Principal in O.C. Grade Scandal Faces Transfer

The principal who failed to tell his superiors about illegal and widespread grade changes at Brea-Olinda High School last year will be transferred to a job in the district office for six months rather than be fired, the school board decided Monday.

Although some trustees of the Brea-Olinda Unified School District have said they wanted to dismiss Principal John Johnson, Monday night’s vote resulted from months of deliberations and an agreement with Johnson, Supt. Peggy Lynch said.

“I think this is in the best interest of all parties--the district, the district’s kids and Mr. Johnson’s career,” said Trustee Todd A. Spitzer, the most vocal critic of the grade-changing scandal. “It’s come to a resolution, and I’m satisfied.”

Following their closed, 40-minute meeting, Lynch and school board members would not elaborate on the reasons for their decision. They said Johnson may hold the new job until June, but his status beyond that has not been decided.

Johnson, 45, who was not at the meeting, did not return phone calls Monday. Lynch said Johnson already had told the teachers at his school of the impending transfer.

According to an investigation this summer, former counselors at the award-winning high school made about 600 alterations of student records over the past several years, changing letter grades to pass notations, switching course titles and giving students double credit for classes they repeated to improve their grades.

Johnson learned of the transcript tampering as early as the summer of 1993 but never told the superintendent or school board members.

Attorneys for the county education department who investigated the scandal said the illegal changes stemmed from a longstanding practice of encouraging students to take rigorous math courses by allowing them to take pass notations instead of low grades. Apparently, the practice had spun out of control over the course of a decade, with counselors changing hundreds of grades in math, English, foreign language and other classes.

In his new job, effective Dec. 16, Johnson will be director of support services for the district. He will oversee some personnel and will be in charge of student expulsions and suspensions.

Johnson retains tenure in the district and could choose to become a teacher there. He has spent 22 years in education in Southern California and has been Brea-Olinda’s principal since 1990.

None of the other people involved in the grade changing still work for the district, leaving the school board powerless to discipline them, Lynch said. Then-Supt. Edgar Z. Seal has since retired.

A teacher at the high school has filed a complaint with the state agency that credentials educators against Johnson and Geraldine Gordon, a former Brea-Olinda counselor now working in the Capistrano Unified School District. The complaint still is under investigation.

School records show Johnson met with the school’s guidance counselors in October, 1993, about the grade changes and ordered the practice stopped but decided not to correct the seniors’ transcripts because he did not want to impede their ability to graduate on time.

But school board members did not learn of the transcript tampering until this spring, when a teacher filed a grievance with the local union. Notified just weeks before graduation, the trustees immediately ordered all records corrected and lowered the district’s graduation requirement to the state’s minimum to allow all seniors to graduate on time.

“It’s very unfortunate that it took the school board so long to find out” about the transcript tampering, said Joanne Rizuto, the high school’s former registrar, who was among the whistle-blowers.

“I trusted the board would look into the grade changing thoroughly, and I really feel that the decision they have made is one they feel would be best for the school and the district office and one that will enable the high school to move on in a positive way now,” Rizuto said.

State law prohibits administrators from changing grades given by a teacher except in cases of fraud, bad faith, mechanical error or incompetence.

Ronald Wenkart and Val Fadely, attorneys for the Orange County Department of Education who investigated the matter for the district, said in a September report that they found no evidence of intentional violation of the law.

After the meeting Monday night, school board members and Lynch, who took office in July, said they hope the scandal now is finally behind them.

“The board looked at lots of options and considered lots of things and felt this was the best decision,” Lynch said.

Times staff writer Greg Hernandez contributed to this story.