a Newsday analysis of educators' pay.
The most serious allegation, that district employees inflated Regents exams scores, was unfounded, according to the investigators.
Two of the three reassigned administrators, Assistant Principal Kimberly Clinton and Christine Jordan, the district’s assistant superintendent for administrative and instructional accountability, continue to work in the district. They were reinstated by a new superintendent in July.
Interim Superintendent Larry Aronstein said the two are "doing a wonderful job" and he's "very pleased" with their performance.
Interim Superintendent Larry Aronstein at a Wyandanch school board meeting in July. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
The other reassigned administrator, Principal Shannon Burton, was reinstated at the same time as Clinton and Jordan but resigned in September before pleading guilty to disorderly conduct, a violation but not a crime, last month in connection to an incident where he allegedly threatened an ex-girlfriend's boyfriend.
Burton declined to comment for this story. Clinton and Jordan did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Investigators determined that the reassigned administrators "participated in the entry of illegitimate course grades for students.”
Two interim superintendents in charge of the district reached drastically different decisions on what to do with the three administrators.
Former interim Superintendent Arlise Carson, who led the district for the 2023-24 school year that ended in June, recommended firing them, while her successor, Aronstein, reinstated them July 2, the day after he took charge of the district.
Carson, through her attorney, Peter J. Famighetti, declined to comment on why she recommended termination.
Over the summer, Carson sent the district a notice of her intent to file a lawsuit against it, seeking $1.5 million in damages and citing emotional, economical and reputational losses when the board denied her a contract to become permanent superintendent.
Then-interim Superintendent Arlise Carson at a Wyandanch school board meeting in September 2023. Credit: Rick Kopstein
'A concept without a plan'
Aronstein said the credit recovery program was well intended but not well developed. “It was a concept without a plan,” he said.
Much of the investigation centered on the program. It rose out of the ambition of a new principal, Burton, who said his goal was to make the district better than “Dix Hills, Islip and Manhasset" when he interviewed with the school board for the leadership role, according to interview notes included in the report.
Burton said he intended to do so by “removing the stigma" associated with the Wyandanch community by "raising the bar,” according to the same interview notes.
Burton was hired in July 2022. In 2022-23, the middle school had about 580 students and 94% of them were considered economically disadvantaged. Students there mostly performed below state averages when it comes to proficiency in tests, according to state assessment data. The district itself has been under state monitorship since 2020.
Burton, 45, of Yonkers, had worked in Yonkers public schools from 2000 through 2010. As of Friday, his certificates to work as an administrator and teach math in grades 7-12 were still effective.
Principal Shannon Burton in 2023. Credit: James Carbone
To staff the credit recovery program, the school was to recruit 18 teachers and an administrator, according to budget plans included in the report. Each teacher was budgeted for $45 an hour for 30 hours, which translated to a five-week program with three days each week and two hours each of those days.
By April 2023, the letter went out to parents to enroll students in the program.
The state Education Department does not specify how a makeup credit program should run but stated that it shall ensure students receive “equivalent, intensive” instruction in the subject area.
The Wyandanch program was to close learning gaps, as the school noted in the letter to parents. What the parents didn’t know was how it was going to do that. Neither did the teachers.
In interviews with the investigators, teachers said they had no curriculum and minimal guidance from Burton on what students were supposed to accomplish.
One teacher said it functioned like a “study hall” where he or she did not teach but monitored as students finished their homework from their classroom teachers. Others described it as after-school extra help or a tutoring session. Some developed lessons for students, gave new assignments and graded classwork, according to interview notes from the report.
But in some cases, the sole metric was that students attend the sessions, which then conferred to a passing grade for the program, according to the same interview notes from the report.
In an email to teachers sent in May 2023 under the subject of “Have Fun With Credit Recovery,” Burton asked the teachers to provide work for the students to complete. It could be Regents review or writing, he wrote, according to a copy of the email included in the report.
After the program ended in June 2023, Clinton, an assistant principal, was directed to change numerical grades that were part of the overall course grades so that students who passed the credit recovery program would pass the overall course, the report said.
That change, however, was not based upon a student’s performance but “whatever number would allow the student to receive a passing grade for the overall course,” the report said.
A staff member's discovery
It took a school staff member to notice that grades had been changed in the system called Infinite Campus. The staff member had prepared a chart with students in danger of retainment and discovered the discrepancies when she compared the grades in her chart versus those in Infinite Campus, according to interview notes included in the report.
No parents made any inquiries about the changed grades, according to interview notes in the report. Several parents, however, raised issues when they received conflicting guidance from school officials.
One parent, for example, asked the school why their son was required to attend summer school when the student successfully completed the credit recovery program. It was unclear how that case was resolved.
Before July 2023, Gina Talbert was Wyandanch’s superintendent, prior to leaving that summer to lead Amityville schools. In a statement, she said she “did not authorize any improprieties by district team members.”
“During my tenure I was certain to ensure all students had the opportunities and resources needed to thrive,” her statement read.
In August 2023, the staff member who noticed the grade changes requested a meeting with the school board to report the discrepancies. A few weeks later, Carson reassigned the three administrators to home.
The state Education Department had no comment Friday, beyond saying that it takes allegations of misconduct against educators seriously but does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations to "protect the fairness and integrity" of its processes.
The school board, which had only six trustees beginning in June when then-board president Jarod Morris was ousted from his seat, is now back to its typical seven.
State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa last week annulled the board’s action to remove Morris and reinstated him to his position, effective immediately. Rosa’s ruling came Monday after Morris filed an appeal.
The board had voted to remove Morris after a hearing officer found that Morris disclosed confidential information to a district employee, an allegation he has denied.
Rosa did not weigh in on the alleged misconduct but said in a ruling the hearing officer and the school board erred, resulting in a hearing where Morris was absent and could not cross-examine witnesses or introduce evidence in his defense.
As for the credit recovery program, it no longer exists. The middle school now has an acting principal, Michele Darby, who was an assistant principal at Wyandanch Memorial High School and a former middle school principal in the Amityville district.
The Wyandanch district is still searching for a permanent superintendent. But what happened in the spring of 2023 is in the past, Aronstein said.
"We moved on from there," he said. "It's no longer an issue here. The issue is dead."
Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.
