Brea Academic Counselors Altered Grades : Education: Changes were made routinely without teachers’ consent to help students graduate or get into college. Outraged trustees order halt to transcript ‘fraud.’

Academic counselors at Brea Olinda High School changed grades for about 70 students and in about 40 instances awarded double credit to boost students’ chances of graduating or getting into college, district officials said Wednesday.

The counselors gave a simple “P” for passed instead of the traditional A, B, C, or D grades in certain classes so the students’ grade-point averages would not suffer and they would not lose a chance of getting accepted at a college or university.

None of the students originally had failing grades.

The practice, which officials say has been done routinely for the past 10 years, was halted this week by Brea Olinda Unified School District trustees.

“This is outrageous. I will not participate in fraud,” said board Trustee Todd Spitzer on Wednesday. “I refuse to allow inaccurate transcripts to be sent to colleges and universities. In the long run, this can seriously affect our reputation, and it’s just not right to send out documents that contain false information.”

Officials said counselors changed grades for about 55 seniors and about 15 juniors during the past school year. About 40 students were given double credit in some classes in order to gain the 240 credits needed to graduate, officials said.

As a result of the grade and credit changes, some juniors this year will have to take summer school to receive enough credits to graduate next year, Supt. Edgar Z. Seal said. Graduates whose grades were changed over the last 10 years might not be affected, he said.

District trustees decided to allow seniors whose grades were changed this year to graduate Wednesday.

The school district will send new transcripts to colleges and universities for those graduating seniors who had used transcripts that contained the grade changes.

Seal called the actions of counselors “a judgment error.”

“They didn’t break any laws, but it was a problem and we have corrected it,” Seal said. Academic counselors offer guidance and direction to students about their high school and college careers, officials said. They also have access to student files but are not supposed to change grades without teacher approval. Grades are stored in computers, officials said.

In May, the teachers’ union filed a complaint with the principal about the grade changes.

John Zoeckler, who teaches biology and chemistry, said teachers were “enraged” when they first found out that the grades had been changed without their knowledge.

“Nobody but a teacher can make a grade change. We could not let that (grade changes) stand,” said Zoeckler, who is an official of the Brea Olinda Teachers Assn.

Zoeckler said the grade changes were first noticed earlier this year by a math teacher who checked on a student’s grade and saw the grade she had given had been changed to a “P” without her approval. The teacher then went to the union and sought an investigation.

Zoeckler said teachers began reviewing transcripts and discovered that many grades had been changed. He said that in some instances the course titles also were changed.

Zoeckler said he has found that grade changes were made in at least the last four years.

Supt. Seal said he did not know how many grades had been changed over the past 10 years and said that transcripts of students whose grades were changed this year will be changed to reflect the actual grade a student earned.

He said no disciplinary action will be taken against the counselors.

“The board took corrective action,” Seal said.

But Spitzer said the Board of Trustees wants to find out how many counselors were involved in the grade changes and how the practice went unreported for so long.

“We have to determine whether or not this was negligent or intentional. We don’t have all the facts yet,” Spitzer said.