Report: Grade-fixing allegations valid

Grade-fixing allegations at Bellport High School are valid and should be referred to law enforcement and state education agencies, says an investigator's supplemental report on South Country Central School District and former Superintendent Joseph Cipp Jr.

Five teachers summoned to a special meeting in spring 2010 to discuss football star Ryan Sloan's grades were told by Cipp that the student had to meet NCAA standards, the supplemental report dated March 5 says.

The 44-page report, obtained by Newsday on Friday, was written by Melville attorney Bronwyn Black, who was hired by the district to investigate the matter. Black would not comment on the report Friday.

The Suffolk County district attorney's office declined to comment when asked if it is investigating. The State Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.

Cipp resigned as superintendent Wednesday, ending his five-year contract early with a $545,000 cash payout. He has repeatedly denied that he changed any student's grade or asked others to do so.

Greg Guercio, the school district's attorney, said Friday, "The board of education now considers the matter closed regarding Mr. Cipp."

The district commissioned the probe in December after fired Bellport High School Principal Kevin O'Connell said he was let go for failing to raise Sloan's marks. O'Connell has filed a wrongful-termination suit against the district in State Supreme Court.

The document obtained Friday supplements a report dated Jan. 17 that found Sloan's grades were improperly changed to help get him an athletic scholarship and Cipp "must have been involved or must have known what was going on."

The supplemental report says Cipp, the high school football coach who became the district's superintendent in 2010, "clearly created an atmosphere of pressure upon the administration and the teachers to make sure Ryan Sloan got the NCAA scholarship."

The report details interviews of administrators, teachers and others. It includes copies of emails and grade transcripts that were not included in January's preliminary report.

Cipp, through his attorney, denied the account of the meeting with teachers, saying he merely wanted to inform them of Sloan's chance to attend Syracuse University. At that time, Cipp also was football coach, a position he held for more than three decades.

"He was letting them know this was a life-changing opportunity and if there were any issues with the student in the classroom -- if he was acting up, not doing his homework, needed extra help, had attitude problems -- that as a coach, he would talk to the boy and resolve it," attorney Richard Hamburger said Friday. "He wanted him to succeed. He wanted him to get the scholarship."

According to the report, Cipp told the group that Sloan's story was reminiscent of the movie "The Blind Side." The teen had a tough life -- his mother had died and he never knew his father. He needed a B average, which would help take the focus off his SAT scores, Cipp told them, according to the report.

The report says one teacher told Cipp that if Sloan "does everything right, he could get a B, but is more likely to have a C."

Cipp replied: "He needs a B."

"It was clear that Mr. Cipp had specific expectations and he wanted them met," Black wrote.

"This was a teacher's worst nightmare, to have the superintendent put the teacher in that position," one teacher is quoted as saying in the report.

Teachers interviewed by Black said they feared retribution.

The former superintendent's supporters say he helped generations of kids not only in sports, but with their academics and character. Sloan, a freshman at Syracuse on an athletic scholarship, said Cipp played a positive role in his life.

Sloan has said that he boosted his marks through hard work.

Black, in her report, found the athlete's grades were changed on more than a dozen occasions, and named Assistant Superintendent Nelson Briggs, Bellport High Principal Bernard Soete and teacher Colleen Rafferty in specific instances.

Briggs and Soete did not return calls Friday. Rafferty could not be reached for comment.

The school board soon will determine the fates of others found to be involved in the grade-fixing incidents, Guercio said Thursday.

Among the instances of grade changes detailed by Black were:

In August 2010, Sloan’s non-Regents geometry grade was switched from a 66 to a 79 at the direction of Briggs, who was tied to numerous other grade changes for the student.

Sloan’s final course grade in intermediate algebra was listed on June 16, 2011, as a 57 by math teacher Colleen Rafferty, and changed to a 65 by Bellport High School principal Bernard Soete on June 23, 2011.

Soete entered a 69 for Sloan’s fourth-quarter grade in intermediate algebra on June 16, 2011, and Rafferty changed it to a 77 six days later.

Soete, when interviewed by Black, said he had not changed the student’s grades. But when presented with computer data documenting the change, he did not deny it, the report says.

Sloan’s score of 43 on an intermediate algebra midterm later was expunged from his record. Rafferty entered the grade on Jan. 26, 2011, and removed the score on June 23.

Black wrote that Rafferty said she did not know who removed the mark. “She denied making the change in removing the grade,” the report said.