Three current and former Española School District administrators are facing a state-level ethics complaint for unilaterally changing a student’s grade, possibly in violation of state law and school policy.
The state Education Department’s Educator Ethics Bureau is currently investigating a complaint against former Special Education director Pat Lopez, interim Special Education Director Alfred Garcia and Assistant Superintendent Dorothy Sanchez, Department spokeswoman Beverly Friedman confirmed.
If the investigation finds the administrators were at fault, consequences range from a warning to temporary or permanent suspension of their licenses, according to Department rules.
Española Valley High School teacher Valerie Wood filed the complaint to ensure grading in District schools remains even-handed, not to punish the administrators, she said.
“This isn’t a witch hunt. What I care about is that we take the same steps with all students,” Valerie Wood, the teacher who filed the complaint, said. “Part of our job is to evaluate student’s work, and they trust us for that. If grades can be changed without regard to our input, then why are we here?”
The complaint accuses Lopez, Garcia and Sanchez of ordering high school Principal Bruce Hopmeier to change the grade of Tanae Galligan, a gifted student enrolled last spring in Wood’s Advanced Placement English Class, from an “F” to a “D-,” all without ever consulting with Wood. Under state law, Districts’ special education departments are also responsible for gifted students. Galligan and her family declined to comment.
The grade change may have violated state law and high school policies. The high school’s grade-change policy gives teachers the first say in any grade change, and a new state law enacted July 16 states “no school district shall permit the changing of a student’s final course grade until a course grade change policy is adopted by the local school board.” The Española School Board did not adopt a grade-change policy until Oct. 29, nearly three months after Lopez first demanded the high school change the student’s grade in mid-August.
A new rule in the state’s administrative code also requires “a good faith attempt to obtain the written input of the student’s classroom teacher who issued the grade in dispute.”
However on Sept. 11, Hopmeier received from Sanchez and Garcia a “packet of information” justifying the grade change, along with instructions to raise the student’s grade that same day, according to the complaint. Wood found out Sept. 16 her student’s grade had been modified, though she had “no part in evaluating the contents of the packet.”
She filed a grievance the same day, leading Hopmeier to rescind the grade change and Garcia to notify the student’s parents Oct. 8 that the District “could not justify the grade change,” according to a letter. The student’s grade is currently an “F” and “will remain an ‘F,’ unless the state intervenes,” Wood said.
Wood nonetheless opted to file an ethics complaint against the administrators Sept. 26.
“The change was rescinded, but at the time the process was unethical,” Wood said. “It should be the teacher that responds to requests for a grade change.”
Sanchez said she knew of the student’s family’s request for a grade change, but did not learn the teacher hadn’t been notified until Wood filed her grievance.
“When I found out the teacher of record hadn’t been informed, my direction was to send the grade back to the high school and follow the process,” Sanchez said. “And (Garcia) was just following the directive I had given.”
The District is currently in mediation with the student’s family regarding the grade change, Sanchez said. Lopez could not be reached for comment.
The incident underscores potential problems in the District’s new grade change policy.
The law requires teacher input. But though the District’s policy brings in “records custodians,” unspecified “school officials,” hearing officers, lawyers and the superintendent, it does not mention teachers. The policy does invite input from “the person that created the (grade),” but only if the “records custodian” — a counselor, secretary or registrar — cannot or does not change the grade after an informal, oral request from a parent.
The policy also gives the most discretion to the “records custodian” — a person who had nothing to do with assigning the grade, high school math teacher Brian Every pointed out. Under the policy, a parent dissatisfied with his or her child’s grade should approach the “records custodian,” who should change the grade if “(the grade) is incorrect because of an obvious error and it is a simple matter to make the record change.”
“Obvious error? What’s an obvious error?” Every asked.
School Board President Joe Romero said the Board’s policy consultant, a lawyer for the Arizona School Boards Association, wrote the policy. He said he was unaware of the new law when the Board adopted the policy.