BREA : Grade-Manipulation Committee Created

The Brea Olinda Unified School District is creating a committee to draft policies in order to prevent student grade changing without teacher approval, and will hire an auditor to review past practices in which grades were changed by former guidance counselors.

The district was rocked recently when it was revealed that more than 360 grades of Brea Olinda High School students had been changed to simple “pass” notations instead of the traditional A, B, C, D or F. District officials said some students’ transcripts also were altered so they could receive double credit for taking a course.

Officials said former counselors were responsible for the grade changes in an effort to boost student grade-point averages to increase their chances to graduate and get accepted at competitive colleges and universities.

Administrators said they knew of the grade switching last fall but did not tell the school board until May when the teachers union filed a grievance.

The proposed committee, which will include three school board members, the Brea Olinda Teachers Assn. president, the high school’s vice principal and a classified employee, is expected to come up with policy recommendations before school begins in the fall.

Board member Lynn Doucher called the grade changing “so serious that the Board of Education should be actively involved in resolving the problems.”

Two weeks ago, district administrators hired an auditor to investigate the grade changes. The auditor, identified only as a registrar from another Orange County school district, rejected the job.

Board member Todd A. Spitzer said he was not told that an auditor had been hired. He convinced fellow board members that the board should hire the auditor and not the district’s administrators.

“I’d like to be in the know on who is hired,” Spitzer said. “This is not going to be a closed-door process. It’s got to be open. . . . We need to know what happened and how can we better it.”

The board scheduled a meeting for Thursday to discuss who might be hired and what the auditor will investigate.

Laurry Bishop, president of the teachers union, said he didn’t understand the need for an auditor. He said anyone can check the computer in which all transcripts are stored.

“Yes, there were grades changed. Yes, class titles did change and, yes, duplicate credits were granted. But when this error was grieved by our contractual grievance process, those errors were addressed, and for the most part, correction began,” Bishop said.

“To uphold the reputation of this district, I think someone outside the district should do it (the audit) and no one in this district would be qualified,” Trustee Frank Davies said.

“You want to build in the safeguard that everybody will say that the district did everything it could to ensure an independent audit without being influenced by anyone in this district,” Spitzer said.