3 Wyandanch administrators back in school following grade-tampering allegations
The accusation that Milton L. Olive Middle School Principal Shannon Burton and two other administrators tampered with the scoring process of Regents tests was unfounded, according to the district's superintendent. Credit: James Carbone
Three Wyandanch administrators reassigned to work from home 10 months ago returned to school in July after a new superintendent reinstated them, citing an investigation that did not find evidence they tampered with Regents scores.
Milton L. Olive Middle School Principal Shannon Burton, Assistant Principal Kimberly Clinton and Christine Jordan, the district’s assistant superintendent for administrative and instructional accountability, were accused last fall of inflating grades.
Then-interim Superintendent Arlise Carson reassigned them in September, and the school board hired Bond, Schoeneck & King, which has offices in Garden City and Melville, to investigate. The three administrators worked from home with pay for the rest of the school year.
The most serious accusation was tampering with the scoring process of the Regents, and that was not supported by evidence, said Larry Aronstein, the district’s new interim superintendent who began working on July 1.
Students in seventh and eighth grades can take Regents exams to earn credits as part of the graduation requirement, and so they can make room in their schedules for more advanced courses and electives when they are in high school, Aronstein said.
Other allegations against the administrators pertained to a credit recovery program at the middle school.
Former school board president Jarod Morris, who attended a meeting where an investigating attorney reported findings to the school board before he was ousted in June, said the three administrators “worked in concert” to change grades for about 48 eighth-graders who participated in the credit recovery program held in spring 2023.
Aronstein rebutted Morris’ account.
“They did not manipulate the grades,” Aronstein said in an interview on Monday. “They followed the plan that had been developed, thinking that it was in compliance with the state regulations.”
Aronstein acknowledged that the plan was not in full conformity with state regulations.
“They put together a program in terms of credit recovery that went up the line, in terms of administration, and was approved in the central office at the time,” he said. “The principal went and assumed that what he had put together, his proposal, was approved, which it was, and he implemented it.”
Aronstein said he is writing a counseling memo for each of the three educators, including a series of recommendations and an action plan, to go into their personnel files.
In New York, students can make up credit for incomplete or failed coursework through credit recovery programs as long as they demonstrate mastery of the learning outcomes for the subject, which could include passing Regents exams or other required assessment, unless they meet certain exemptions.
Morris told Newsday that the roughly four dozen students did little work in the program, which ran after school from late April through late June in 2023 and were given a passing grade as long as they showed up. He said students’ grades were changed by Clinton in a grading system, which was digitally unlocked by Jordan, without classroom teachers’ knowledge. He said he got that information from the briefing with the Bond, Schoeneck & King attorney.
Morris also spoke at a board meeting on July 24, repeating some of his account told to Newsday.
“Restoring persons who have done wrong to children — that is not the right thing to do,” Morris said in public comment after Aronstein gave his superintendent's report.
In a statement sent to Newsday on Monday, Aronstein said students who participated in the credit recovery program had their “final class grades adjusted to reflect their additional work.”
“The investigation into the credit recovery program did not reveal any evidence that any teachers passed a student who had not properly earned credit for the course,” the statement read in part.
In a follow-up call, Aronstein clarified that “Not just the teachers. They didn't do anything, either,” referring to the three administrators.
In previous interviews with Newsday, Aronstein said he reinstated the educators’ positions to work in the district on July 2 after he read the report by Bond, Schoeneck & King, which was dated April 16.
Newsday has requested the investigation report under the Freedom of Information Law. The district has yet to release it.
Burton declined to comment. Clinton did not respond to a request for comment.
Jordan said in a phone call on July 16 that it’s a relief to be back.
“It was hard to not to see [my co-workers] everyday,” she said. “It’s exciting to be back in a position where you can see them, feeling you can make things happen for children. That’s what it’s about. So I’m happy to be back in the office.”
Jordan referred questions about the investigation to her Manhattan-based attorney, Joseph Carbonaro, who said his client merely unlocked the grading system “at the directive of a building-level person, either principal or an assistant principal.”
“She's not a decision-maker in terms of whether grades should be changed, what grades should be changed, by how much they should be changed, none of that,” he said. “At most, the only thing she does with respect to this is to grant access, and that granting of access is done pursuant to someone else's directive.”
Latesha Walker, the district's board president, referred questions to Aronstein's statement.
Walker was elected president last month after three meetings where an evenly split board could not reach a consensus. It took a newly composed board multiple tries for the six trustees to reach a compromise to split the one-year term into six-month segments where the opposing two sides have their pick to serve as president.
The board typically has seven trustees, but Morris was removed from his seat in June over alleged official misconduct. Morris was accused of disclosing confidential information to a district employee, an allegation he has denied.
Morris filed an appeal with state Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa on July 3, according to a state Education Department spokesman. His request to be restored to his seat until the appeal process is completed was denied July 18. The appeal is ongoing.
During the months the three educators were working from home, Aronstein said Stanley Pelech, an assistant principal, became acting principal, and an acting assistant principal, who left the post in June, was hired to fill Pelech's role at the middle school.
In 2022-23, Burton earned $188,604 a year, according to a Newsday analysis of educators' pay. The figures for Clinton and Jordan were $153,919 and $193,366, respectively. Pelech’s pay was $160,290.
Three Wyandanch administrators reassigned to work from home 10 months ago returned to school in July after a new superintendent reinstated them, citing an investigation that did not find evidence they tampered with Regents scores.
Milton L. Olive Middle School Principal Shannon Burton, Assistant Principal Kimberly Clinton and Christine Jordan, the district’s assistant superintendent for administrative and instructional accountability, were accused last fall of inflating grades.
Then-interim Superintendent Arlise Carson reassigned them in September, and the school board hired Bond, Schoeneck & King, which has offices in Garden City and Melville, to investigate. The three administrators worked from home with pay for the rest of the school year.
The most serious accusation was tampering with the scoring process of the Regents, and that was not supported by evidence, said Larry Aronstein, the district’s new interim superintendent who began working on July 1.
WHAT TO KNOW
- Three Wyandanch administrators who were reassigned to work from home 10 months ago returned to school in early July after a new superintendent reinstated their positions.
- The interim superintendent, who began working July 1, said an outside investigation did not find evidence of grade changes for the Regents exams.
- Other allegations surround a credit recovery program. A former school board trustee said the three educators changed grades for students who attended that program, but the new interim superintendent rebutted his account.
Students in seventh and eighth grades can take Regents exams to earn credits as part of the graduation requirement, and so they can make room in their schedules for more advanced courses and electives when they are in high school, Aronstein said.
Other allegations against the administrators pertained to a credit recovery program at the middle school.
Former school board president Jarod Morris, who attended a meeting where an investigating attorney reported findings to the school board before he was ousted in June, said the three administrators “worked in concert” to change grades for about 48 eighth-graders who participated in the credit recovery program held in spring 2023.
Aronstein rebutted Morris’ account.
“They did not manipulate the grades,” Aronstein said in an interview on Monday. “They followed the plan that had been developed, thinking that it was in compliance with the state regulations.”
Aronstein acknowledged that the plan was not in full conformity with state regulations.
“They put together a program in terms of credit recovery that went up the line, in terms of administration, and was approved in the central office at the time,” he said. “The principal went and assumed that what he had put together, his proposal, was approved, which it was, and he implemented it.”
Aronstein said he is writing a counseling memo for each of the three educators, including a series of recommendations and an action plan, to go into their personnel files.
In New York, students can make up credit for incomplete or failed coursework through credit recovery programs as long as they demonstrate mastery of the learning outcomes for the subject, which could include passing Regents exams or other required assessment, unless they meet certain exemptions.
Morris told Newsday that the roughly four dozen students did little work in the program, which ran after school from late April through late June in 2023 and were given a passing grade as long as they showed up. He said students’ grades were changed by Clinton in a grading system, which was digitally unlocked by Jordan, without classroom teachers’ knowledge. He said he got that information from the briefing with the Bond, Schoeneck & King attorney.
Morris also spoke at a board meeting on July 24, repeating some of his account told to Newsday.
“Restoring persons who have done wrong to children — that is not the right thing to do,” Morris said in public comment after Aronstein gave his superintendent's report.
In a statement sent to Newsday on Monday, Aronstein said students who participated in the credit recovery program had their “final class grades adjusted to reflect their additional work.”
“The investigation into the credit recovery program did not reveal any evidence that any teachers passed a student who had not properly earned credit for the course,” the statement read in part.
In a follow-up call, Aronstein clarified that “Not just the teachers. They didn't do anything, either,” referring to the three administrators.
"They did not manipulate the grades," said Wyandanch Superintendent Larry Aronstein. Credit: Rick Kopstein
In previous interviews with Newsday, Aronstein said he reinstated the educators’ positions to work in the district on July 2 after he read the report by Bond, Schoeneck & King, which was dated April 16.
Newsday has requested the investigation report under the Freedom of Information Law. The district has yet to release it.
Burton declined to comment. Clinton did not respond to a request for comment.
Jordan said in a phone call on July 16 that it’s a relief to be back.
“It was hard to not to see [my co-workers] everyday,” she said. “It’s exciting to be back in a position where you can see them, feeling you can make things happen for children. That’s what it’s about. So I’m happy to be back in the office.”
Jordan referred questions about the investigation to her Manhattan-based attorney, Joseph Carbonaro, who said his client merely unlocked the grading system “at the directive of a building-level person, either principal or an assistant principal.”
“She's not a decision-maker in terms of whether grades should be changed, what grades should be changed, by how much they should be changed, none of that,” he said. “At most, the only thing she does with respect to this is to grant access, and that granting of access is done pursuant to someone else's directive.”
Latesha Walker, the district's board president, referred questions to Aronstein's statement.
Walker was elected president last month after three meetings where an evenly split board could not reach a consensus. It took a newly composed board multiple tries for the six trustees to reach a compromise to split the one-year term into six-month segments where the opposing two sides have their pick to serve as president.
The board typically has seven trustees, but Morris was removed from his seat in June over alleged official misconduct. Morris was accused of disclosing confidential information to a district employee, an allegation he has denied.
Morris filed an appeal with state Education Commissioner Betty A. Rosa on July 3, according to a state Education Department spokesman. His request to be restored to his seat until the appeal process is completed was denied July 18. The appeal is ongoing.
During the months the three educators were working from home, Aronstein said Stanley Pelech, an assistant principal, became acting principal, and an acting assistant principal, who left the post in June, was hired to fill Pelech's role at the middle school.
In 2022-23, Burton earned $188,604 a year, according to a Newsday analysis of educators' pay. The figures for Clinton and Jordan were $153,919 and $193,366, respectively. Pelech’s pay was $160,290.
Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.
