disd grade changing investigation of smu freshman keith frazier

OFFICE OF INTERNAL AUDIT INVESTIGATIONS

2909 North Buckner Blvd., Dallas, TX 75228 Post Office Box 181509, Dallas, TX 75218

Independent Dallas D School District

REPORT OF INVESTIGATION

Case Number: 11246, 11633, 11634, 11635

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HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL

Mike Miles Superintendent of Schools

INTERNAL AUDIT INVESTIGATIONS 2909 North Buckner Blvd ., Dallas, TX 75228 Post Office Box 181509, Dallas, TX 75218

Independent . Dallas D School District

REPORT OF INVESTIGATION

RESTRICTED DISSEMINATION This entire report contains confidential work product information and should not be released without the approval of the Chief Internal Auditor.

Mike Miles Superintendent of Schools

Independent Dallas D School District

HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL

Table of Contents Executive Summary···· ···· ·· ····· ········· ······· ·······'··········· ············ ····· ····· ·· ······· ··· ·· ······· ·· ······ ····· ··············· 4

Background .. ............ .... ... .. ...... .................................. ...... ....... ....... _ .... .. ..... .. ....................................... 5

Allegation ........... ...... ~ ........ .............................. ....... .... ..... ..... ........... ....... .............. ....... .. ... .. .... ... ... 5

Employee Status ......... ....... ... .... ... ... ............................................................................................. 5

Extent And Results Of Investigation .. .. .... ............ ... ........... ........ ................................................. ..... 6

Referral To Outside Agency ... ....... .................................. .... ....... ...... ............. ........... ... ..... · ...... .. ...... 33

Explanations And Defenses Offered ........... ........... .. ... ......... ................ ...... ............ ............ .......... .. 33

Relevant Policies, Procedures, And Statutes . ............................................................................... 38

Conclusions ... .. ...... ................. ............................................................................................ ............ 44

JONES Earl . 24940 11246

REPORT OF INVESTIGATION Internal Audit Investigations

SMITH Llewellyn 18142 11633

DANIELS Toby 19702 11634

Executive Summary

This investigation substantiated that:

KING Demarco 51121 11635

1. Former Dallas lSD Teacher Assistant, Demarco KING of Kimball ·High School, improperly contacted a teacher at Kimball High School in an effort to have student - I 'UJ Physics class grades mod and increased for NCAA eligibility purposes. KING also altered stud Dallas lSD Grade Validation Report when the teacher declined to e. This created a fraudulent report card that was forwarded to

2. Toby DANIELS, Teacher Assistant Kimball High School, improperly contaCted a teacher to have - . 7 . grades changed for NCAA eligibility. DA!'JIELS also improperly contacted other campus teachers. DANIELS failed to r~. rt to' campus administrators that Demarco KING was attempting to get student ........ grades changed. The investigation also substantiated that DANIELS failed to aafiere to his assigned Title I duties and falsified his semi-annual Title I certification documents.

3. Llewellyn SMITH, Assistant Principal Kimball High School, failed to maintain adequate management control and oversight of Kimball High School's attendance documents and retention procedures in order to administer the District's attendance policies, procedures and the campus attendance committee functions.

4. Earl JONES, Principal Kimball High School, failed to maintain adequate management control and oversight of the campus' document management retention procedures in order to administer the District's grade reporting policies and procedures, the District's attendance policies and procedures and the campus attendance committee functions. Principal JONES failed to adequately maintain management control, oversight and acceptable policies and procedures relating to assigned personnel. Principal JONES also falsified Teacher Assistant DANIELS semi-annual Title I funding certification documents.

This Report of Investigation is the opinion of Internal Audit Investigations of the Dallas Independent School District and is based upon evidence from its investigation of this matter.

HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL 4 of 52

Allegation

JONES Earl 24940 11246




Background


On June 3, 2013, Amiesha Brown, Executive Director Division I, Dallas ISO referred information to Internal Audit Investigations (lA Investigations). Brown received the initial campus information from Principal Earl JONES of Kimball High School. On June 7, 2013, lA Investigations opened an investigation into the allegation that teacher assistants from Kimball Hi h School approached several teachers at the campus in late May 2013, attempting to have student grades increased so

the NCAA Clearing House and receive a scholarship at~ The allegation also stated that Principal JONES have allowed teacher

as Demarco Kl and Toby DANIELS to approach the teachers . It was also alleged that the campus grade validation forms for I'll may have leading to the falsification of jILL grades on m report card that was forwarded to

The allegation stated that teacher assistants Toby DANIELS and Monica Gray were paid with special education funds and_ were not performing their assigned duties at the Kimball High School campus and that the administrator was abusing the special education funds . (W1-1 , OPR Case Details Printout)

Employee Status

Earl JONES is employed as a Principal at J.F. Kimball High School and he has an "Educator Contract" with the Dallas Independent School District for the 2013- 2014 school year that expires on June 4, 2014. (W1-2. Earl JONES. Oracle Printout)

Llewellyn SMITH is employed as an Assistant Principal at J.F. Kimball High School and he has an "Educator Contract" with the Dallas Independent School District for the 2013 - 2014 school year that expires on June 4, 2014. (W1-3. Llewellyn SMITH, Oracle Printout)

Toby DANIELS is employed as a Teacher Assistant at J.F. Kimball High School. DANIELS is classified aq an "at-will employee" of the District. (W1-4. Toby DANIELS, Oracle Printout)

Demarco KING was employed as a Teacher Assistant at J.F. Kimball High School. DANIELS was classified as an "at-will employee" of the District and he terminated his employment with the District on June 13,2013 (W1-5. Demarco KING . Oracle Printout)

Adro!nistrative Leave:

JONES SMITH DANIELS KING Earl Llewellyn Toby Demarco No No No No







Extent And Results Of Investigation

On June 7, 2013, Internal Audit Investigation (lA Investigations) opened an investigation into the allegations noted above.

lA ln~tions conducted a preliminary review of ~official District records. The review indicated that~ may not have attended classes the minimum number of days during the 2012-2013 school year in order to be certified for graduation from Dallas Independent School District.

lA Investigations determined that teacher assistants Demarco KING and Toby DANIELS were involved with campus athletics. KING was the soccer head coach at Kimball when he was employed with the District. DANIELS was a volunteer assistant coach for the basketball program.

The scope of the investigation was to determine the following:

1. If -- academic grades were falsified and forwarded to -2. Whether any staff members were authorized to approach teachers on ~behalf in

order to influence any grade changes for any subjects; 3. Determine if Principal JONES authorized any staff member to approach teachers on ~

behalf; . 4. Whether any staff member improperly pressured any teacher to cha rade; 5. Determine if any staff member falsified or caused the falsification official grades

on District do~s; 6. Determine if ~hould have been certified for graduation based on his class attendance;

and 7. Determine if teacher assistants paid with special education funds were performing duties

outside their funding agreement.

The following is a glossary of individuals interviewed/referenced during the course of th is investigation:

Glossary of Individuals Interviewed Name Title

Adenwala, Yousuf Teacher - Kimball High School Ali, Hanan Higher Education Advisor - Education Is Freedom Collins, Stacey Teacher- Kimball High School Conder, Kyle Assistant Athletic Director of Compliance -

Southern Methodist University DANIELS, Toby Teacher Assistant- Volunteer Basketball Coach -

Kimball High School Dennis, Richard Teacher - Kimball High School Hajl_nes, Tiffaney Data Controller- Kimball High School Johnson, Royce Teacher Assistant - Kimball High School Head

Basketball Coach JONES, Earl Principal- Kimball High School Jones, Suzie Teacher- Special Education Department- Kimball

High School



KING, Demarco Maligi, Ulric

Porter, Patricia Pruitt, Sharonda Reagins, Iris Reyna, Sylvia Rhynes, Anida SMITH, Llewellyn Waters, Dionel Webster, Mary





Teacher Assistant - Head Soccer Coach Assistant Basketball Coach - Southern University Counselor- Kimball Hiqh School Assistant Principal- Kimball Hiqh School

Methodist

Science Instructional Coach - Kimball High School Chief. of School Leadership - Dallas lSD Teacher- Kimball High School Assistant Principal - Kimball Hiqh School Assistant Principal - Kimball Hiqh School Registrar - Kimball High School

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON PRIOR INVESTIGATION:

On October 17, 2012, lA Investigations, then known as the Office of Professional Responsibi lity (OPR), ~ort of Investigation regarding Kimball High School basketball/athletic program and student .._..,..The reports Executive Summary stated the following: (W1-1 1. OPR Report of Investigation, No. 11351)

"The investigation of the Kimball High School basketball/athletic program has resulted in this report and three others involving violations of District policies and UIL rules . In one of the three other reports, Justin Owens, former assistant coach at Kimball High School, was found to have attempted to recruit a student from another district. In another of the reports, Royce JOHNSON (Head Basketball Coach), EARL JONES (Principal) and Devon Fortson, coach at Kimball High School were found to have falsified time and effort certifications involving federally funded programs because of time spent on athletic programs ...

... Based on the evidence obtained in the October 17, 2012, investigation, the allegation that student · and other student/athletes were improperly recruited and influenced to attend Kimball High School for athletic purposes was substantiated. The evidence showed the following:

1.

2. 1111 '~ •• " , ... ··'· , . ~ ..... ' ~ . .

told an Irving ISO coach that she had to career.

3. Kimball High School athletic coaches and administrators allowed the select basketball league to practice in the Kimball gymnasium without obtaining the proper contract/lease.

4. There was a history of the District 11-4A UIL District Executive Committee approving transfers of students to the Dallas lSD and Kimball High School.







5. Teachers did not consider I _ _.\1\,n~n he transferred to Kimball during the ast two weeks of the grading period." ......,_,_.:..-.:...~

In February 2008, the District requested an audit and review of the . District's existing policies and procedures to determining students' eligibility for athletic competition and create "best practices" for District employee rules , education, implementation and enforcement o.f the District's, policies and procedures and state laws that governed interscholastic student-athletic eligibility. The audit determined the following: (W1 -28, Report to Dallas lSD Review of Athletic Eligibility Matters, dated: January 28. 2009)

• The first and foremost core principle is that of academic achievement. One of the district's stated purposes is that secondary education is designed to prepare students for the next academic level. Extracurricular participation is a privilege associated with academic achievement and not a right that is independent of academics.

• The report stressed compulsory attendance in accordance with the TEC attendance regulations and the indicated students are expected to attend school each day that school is open for the entire period the program of instruction is provided.

• Had the full recommendations been adopted the recommendations could have prevented future student athlete attendance and grade anomalies and would have helped to maintain an atmosphere of vigilance and healthy competitive equity along with redeveloping the high standards of tradition and success that have been the history of the Dallas lSD (DISD).

• The recommendations included a) Compliance Infrastructure; b) Monitoring Systems; Forms and Rules Education; c) Initial, Continuing and Transfer Eligibility Certification; and d) Investigations and Reporting of Violations.

o Each documentation system (e.g., eligibility) should be reviewed to ensure that to the extent possible, the system serves a functional purpose beyond monitoring; that there is minimal duplication of information collected; and that required signatures specifically reflect actual review or approval.

o The written description of each monitoring system should continue to be evaluated to ensure that the description clearly delineates the process, documents the responsibilities of various offices and individuals, and is understood and endorsed by the offices and individuals involved.

o Each DISD athletics compliance form should include a specific statement and signatory section that clearly sets forth the staff member's obligation to ensure that information being provided is correct and affirms that the staff member understands that if he or she does not submit truthful information, his/her employment with the DISD will be jeopardized.

• All phases of the eligibility-certification system should be subject to random sample testing on an annual basis by an external compliance oversight group/individual (e.g., Compliance Committee or internal auditors). ·

• Recommended was each step in the process, from advising student-athletes to final certification of eligibility and the process should have be evaluated annually to ensure that written procedures/forms:

o accurately reflects current practice; o take into account applicable DISD, UIL-TEA and school regulations; o accurately document the decision-making process; and o provided appropriate checks and balances.







• Recommended was written policy outlining the responsibility of both DISD and high school staff members to report potential violations of DISD/UIL rules and describing the procedures by which such information will be investigated should be included in the DISD's "Side By Side" Manual.

• Recommended was the creation an Electronic Eligibility Audit System for Eligibility Decisions. and • Recommended was stricter enforcement and monitoring of attendance and transfer rules.

CURRENT INVESTIGATION

lA Investigations obtained numerous official District documents from Tiffaney Haynes, Data Controller at Kimball High School, relating to the alleged falsification of student 9 g ·] grades. An analysis of the official documents determined the following timeline:

Haynes stated in her statement that Dallas ISO . Grade Reporting Validation List, for teacher Dennis' Physics Class, dated: May 25, 2013, was the original verification form printed on May 25, 2013. Haynes stated that the report was provided to teacher Richard Dennis for verification of grades that had been entered in GradeSpeed. GradeSpeed reflects • for the six weeks and - for the final exam and a 2nd semester grade of •• for P · ·. (W3-2. that Original DISD Grade Reoorting Validation List, for Mr. Dennis' Phvsics Class. dated: May 25, 2013)

Haynes received the revised g~n DISD Grade Reporting Validation List, for Mr. Dennis' Physics Class, dated: May 25, 2013, for~ and Haynes revised the Physics grades in the database to reflect ·· for the six weeks and ,._ for the final examjnation. Modification of Z grades resulted in the creation of falsified official report card for Jl . (W3-3. Altered DISD Grade Reporting Validation List, for Mr. Dennis' Physics Class. dated: May 25. 2013)

Haynes printed the Dallas lSD Official Report Card fo: • I ; dated: May 29, 2013, for Toby DANIELS and the report card contained the falsified grades for · Physics class reflecting·- for ~six weeks, ... for the final exam and . the final semester grade. This report card was emailed to

J (W3-4. Dallas lSD Official Report Card for F. dated: May 29, 2013)

Haynes corrected 711 1• Dallas ISO Official report card on June 4, 2013 and the report card contained the corrected grades of . for the six weeks and .. for the, final exam and a final 2nd semester grade of 4 (W3-5. Corrected Dallas ISO Official Report Card for • a I JOT dated: June 4. 2013)

Dionel Waters, Assistant Principal Kimball High School, was interviewed by lA Investigations concerning student .-,•gpp grades being changed on official District records. Waters provided a sworn affidavit and his statement is quoted verbatim: (W2-1. Dione! Waters. Affidavit. dated: Auaust 5. 2013)

" A few days before the grade verification forms w ere due, I was informed of possible grade changes to •I• £!2 academic report by Mrs. Iris Reagins (Science Instructional Coach). Mrs. Reagins informed me that I should be on the "look-out" for any changes to ~ grades in Physics for Mr. Dennis' class. Mrs. Reagins is the campus' ~~ctional coach so when this information w as presented to me I believed it wholeheartedly.





DANIELS Toby 19702

' 11634


On the same day I spoke to the basketball athletic team, Coach Carlton Nelson (Athletic Director), Coach Royce Johnson (Head Coach), and Toby DANIELS (Volunteer Asst. Coach) and informed them that I was told of some possible grade changes to .. -~ report that may take place when the grade verification sheets are due. Coach Royce Johnson informed me that he has told Toby DANIELS not to harass any teacher about any grades for any basketball player. Coach Johnson also told me that all he was concerned about was ... graduation status. As long as lllr;.was able to graduate the grades that. received were .. I then informed the basketball staff that if they are aware of any possible ~r~~~~at_may happen, to please stop them in advance. I was fully aware of ~athletic status and I didn't want anything to cause suspicion to the school.

When the grade verification form was printed by Mrs. Tiffany Haynes on May 25, 2013 and returned to her by the teachers, I went to her office to verify Mr. Dennis' grade verification form. When I looked at the grade verification for~~~~oticed that I 17 grade for the final six weeks was crossed out and changed to a There weren't any initials from the teacher indicating that the chan.as valid and made by the instructor. After becoming aware of the grade change of from an .or the final six weeks, I texted Mr. Earl JONES (Principal) because he was off campu·s telling him that we need to talk about possible invalid grade changes to the verification form as soon as possible. I then went to Mr. Dennis and inquired about the grade change. I told Mr. Dennis that if he did make any changes to the grades, he needs to show documented proof of F assignments that would validate the -for the final six weeks. Mr. Dennis then informed me that he did not make the chang~o the grade verification sheet, and the grade that was submitted is the actual grade that.-earned. I then pulled Mr. Dennis into Mrs. Haynes' office and showed him the grade verification form. When Mr. Dennis saw the grade verification form, he quickly asserted that he did not make the changes. I asked him who made the changes and he said he did not know. Mrs. Haynes informed me that Mr. Damarco KING was the person who submitted the grade verification forms to her.

After meeting with Mr. Dennis in Mrs. Haynes' office, Mr. Dennis returned to class and I waited for Mr. JONES to return to campus so that I could inform him of the situation and determine what the next steps would be. Mr. JONES informed me that we had to gather all of the individuals involved in the situation and sit down with them individually. After sitting down with them, we would have them write a statement about what took place and I would be responsible for collecting them and returning them to Mr. JONES.

The first interview conducted by Mr. JONES and I was with Mr. Dennis. Mr. Dennis verified everything that he told me earlier in Mrs. Haynes' office. At the meeting, Mr. Dennis also had his laptop~d was able to verify the grades that._,. earned in the course and the final grade of .-r. At the end of the interview Mr. Dennis wrote his statement and I turned it in to Mr. JONES.

The second interview conducted by Mr. JONES and I was with Toby DANIELS. During this interview Toby informed Mr. JONES and I that he was told to get a~rt card for-- to send to~ Toby said he went to Mrs. Haynes to get a report s~ould have a copy of .. IIIIa grades. Toby then took the report card to Ms. Ali (Higher Education Advisor-







Education is Freedom) for her to send it to~ Toby indicated that he did not ask anyone for permission to do this prior to retrieving the grades. He went ahead and got the report card for .. The report that was submitted to.., had M 8 grade in Physics showing~· Toby requested and received the report card prior to me catching the grade change on the Mr. Dennis' grade verification form. At the end of the interview Toby DANIELS wrote his statement in the Assistant Principal's ~·uite and I turned it in to Mr. JONES.

The t.hird interview· conducted by Mr. JONES and I was with Ms. Hannan Ali. Ms. Ali informed Mr. JONES and I that Toby got a report card from Mrs. Haynes and told her that . ... needed a copy of the report card . Ms. Ali told Mr. JONES and I that she sent an email copy of the report card to the representative at- Mr. Jones then inquired about Ms. Ali still having a copy of the email. She indicated that she did. I walked Ms. Ali down to her office and she printed off a copy of the email that she sent to • ] nith the report card attached. (W6-1 ) I looked at the report card and the grade for Physics did reflect the--· I then took that document and turned it in to Mr. JONES. At this present moment I am not aware of where the document is. I told Mr. JONES that those grades for Physics will look susp1c1ous. I informed Ms. Ali that I need a statement from her to include in the file. I have yet to receive the statement. From my understanding, Ms. Ali should still have a copy of the email that was sent t~

The final interview conducted by Mr. JONES and I was with Mr. Damarco KING. Damarco admitted to collecting grade verification sheets from teachers. The only specific teacher that I am aware of is Mr. Dennis. Damarco then admitted to changing/crossing out grades for .... Damarco informed Mr. JONES and I that he did this with the intention of going back to those teacher~discuss Ilk grades. Damarco admitted to changing the grades for ... .l.Q. .. Damarco indicated that he calculated the grades and d~~~ would need a .... for the six weeks in order to be eligible for ~at~ At the end of the interview, Damarco KING wrote a statement that I collected and turned in to Mr. JONES. Mr. KING has since resigned from the District. Damarco KING served as a Special Education Teacher Assistant for Mr. Dennis' Physics class.

Today I was given the opportunity to read Mrs. Haynes incident report. Based off the document, there were procedures that were not followed correctly that allowed for this incident to occur. First, per the incident report, teacher assistants (in addition to Damarco KING) and a student helper were allowed to turn in grade verification forms to teachers. This is no way acceptable or followed by protocol. As an administrator, I would have never approved this to happen and this process was not known by me when it occurred. Under no circumstance should teacher assistants or student helpers handle teacher grade verification forms. Mrs. Haynes resulted in "short-cuts" that were not approved by administration. The teacher assistants were not approved by administration to handle any grade verification forms. This is against policy. All statements that I received were turned in to Mr. JONES. On this day, I am surprised to know that OPR did not have my affidavit in which I printed off and gave to Mr. Chiquita. I am unaware of where the other supporting documents could be.







Furthermore, I wanted to ensure that Kimball High School was in compliance with grade procedures. Since coming to Kimball in February 2012, I learned of J[ &I athletic statu and attendance problems. Taking into account • absences and at times

when he was present at school, I knew the ...... would create

When I first arrived at Kimball in February 2012, I had to learn the roles and responsibilities for each employee. According to his job code, Mr. Toby DANIELS is a special education teacher assistant in the FLS (functional learning skills) unit. On the day in question, Toby was not where he belonged. Since my first day at Kimball, Toby used a walkie-talkie and assisted in the hallway. I informed loby that this upcoming ~ol year (2013-2014), he would not have a walkie-talkie and will be in the FLS unit 11m% of the time."

lA Investigations interviewed Tiffaney Haynes, Data Controller from Kimball High School regarding~ S • grades being changed on official District records. Ms. Haynes provided a sworn affidavit and excerpts of her statement are quoted verbatim: (W3-1. Tiffaney Haynes. Affidavit with Attachments, dated: Auaust 7. 2013)

" On about May 24, 2013 the senior grades for the sixth s ix weeks were exported from GradeSpeed to Chancery. I came into work on that Saturday morning to run the Grade Validation Reporting List to 'have it ready for the teachers on that Tuesday morning. On May 28th I took the reports to the auditorium to pass out to the senior teachers to complete and return as soon as possible. Not every teacher was present for the meeting so I informed Ms. (Sharonda) Pruitt (Assistant Principal-Kimball High School) that I had a number of teachers that had not received their report. - Ms-. Pruitt informed me to get a couple of student helpers to assist but we only had one in the attendance office because the helpers were seniors and they had graduation rehearsal that day. I went to the testing coordinator to get the roster for the teachers that were testing and at the point Mr. KING said he could assist with getting the reports to the teachers. I gave him the reports and he took them around to the teachers. I went back to my desk and started working on the corrections that I had and as time went on Mr. KING, Mr. DANIELS, student helper as well as some of the teachers brought back of the completed reports.

On May 28th I received a correction for · in Mr. A class on both the s ix weeks and the exam grade. At that time I made the change based on what was provided on the report into Chancery and initialed and dated the report. At this time I will provide the original form to OPR. On May 29th Mr. KING asked me to print R PI report card for Ms. Ali to send off to his school. I have initialed and dated the report card that I provided for Mr. KING. (W3-1)

Mr. Dennis came to me and stated that he did not make any changes to 77.11} s ix weeks nor exam grade as is was provided to me. I went in to Mr. JONES and advised him that changes were provided on the validation report that Mr. Dennis did not make and at that time Mr. JONES called myself, Ms. Porter, Mr. SMITH, Mr. Waters and Mr. Dennis into his office. Mr. Dennis stated again that he did not make those changes and Mr. JONES







asked that Mr. Dennis provide a copy of his grade book as well as the actual exam for ] • . A change was also provided for -- from a blank grade to an~ Mr.

JONES asked to see the actual exam for - · Once Mr._ Dennis provided the exam he real ized that it had not been graded. Mr. Waters graded . - exam in Mr. JONES office while we waited . At that time Mr. JONES asked how did I receive t he validation reports and I informed him that Mr. KING, Mr. DANIELS, the student helper as well as some of the teachers provided the reports to me. Mr. Waters graded the exam using the answer key provided by Mr. Dennis. After Mr. Waters graded the exam Mr. Dennis made the corrections on the validation report and initialed it for me to make the corrections in Chancery. On May 29th I went into Chancery and ret urned the original grade in Mr. Dennis' Physic class for · to an ·· ·· for the s ix weeks and ..,for the final exam which made- 2N° semester grade an I made the corrections in Chancery but did not provide Mr. KING nor Ms. Ali with any copies fo1 • II .

I belie~e on June 4, 2013, I printed a copy of actual final report card for Mr. JONES and Ms. Brown (Division 1 Executive Director). I have provided the report card with my initials and date for this statement. I have also provided the original statement with my initials and date that was provided to Mr. JONES.

On my previous campus myself and the other Data Controller emailed the following documents to the teachers: Grade Validation Report List, Blank Grade Report and Grade Proof List. Once the email when out to the teachers they had two options: 1. Print off the page(s) that need attention, make the corrections, s ign and date the forms and return the documents to the data office in person or scan and email it back 2. Reply to that email stating all correct, no changes. The only people allowed in the Data office were DISD employees no students or parents and the office door was closed at all times. Any time that office was vacant that door would be locked. We did not place report cards nor progress reports in the mailboxes, the teachers had to come in person to receive these documents. Education Is Freedom (ElF) was located in the counselor's office and information that was needed for a student was monitored and came directly from them. At my current campus I was instructed by Ms. Pruitt to place the same information in the mailboxes and if it was something that needed immediate attention have the student helpers or teacher assistants to walk it through. ElF is located in a stand-alone office and they are free to get and send information for students without going through the counselor's office for monitoring.

At no time was I informed to change~ grades to increase. grade point average for college purposes.

I have also provided to OPR the unofficial transcript that was sent to jJ for I . £& by Mrs. Webster (Regi~Kimball High School). documents provided to_.

I have initialed the 15T page of the

Mr. JONES also requested a copy of the validation report for every teacher that • I b · 4•• had for the sixth six week(s). I am unaware if any other teachers were interviewed regarding this matter. I have provided to OPR the original copies of the validation reports that Mr. JONES requested."







Investigator's Notes: The DISD Principal's Handbook of Administrative Procedures Student Information Management states, 'The principal shall annually develop written documentation of his/her school's grade entry and verification procedures." (W1-6. The DISD Princioal's Handbook of Administrative Procedures Student Information Management. section 12-1)

IAjnvestigations interviewed Iris Reagins, Science Instructional Coach for Kimball High School, regarding 1 BC& 6 grades being changed on official District records. Reagins provided a sworn affidavit and her statement is quoted verbatim: (W4-1. Iris Reaqins. Affidavit, dated: November 6. 2013)

" On or about May 21 or 22 2013, 1. I II 1111 stopped by my office to ask for assistance with one of. papers.was working on for a class. Toby DANIELS came in to speak with Royce Johnson concerning g · •• grade in Physics c lass. Toby DANIELS told - he was going to talk with Mr. Dennis about changing the grade for . . . Royce Johnson instructed Toby DANIELS not to talk with Mr. Dennis about changing the grade. Royce Johnson told him~ needed to accept responsibility for egrade because Mr. Dennis had given~ an opportunity to work on a project. Toby DANIELS then told Johnson that "I to~ the grade will be changed." I did not know if DANIELS was referring to Fl ,_¥ or the~-,coach when he said ·e-. I (sic) it appeared that DANIELS was upset and he left the office.

On May 27th, I received a phone call from Mr. Dennis saying QANIELS was pressuring him about changing the grade for T FIN Dennis said • .. , · had been given a project to do and did not complete the project. He asked my thoughts about him changing the grade. I told him that he should not change the grade because was a h igh profile student and changing the grade could result in him losing his job. I also told him if he changes the grade for one athlete the coaching staff would continue to ask you (to) the change grades for other athletes. My recommendation to Mr. Dennis was not to change the grade. At the end of the conversation Dennis told me he decided not to change the grade.

On May 28th, I overheard DANIELS say that KING said "The grade would be changed one way or the other." I knew by KING being an aide in Mr. Dennis' classroom he would have access to the grades. I then spoke to Mr. Dennis asking him if KING had his password to GradeSpeed and he told me no. If KING had his password, I wanted to advise Dennis to change his password right then. After overhearing the conversation, I decided to speak with Mr. Waters (Assistant Principal-Kimball High School) about a possible grade change without the consent of g I r Mr. Dennis later told me the grade had been changed on the verification sheets without him changing the grade."

Investigator's Notes: Royce Johnson confirmed the above information provided by Ms. Reagins and the information was documented in the exhibited memorandum. (W9,1. Rovce Johnson. Memorandum of Teleohone Conversation. dated: November 8. 2013)


041301

Highlight






lA Investigations interviewed Richard Dennis, Teacher Kimball High School, regarding grades being changed on official District records. Dennis provided a sworn affidavit and excerpts of his statement are quoted verbatim: (W5-1, Richard Dennis, Affidavit. dated: September 11, 2013)

"On or about Thursday, May 23, 2013 concern for.-. grades.

coach Toby DA approached me out of choose not to the Physics semester needed a -in my class in order to maintain

I responded that I cannot grade what 41 project. Coa indicated

an alternate assignment in lieu of the house project, but has turned in all other assignments and still had some time to put together a rough project as grades were due the next day (May 24, 2013)." ....

.. stayed after school that day and a project; however, he did not take my advice to take the project home to complete and return the project the next day. I awarded the project a grade of. out of fairness to other students and I will not award anymore." . ...

.r• ...... ,,•:-< • •

. ... ~ .. - -

. hed me again on or around Friday, Maw, 2013, expressing concern now needed him to make an in my class and he asked if

cou rn in any work for the fifth or sixth week grade." .... " Coach Toby also called me on my cellular telephone over the weekend expressing the same concerns." .. ..

" I told Coach Toby that I could not do anything fore, especially regarding the 5th six weeks. Coach KING then texted me over the weekend wondering if Coach Toby had contacted me and I replied that Coach Toby had, but I could not do anything for~ ..

"On Tuesday, May 28, 2013, Coach KING handed me the grade validation proof sheet from Ms. Haynes office. The only change I made on the validation form was to adjust ..,

:.._.grade for extra credit and ~ompleted assignment." .. ..

" On Wednesday, ch

Mr. Waters called me to Ms. Haynes office to review sheets. It was ' only then that I learned that

grades had been changed."

Hanan Ali, Higher Education Advisor- Education Is Freedom, was interviewed by lA Investigations at the Kimball High School campus regarding the report card she emailed to Ulric Maligi, Assistant Men's Basketball Coach for Southern Methodist University (SMU). Ms. Ali stated she works for Education is Freedom (ElF) as a Higher Education Advisor and was assigned to Kimball High School during the 2012 - 2013 school year and this is her 2nd year at the Kimball High School campus.

Ali stated she remembered--from the 201 - 2013 school year and she helped q· 5 complete his SMU application form and also assisted~complete his essay for submission to the university.

A~ sometime in May 20J.3, Coac[l Maligi from SM~ contact~d her and inq~ir~d about· BP ._.grade and how his ._.could be QMJ f · Ah told Coach Mahg1 that she would



REPORT OF INVESTIGATION Internal Audit Invest igations




not be able to answer Maligi's questions and she referred Maligi to Ms. Porter, ._,counselor. Ali sometime in May 2013, Coach Maligi contacted her and requested a current report card

for She did not remember the exact date when she received the request from Coach Maligi. Ali told Maligi that she was not able to obtain official school records and Mal igi wou ld have to go through the campus or co.ntact~for the report card.

Ali said soon after her conversation with Coach Maligi, Toby DANIELS and Demarco KING came to her office with a re~d for - I D Ali advised she never told DANIELS or KING about the reports. KING handed._ report card to Ali and she merely scanned and emailed the report card to Coach Maligi. On August 6, 2013, Ali forwarded to OPR the email message and attachment (report card for

- that she sent to Coach Maligi.

The email message to Coach Maligi was dated: May 29, 2013 and was sent at 10:25 a.m. The report card fodTJIJPl F was printed on May 29, 2013, at 9:56 a.m.......I!J.e report card contained the 1st and 2nd semester grades for- and the falsified grades for - in Richard Dennis' Physics class. The falsified grades were listed as ~.Jm' the final six weeks and a& for the final Physics examination; with a final semester final grade Oflll However, Ali -stated she ~t aware that• .It report card had been falsified. Al i stated she did notice the on._. Physics report card and she questioned the validity of the actual grade. (W6-1. Hanan Ali, Memorandum of Interview with attachments. dated: October 21 . 2013)

Investigator's Notes: lA Investigations initially contacted Hanan Ali on August 6, 2013. On that date, Ali forwarded to lA Investigations the email message and report that had been sent to Coach Maligi.

Kyle Conder, Assistant Athletic Director for compliance at Southern Methodist University (SMU) was contacted by lA Investigations on August 15, 2013j ani It Investigations requested the assistance of SMU into the investigation of the falsification ot- 2 Physics grades. lA Investigations emailed to Conder specific questions relating to the request for assistance. (W1-15, lA Investigations, Memorandum of Activity, Request for Assistance SMU)

It was not until October 4, 2013, that Conder responded to lA Investigations request for assistance and he provided the following information to lA Investigations questions: (W7-2, Kyle Conder. Email. dated: October 4. 2013)

lA Investigations Question: Before May 29, 2013, had lllllrt report card been provided to SMU and did SMU staff evaluate the report card for eligibility purposes? Who at SMU requested the report card and who evaluated the academic material when the university determined that ~would be a good student athlete for the basketball program? Were t~cademic Tctors -associated with that report card that required academic improvement b~

SMU Response f rom Conder: - high school t ranscr ipt was provided to SMU on two occasions for review in consideration of NCAA in it ial-eligibility regulations. SMU received a transcript on or about 9/18/2012, and again on or about 4/3/2013. Ulric Maligi, SMU Assistant Men's Basketball Coach, requested the trans_cript and provided it to Susan Vollmerhausen , Director of Admissions & Eligibility for SMU At hletics, for review. At the







time of the transcript evaluations, - had the opportunity to meet NCAA initialel igibility standards."

lA Investigations Question: Who requested _, report card on or about on May 29th (Maligi)?

SMU Response from Conder: " Malig i requeste~ranscript."

lA Investigations Question: Who at Kimball High Sch~contacted by SMU, (Kimball coach , athletic coordinator, administrator, staff member) for.~rades?

SMU Response f rom Conder: " Maligi originally contacted Miss Ali for because Miss Ali had identified and introduced herself to Maligi as counselor . . Subsequently, Malig i was informed by Miss Porter that she, not Miss was._. counselor and that any future requests for transcripts should be addressed to her."

· At any point did SMU request or suggest from Kimball staff the possibil ity that could · · · · and/or how it could _be .• d.,one etc.? When? (By May 29th, the high school semester had ended and it was too late to - the grades.)

SMU Response from Conder: " No."

lA Investigations Quest ion: Were - grades in compliance with NCAA requirements on or about May 23, 2013, before Malig i~ received the falsified report card from Kimball High School on or about May 29th?

SMU Response from Conder: " At th~ the aforementioned (9/1812012 and 41312013} transcripts were provided to SMU, - had the opportunity to meet NCAA initial-eligibility standards." ·

lA Investigations Question: Were the falsified grades used to qualify - for university and/or NCAA scholarship and enrollment purposes?

SMU Response from Conder: " No."

lA lnvesti copy of emailed an un

=-===.=.:.·· Did SMU receive from Kimball High School a revised or corrected rades between May 29, 2013 and June 18, 2013? (Kimball High School

cial transcript to SMU with the correct scores on June 18th to coach Maligi.)

SMU Response from Conder: " SMU received ~final official transcript on or about July 1, 2013."

lA Investigations contacted Conder on October 9, 201 3 in order to clarify the information Conder provided to lA Investigations and Conder provided the following information:

Conder stated that in or around May 201 3, SMU C~~aligi was in contact with the Kimball basketball coach, Hanan Ali and Counselor Porter regarding._. high school core grade point average (GPA)







and indicated the-GPA to average--and a review of --ast known grades in SMU's possession indicated th GPA was ...... the required GPA for NCAA eligibility. Conder said Maligi did not specify which coach Maligi contacted, but based on past experience, Conder indicated Maligi would have contacted the head coach.

Conder indicated core classes included English, Math, Science and History. Maligi told Conder that Maligi did inquire if anything could be done that could PUMP' the GPA. Maligi never asked the coach or anyone else to falsify any grades for ... Maligi did realize that the high school year was about to end when he contacted the campus in late May 2013.

Conder stated that Mli received._. report card from Hanan Ali on May 29, 2013 and Maligi noticed the grade of ·for Physics class, last semester grade and final test. Maligi told Conder that Maligi did not forward the report card to SMU's Director of Admissions & Eligibility for Athletics for review because Maligi suspected that ... grade was not accurate.

Conder indi . at SMU received ...... official final high school transcript on July 1, 2013. Conder stated that an onlin~~ory class during the Summe~O~ at National Universit~ a!}d obtained a grade o~ Conder stated that the course did ~overall GPA and d dl.L qualified for NCAA eligibility. (W?-1, Kyle Conder, Memorandum of Telephone Conversation with Attachment. dated: October 9, 2013)

Investigator's Notes: The investigation was prolonged because /A Investigations requested the assistance of SMU in order to determine the Kimball High School personnel contacted by SMU. lA Investigations initially contacted SMU on August 15, 2013 and requested assistance. lA Investigations contacted SMU again on September 10, 2013 and Mr. Conder stated he had not completed his inquiry. Mr. Conder responded to lA Investigation request on October 4, 2013.

On October 18, 2013, lA Investigations contacted Demarco KING, former teacher assistant at Kimball High School regarding the change of student ~rades for Physics in May 2013. KING confirmed over the telephone that his fu ll name was Demarco Elias Rashad Kl NG and he stated that he was not living in the State of Texas and he would not be available for an interview with lA Investigations. KING declined to consent to a telephonic interview without his attorney being present. lA Investigations reviewed the written statement KING provided to Kimball administrators which stated the following : (W1 -7, Demarco KING. Memorandum of Telephone Conversation with written statement, dated: October 18, 2013)

•

•

•

• •

KING was calculating grades to see if student a.Je.s were eligible for the NCAA Clearing House. He marked on the verification form (for~ with the intention of obtaining a new verification form for Teacher Dennis. _ · KING never intended to have grades changed for .. or ask Teacher Dennis to change

rade. twas KING'S intention to make sure that all of the athletes were eligible for graduation, NCAA eligible and school acceptance. KING never asked a teacher to change any grades . KING was using the verification form as a calculation sheet and KING forgot to get a new (clean) verification form for Teacher Dennis, due to being distracted by other school issues.




SMITH Llewellyn 181 42 11633



Investigators Notes: KING's statement claiming he made calculations on the validation form was not credible. A review of the Grade Verification Form (W3-3) does not contain any calculations. /A Investigations conducted a search with Texas Education Agency (TEA) and determined that Demarco Elias Rashad KING held a Texas Educator Certificate for Educational Aide I that expires on December 31, 2017, (W1-8. TEA Educator Certificate for KING)

lA ln,vestigations interviewed Toby DANIELS, Teacher Assistant Kimball High School regarding .. •• L grades being changed on official District records. DANIELS verified that his name was Toby Harrah DANIELS and he was certified with Texas Education Agency- (TEA) as an educational aide. DANIELS provided a sworn statement and his statement is quoted verbatim: (W8-1, Toby DANIELS, Affidavit. dated: October 10. 2013)

came to me in the end of May 2013 and •told me6was concerned about .from hool because • had and • had

.. ~ .... further stated that• did not know how • would be able to nments in Physics, English and Math. I went t~ the teachers of the subjects that • If . identifi~d and I asked the teachers the statl@st ' A 1 •eing able to graduate. Mr. Dennis, • W Physics teacher told me that if would complete a project relating to building a house then Mr. Dennis JFPQ J ) would

. be alright in his class and hav~rade. Mr. Dennis did not tell me what the grade would be if HE completed the project. I also spoke to Ms. R-~s; '011 English teacher about • Ms. Rhynes told me that was er class because ........ l · assignments. Ms. told me that · needed to complete - assignments and needed in class for - final examination. I also spoke with Mr. Adenwal math teacher about II. status the he told me also that_.. had not ;~nments. Mr. Adenwala told me that~ needed to and aneeded to .-.final examination.

The teachers told me that they could help ~but I believe I 3 was not leting the missed assig~1

Rhynes told me t hat 2$113 •• !itaalnd she did not give - credit for an ass ignment. I asked Ms.

••k:ould complete the assignment again and Ms. Rhynes said no. After that I

Coach KING, was the Physics substitute teacher and KING told me that ~11111 ••r ~ eve!) b~_!ore Mr. Dennis came to Kimball in the_ Spri~g _of 2013. Mr. Dennis told me that _ [ I~ was .... in the class tor !I [I II II I told ~ about the project and i • tol~ ~could not do it.j to Cl Mr. Dennis that~could not complete the project and Mr. Dennis said that _ needed to get with • group. !Jil £ hen told me that he didn't even know who the members of the group were. I again

told Mr. Dennis about what._ had said and Mr. Dennis told me that he would help-.. but he would.no.t do the.rk for rrs I never told. Mr. Dennis that JMioeeded to have gr:QiH h&) ~fa or an -when I asked Mr. Dennis if · db could do anything to . YSICS grade.







My main concern was not df eligibility for~ I just wanted to make sure that .... was going to graduate from Kimball.

I was able to get.-. to graduate because I had contacted teachers and had requested from the teachers, what .. could do to for graduation from high school not for eligibility for 111Jt~ I know it was n ace to help 4 J , but I wanted to help I because I had been helped by an educator in my past.

Ms. Haynes gave me one validation report from Coach (Stacey) Collins (Teacher-Kimball High School). Coach Collins told me that he made a mistake on d . 6 grade and that he needed to make a correction. Collins told me that p 'did not initially~ final examination and had not roject. Collins told me that iiiiihadflnally

test and ect and Collins now wanted to change -grade. Collins chan and I returned to validation report to Ms.

Haynes. I have initialed and dated the validation report that I had provided to Mr. Collins. I did not make any corrections or changes to any validation reports.

mother called me a few days later and told me that she needed a transcript ASAP for-and that she had been trying to contact Ms. Potter or Coach Johnson for the transcript. Coach Johnson said he did not want anything to do with4 • because of what ~had done in the past with his players. Coach Johnson was not helpful in trying to get the transcript. I contacted Ms. Ali and she told me that I needed to go to Ms. Haynes the data controller to obtain the transcript. I then went to Ms. Haynes and told Ms. Haynes that I had verbally obtained permission from Ms. 103 to obtain a transcript for- in order to fax to Ms. Haynes provided me with · 077 transcript and I gave it to Ms. Ali so she could fax the document to ~ ·

After I gave the transcript to Ms. Ali, I also contacted coach KING and because KING was the only person at the campus that knew how to clear an athlete for the NCAA Clearing House for NCAA eligibility. KING told me he knew how to (do) it and KING told me that he would show how to enter the information on the Clearing House online. My only interaction with KING was KING telling me that ~was ~n &Physics class and when I asked KING about the NCAA Clearing House. ·

~earl knew that~ was·( F ·classes because~was · ~ ancte was n"r' IT If 1 I told coach Johnsoii'11lat we needed to get on · because was 12 11$. I did not falsify any grades on any of the validation reports and I do not know who falsified any of the entries." ....

Investigator's Notes: /A Investigations conducted a search with Texas Education Agency (TEA) and determined that Toby Harrah DANIELS held a Texas Educator Certificate for Educational Aide I that expires on May 31, 2015, (W1-12. TEA Educator Certificate for DANIELS)

lA Investigations interviewed Royce Johnson, Teacher Assistant Kimball High School and Head Basketball Coach regarding J [ grades being changed on official District records. Johnson







provided a sworn affidavit and his statement is quoted verbatim: (W9-2, Royce Johnson. Affidavit. dated: October 10. 2013)

]. began recruiting junior year at Kimball. In mid-November 2012, I received a questionnaire in preparation for our game in December on ESPN. It asked a question regarding some of my recruited players and their college interests. I asked .... to give me .top schools. When •gave me-lists, this is when I saw that.was in .top 7 schools. · ·

In September 2012.,coaches, 1111111 z and~visited our campus on the first day that NCAA coaches are allowed to view hig~orkouts or open gym. After my kids finished open gym, ill C mother was standing with the coaches and asked could they use my office, because the coaches wanted to talk and show a video to her and .. She asked me to sit in on the conversation. During this meeting I had no interaction with tho r maches concerning ~or6eligibility.

During the 2012 - 2013 school year, I had no conversation with any -coaches concerning ·s; • ,r IF • grade point average at Kimball and a eligibility for NCAA participation. During the 2012 - 2013 basketball season, ... · • maintained academic eligibility the entire season.

In late November or early December of 2012, after .. received-SAT or ACT scores. ~ reported the scores to the • [Will$ JJ 91& One of th~ assistant ~coaches called me and said that their co pliance director said that with ... scores and core grade point average qualified r NCAA athletics. He also said"'"fi'lat ... couldn't .......,~e classes th sc ool year. This was the first time I was aware that Bl could be ~oncerning his NCAA eligibility.

I never had a conversation with any coach from any university about how 4lllt could improve ecore grade point average.

In May 2013 T..:_oANIELS and DeMarco KING never contacted me or shared anything with me abouta~Jtelling them that lllll5needed to increase e grade point average for NCAA eligibility purposes. The first time I was made aware of the grade changes in Mr. Dennis's Physics class, was when Earl JONES called me to his office in May 2013. When I arrived in his office there were an office full of people, including Mr. SMITH, Mr. Waters, Mrs. Haynes, and Ms. Porter. When I arrived, Mr. JONES asked me was I aware of a grade ch:: being made for zr I 7 in Mr. Dennis's class. He also asked me was I aware of~saying that .. needing higher grades to increas~ core grade point average. After I responded "no", Mr. JONES called for Ms. Ali to come around to his office. Mr. JONES asked me why I wasn't the guy that [ coaches were in contact about • 37 grades. I told Mr. JONES that {I 't have a working relationship with the coaches at •• and that they didn't rough me.

Mr. JONES asked me to get in contact with the coaches at iiJI'and find out why th1iirj i

in contact w ith Ms. Ali , and not in contact with Ms. Porter and me. When Coac returned my call, he said that he had been in contact with Ms. Porter and Ms. Al i. He also







said that he thought that Ms. Ali was our athletic compliance person, because .. would always tell him to check with Ms. Ali when it was concerning college requirements. I told Coach Maligi that I had been called in by my principal sayinf that Mr. Dennis had been approached about ea receiving extra work in order to his grade point average. Coach Maligi responded by saying that when Ms. Ali faxed him an unofficial transcript for ~he simply told her that he thought that~ might be~with these

grades. He said he asked her were these the final grades or was there a possibility of the sco.res ch:gs. ing. He told me that he shared with Ms. eeded to

l F •D!L! in his -~ore subjects to begin •• ~ediately. I told Coach Maligi that the coaches from the Un of that .. would be eligible as long as he in any of his core classes

his senior In return Coach Maligi said that his compliance office said that .. wou · · · if his core grade point average didn't

Coach Maligi then told me that we need to have me come over and sit down with all of the basketball coaches at SMU and fix t~lems that I am having with the SMU program. He also said that if I was handling ~recruitment, that this would have never happened.

The next day I advised Mr. JONES of my conversation with Coach Maligi. After I shared with him the information I received from Coach Maligi, he responded by saying that we need to come up with a procedure for all college coaches when they report to our campus. He (JONES) said that maybe we should have all of them check in w ith them Coach Nelson when they arrive on campus.

lA Investigations interviewed Yousuf Adenwala, Teacher from Kimball High School regard ing Keith Frazier's grades being changed on official District records. Adenwala provided a sworn affidavit and his statement is quoted verbatim: (W1 0-1, Yousuf Adenwala. Affidavit, dated: October 15, 2013)

was twice to make up the assign pre-calculus course. I initial assignme~ I then ch .,to a~

~:- ... ~ , ... __ ... __ ... . -.. ~ -~"' . ,._. . .. .... '" • • • ..,. -• • • • -. ' • J • • • r I ~ ... ~~ • • ~

I have reviewed the pre-calculus . validation form dated May 25, 2013, and I did make the grade change on the document and I did sign and date the fo.rm on May 28, 2013. I was not pressured by.J&.... DANIELS to make any changes t~ grade, I only made the change because ... had made up his missing assignments. This is the 15T time that I have been asked about---grade for the end of the 2012- 2013 school year for the pre-calculus class."







lA Investigations interviewed Stacey Collins, Teacher from Kimball High School regarding 1· •••••

grades being changed on official District records. Collins provided a sworn affidavit and his statement is quoted verbatim: (W11 -1 . Stacey Collins. Affidavit dated: October 15. 2013)

"In May of last school year ]. • r was in my class .• was. · due to .. . I spoke with ~n several occasions about &grades . .:~~~'confirmed that .would complete said makeup work. Mr. DANIELS also came by and spoke with me. I informed Mr. DANIELS of I R situation. DANIELS did speak with me, however as a Coach myself I already know the consequences for those kinds of actions. I told DANIELS that~ knows .. si.tuation and that.can make up due . L Mr. DANIELS spoke about ~ut he did not ask me point blank his grades.

On 10/15/13 I reviewed the DISD Economics Validation List from 5/25/13 and all the changes on the form were made by me. Every change is in my handwriting.

qn the date of the Final Exam .-.,turned i~makeup assignments. I tol~before .. came that if. did not complete the packet that- would fail. The makeup

assignments were ass0~~ed because of district policy. The d.ays _.missed would not

allow him to pass. . made a~n .. Final and th;t Jpade made .graduation possible. I did not receive pressure from DANIELS to pass . As an educator, I would never change or give false grades to improve the work of Athletes. I personally feel that you have to earn everything you receive. Today was the first time I had to discuss this situation about D. F .''

lA Investigations interviewed Anicia Rhynes, Teacher from Kimball High School regarding~ grades being changed on official District records. Rhynes provided a sworn affidavit and her statement is quoted verbatim: (W12-1. Anicia Rhynes. Affidavit. dated: October 15. 2013)

" I have reviewed the English val!dclti.o'n form on May 25, 2013. I verify that it is my hand writing for grade changes on

up On or about the 23 , Mr. ANIELS asked was missing any more assignments and wh_at cantl do to make it up. I told him a . was still missing two assignments even after the 5 days of tutoring. After the tutoring sessions, two more assignments was due. 'Mrt.was PR 1 and didn't get to do them. When I entered the grade, e.score was ~. again. I inform $f this while_A.was.practicing f.or the march. -told

rli'EFfliat'IIPneeded a grade of a becaus~.~ as gomg- I mformed .. that that was ITFL however, - could still~ showe·d up and completed the assignments and I changed the validation form to reflect. I was not pressured in any way to by Mr. DANIELS or anyone else to change grade."

lA Investigations interviewed Patricia Porter, Counselor for Kimball High School regarding •••••• grades being changed on official District records. Porter provided a sworn affidavit and excerpts of her statement are quoted verbatim: (W13-1. Patricia Porter. Affidavit. dated: October 23. 2013)







" On or about May 29, 2013, Ms. Ali and Coach KING came to my office to ask if two passing grades could be averaged to get a hlil average." .. .. Coach KING stated that . needed to have a higher average for He asked me to call coac~to explain to him that th-e d ecould not be averaged. That was the first time that"'ih~·d ever spoken to Coach He had been speaking with Ms. Ali , because he was under the assumption that Ms. Ali was is counselor. In speaking to coach he said that needed to have a ~or NCAA eligibility in the core courses. Coach KING stated to me during the conservation i~ my_ office that they were t~ to lock · · in the first semester .at -so that 1f th~ coach at ~eft he would not be able to take_. w1th h im." ....

"Coach~aid that he had a copy of I £1111 . ·grades that . had received f rom Ms. Ali and wanted to know if those were correct. I explained to him that I had not seen-.,final report card, he then asked if I could fax over to him a copy of. transcript. I took his fax number but never faxed anything to him, because it is against District policy." ....

~~:~e~~ ;:d~~~~~ t~:sg~~~~h~n~~eth~~i~=d bJc~:~r;~~~S g;'~nb ~th. ~0:a: ~~ha~:r~c~~~ this had happened until it was presented in the meeting in Mr. JONES office. Mr. JONES wanted to know if anyone was approached about changing ta grades or why they were changed. I told Mr. JONES of the conservation that had taken place in my office with Ms. Ali and Coach KING earlier that day." ....

Investigator's Notes: Porter was a subject to a previous investigation conducted by /A Investigations, case No. 11332.

lA Investigations conducted a prel iminary review of 'OF 3 2 records.~ attendance report contained I I rrs I absences which indicated th may not have the minimum number of days (seat time) during the 2012 - 2013 school year in order to g uate from Dallas Independent School District. The attendance report included • atten ance dates from January 23, 2013 to May 31, 2013. W1-9. DISD Individual Attendance Re art for dated October 15, 2013)

lA Investigations interviewed Llewellyn SMITH, Assistant Principal for Kimball High School regarding ·yp 3 3 II.EF attendance and seat buy back deficiencies. Mr. SMITH was the campus administrator responsible to oversee attendance and the attendance committee. Mr. SMITH provided a sworn affidavit and his statement is quoted verbatim: (W14-1. Llewellyn SMITH. Affidavit with attachments. dated: October 17. 2013)

" I am an employee of Dallas lSD and have been so for 19 years. I currently serve Dallas lSD as an assistant principal at Justin F. Kimball High School. I have been here for four years. The departments that I oversee are the mathemat ics department, athletic







department, attendance & truancy, safety and security as well as other responsibilit ies expected of any administrator.

As the assistant principal assigned to oversee attendance and attendance committee, we hold meetings to make sure students are staying within the 90% percent rule. This rule deals with the amount of time that students must be in class to gain credit. Once students are identified through a credit intervention report, they are scheduled to meet with the committee to review their attendance, and then s ign a contract. The contract is what is known as the principal 's plan. Students must be passing the class or classes in which their attendance rate falls between 75% and 90% in order to participate in t he principal's plan. On May 7, 2013 I 3 [ Fl!sr met with the attendance committee and was put on such a plan. At the time that plan was written, .. owed .,ours of seat time. -.,ours were to be completed by May 14, 2013. One credit recovery log has a documented time of ,hours in physics and is dated May 23, 2013. As of today October 17, 2013 the aocumentation that is in my possession indicates that ... did not complete the required timeewas assigned. Going strictly by what I have, eshould not have been cleared for buy-back time and thus credits would be jeopardized due to lack of attendance (attendance for credit). Based on the information in my possession, it can't be determined if the student should have been certified for graduation. As an assistant principal at Kimball, I did not giv~ preferential treatment in regards to attendance and. obligations.

Additionally, /A Investigation's review of .... & Attendance Reports determined that after signed the buy-back contract, from 2013 until the last recorded attendance for

23, 2013, ....

On October 22, 2013, Teacher Richard Dennis indicated in an email message to lA Investigations tbat 1~ did not have any documentation or tutoring records for 8 · • or any records relating to I (J buy-back contract. {W5-2. Email Message from Richard Dennis. dated: October 22. 2013)

On October 23, 2013, Teacher Yousuf indicated in.a,n email message to lA Investigations that he did not have any documentation or tutoring records for !.[ I 3 or any records relating to buy-back contract. {W1 0-2. Email Message from Yousuf Adenwala. dated: October 23. 2013)

On October 23, 2013, Teacher Rhynes indicated in an email message to lA Investigations that she did not have any documentation or tutoring records for_.. and was unaware a "Buy Back Contract" existed·for ... (W12-2. Email Messaae from Anicia Rhynes. dated: October 23. 2013)







On October 25, 2013, Teacher Stacey Collins indicated in an email message to lA Investigations that he did not have any documentation for tutoring hours relating to • buy-back contract and advised the information would be held by the attendance personnel or the attendance committee. Collins did provide lA Investigations copies of the work completed by 4 .)fTbut the documentation did not specify tutoring hours that was related to the completed work. (W11 -2, Email Message with attachment from Stacey Collins. dated: October 25. 2013)

Patricia Porter's (Counselor) sworn statement regarding U C attendance is quoted verbatim: (W13-1)

"On the day of graduation, (June 1, 2013) after the ceremony, each counselor was given a list of students who were not to receive their diploma because they need to ~~~-~~~~time for absences. This list was given to us by Mary Webster, the registrar . .. name was on the list of students that still needed to complete their seat time, therefore I did not giv~diploma. After all students had received their diplomas, each counselor returned the unclaimed diplomas to Mrs. Webster.

Three days prior to graduation the graduating seniors were certified and the list given to Mrs. Webster to take downtown. At that time I was not aware of any reason not to certify the 13 I L , nor was I aware of any procedure to not certify students that still needed " buy back time.;'

The attendance committee is composed of Mr. SMITH, Mrs. Webster, Mrs. Bean, Mrs. Hill, and other faculty members. The committee would meet to discuss students who had excessive absences and were in danger of failing one or more courses. The committee devised a plan to allow those students to "buy back' their time before school, after school or during lunch. Students that were in danger had to meet with the attendance committee to sign a contract stating that they would complete the number of required hours needed. I knew that · needed to complete some " buy back time" because I saw-., waiting to meet with the committee one morning approximately three weeks before the end of the school year. The students that had to meet with the attendance committee were sitting in a chair in the hall waiting for their turn to receive their contract. The students had to document that they had completed their " buy back time" . Documentation included having a staff/faculty member sign their contract/paper. The documentation as proof that the " buy back time" had been completed did not go to the counselor; it went to either Mr. SMITH, Mrs. Webster or someone on the attendance committee.

On October 23, 2013, Mary Webster, Registrar for Kimball High School responded to lA Investigation's request for information relating to the attendance records for 75 , 7 . Webster stated that she did not keep and was not responsible for the student attendance logs for tutoring time and attendance buyback. Webster stated she only compiled reports for the attendance committee. Webster stated she did not distribute to counselors a list of students that owed time for attendance (buy-back) prior to graduation. (W15-1. Email Message from Mary Webster. dated: October 23. 2013)

Investigator's Notes: Webster was a subject to a previous investigation conducted by /A Investigations, case No. 11432.







On October 24, 2013, lA Investigations contacted Pamela Bean, former Community Liaison for Kimball High School regarding student · . · · and the Student Attendance for Credit Contract signed by r•p on May 7, 2013 relating to the 90% rule. Ms. Bean was contacted because she was on the attendance committee at Kimball and it was suggested by Assistant Principal SMITH and Registrar Webster that Bean could have been in possession of the attendance logs fo1 J p when she served on the attendance committee as the campus community liaison. Bean declined to undergo a telephonic interview with lA Investigations. Pamela Bean is no longer an employee of the Dallas lSD. (W1-1 0, Pamela Bean. Memorandum of Telephone Conversation. dated: October 24. 2013)

lA Investigations interviewed Dr. Sylvia Reyna, Chief of -School Leadership regarding Q j •uy-back contact. Dr. Reyna stated she questioned the student's certification for graduation and why the student was certified for graduation. However, Dr. Reyna believed that once the diploma was conferred, the District could not annul the diploma. Dr. Reyna stated she would have to research the issue.

Dr. Reyna stated the campus administrator had the overall responsibility for the campus. She said the campus administrator had a lot of leeway in managing the principal's plan for the buy-back contracts, however, if the administrator did not have the proper controls in place, Dr. Reyna believed that was a management concern/deficiency. (W19-1 . Sylvia Reyna, Memorandum of Interview, dated: November 12,2013)

ANALYSIS OF ADDITIONAL BUY-BACK CONTRACTS AND ATTENDANCE CREDIT RECOVERY PROCEDURES FOR THE KIMBALL HIGH SCHOOL CAMPUS

When Assistant Principal SMITH provided lA Investigations 11 .... SMITH also provided the sign-in sheet for the credit recovery meeting

· identified as students needing to recover ._,..,.,_"m'"'

........ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~==~~~ lA Investigations requested the student contracts and supporting documentation for those students in order to determine if there were any anomalies associated with the student recovery buy-back process at the Kimball High School campus. The documentation was also requested in order to determine if the students successfully completed the terms of their individual contracts. Assistant Principal SMITH had incomplete records for the credit recovery process and he could not locate the individual contracts for the above identified students. lA Investigations conducted an analysis of the records received from Assistant Principal SMITH and determined the following:

~Assistant Principal SM ITH could not locate the buy-back contract for I mua,which ~ed the actual hours required for credit. recovery and the subjects required for s~ssful com[n of the credit recovery process. On May 18, 2013, •• owed approximately ours and minutes of seat-time. Tutoring logs indicated that~ompleted approximately ·hours and inutes of seat-time. On May 18, 2013, ~attended a mandatory senior Saturday school

1session and completed approxf1ately f hours and . minutes of actual seat-time. As of this date, ~IP IllX owed approximately. hours an~inutes of seat-time. However, Assistant Principa.L§MITH ;~~nj~!times the credit for the Saturday school session crediting approximatel~hours lliilliiliutes seat-time for Saturday, May 18, 2013. (W1-17. lA lnvestiaations. Attendance Analvsis for



lA Investigations reviewed ~dded approximately

REPORT OF INVESTIGATION Internal Aud it Investigations




would need to be accounted for. .contract should have been modified to a for 0 11"' .. I 2J.A111 7 rm. lA Investigations could not determine if 0 Sf 1 successfully

completed the credit recovery process, completed the seat-time in the appropriate subjects and whether • should have been certified for graduation. {W1-18. DISD Individual Attendance Report for FE,. ~ ~ SMITH could not locate the buy-back contract for~ and the attendance logs ~ incomplete. The buy-back would have provided the actual hours required for credit recovery and the subjects required for successful completion of the credit recovery process. A 2nd semester seat-time due log for May 2013 indicates that as owed approximately ... urs an~ minutes. Only one tutoring log was provided to lA Investigations indicating 6nours and . minutes of seat time. As of May 18, 2013, . owed approximately . hours and 41\ninutes of seat-time; however there was not documentation that supported the reduction of the hours. On May 18, 20~

-,3 attended a mandatory senior Saturday school session and completed approximately#hours ~ . minutes of actual seat-time. Assistant Pri~l SMIT~ i'?

1

ted . times the credit for the Saturday school session crediting ours an · inutes of seat-time for Saturday, May 18, 2013. (W1 -19. lA Investigations, Attendance Analysis fo1 , '

lA Investigations reviewed • F · DISD Individual Attendance Report and determined that z12Q • last recorded attendance at Kimball High School was on May 3, 2013. lA Investigations could not determine if ]!i;; successfully completed the credit recovery process, completed the seat-time in the appropriate subjects and ould have been certified for graduation. (W1-20. DISD Individual

!!IIIII._.. SMITH could not locate the buy-back contract for C and the attendance logs - ""'"'" ' be incomplete. The buy-back would have provided the actual hours required for credit

re>r·n"'"'' " and the subjects required for successful completion of the credit recovery process. As of May 7, owed approximate! .,ours and. minutes. fl!t'P r tutoring log indicated that

pleted approximately i hours an. m1nutes of seat-time in various subjects. On May 18, 'l•lllia.=lttend~~d a mandatory senior Saturday school session and completed approximately 3

hours and nutes of actual seat-time. SMITH did not grant · Sq · additional seat-time. (W1 -21. lA Investigations. Attendance Analysis for I I ) .~.

lA Investigations reviewed Ill j DISD Individual Attendance Report and determined that••••~ attended school on May 6, 2013 and did not a~end another class at the campus until May 23, 2013. lA Investigations not provided any documentation fof this anomaly and lA Investigations could not determine if had additional unexcused absences, if ._ completed the seat-time in the appropriate subj and whethereshould have been certified for graduation. (W1-22. DISD Individual

- SMITH could not locate the buy-back contract for~ and there were not attendance logs for~. The buy-back would have provided the actual hours required for credit recovery and the subjects required for successful completion of the credit recovery -process. As of May 7, 2013, ~; owed approximatelyf hours and·- minutes. On May 18, 2013, attended a mandatory semor







Saturday school session and completed approximately of actual seat-time. SMITH granted- additional seat-time. (W1-23, lA Investigations. Attendance Analysis for

lA Investigations reviewed Alanis' DISD Individual Attendance Report and determined that -attended school on May 2, 2013, May 8, 2013 and May 15, 2013. lA Investigations was not provided any documentation for this anomaly and lA Investigations could not determine if - had additional unexcused absences, if he completed the seat-time in the appropriate subjects and whether he should have been certified for graduation. (W1-24. DISD Individual Attendance Report for

lA Investigation reviewed the Mandatory Saturday School for Excessive Absences/Credit logs for other Kimball seniors and determined that several students may not have successfully completed the credit recovery process even when the students received additional time for the Saturday School on May 18, 2013, Analysis below: (W1-25. lA Investigations. Mandatory School Analysis with Attachments)

May 18, 2013 Mandatory Saturday School for Excessive Absences/Credit

... ' "' ' " ' ' • • • - • • ·• - - --~ - - ·•-·•- ·· - •• --- · · - - • - • • • --- •Ho o·- - 0 ---- - ---- - - - ··-- - - - - -----·-··•••··• --- ·••• -- ----• •• 0 o

.Assistant Principal SMITH Determined the following Arbitrary credit ratios: _

Arrive betwee~ : _G:OO a.m. and 6:30a.m.,_ stu~!!~.! rE!c_eiv~~-~ t_i~E!_S_ the_cr~_di! ()f a~u-~l__h._()urs

.. ~rr~v_e _~et~E!e!l: ~:~1 a, m._ a_r:!_d _ _?:_Qq~ · rn:, stl!d_E!_~t!.E!~E!__iv_E!~- -~ !!_~E!_s_ ~_he_~~ej_i !_ of_~ctual _h_9_l_J_~s ____ _ _ Arrive ~E!tween: 7:01a.m. and ~ftE!r, stu_dent re~eilt_e ~l t!~_es __ !~~- cr~~it __ ()f,a~-~ h.CIIJr.~ ___ _ _ __ _

- .. ·--- - ... -- -·· ---- ---· · ---~--- · ··- ····------------· -·· ··· ·····-Above hours do not include any hours the students received for other seat time completed before or after school

R!!~o_r:_dsf()r_the K_imb~llca_!Tl_piJs_ ~!ein_~()ITI_~I!!_t_e.:_ __ _ ___ ______ --- -- ------ ---· · __ __ ... _____ _ ;_ _ - ---- - ----- -- ---- - --- ---- -







On November 25, 2013, Assistant Principal Llewellyn Smith, Kimball High School was interviewed by lA Investigations an.d he provided a sworn affidavit. lA Investigations completed an memorandum of interview in order to clarify the information provided in SMITH's sworn statement concerning the buy-back contract and attendance recovery process for the Kimball campus.

Assistant Principal SMITH acknowledged that he did not .have any of the contracts for any of the students whose names appeared in the same sign-in sheet with r• II for the credit recovery meeting on May 7, 2013. SMITH indicated he had provided lA Investigations all of the documentation related to students .I I; a IE ' . I • an and I iii I 7 SMITH stated the student buy-back contracts should have specified the hours the students needed to complete and fulfill the terms the buy-back agreement. SMITH said the contracts should have identified the subjects that the students were deficient in and the incomplete hours needed for buy-back of that particular subject. SMITH acknowledged without the student contracts and complete supporting documentation, it was impossible to determine if any of the students had successfully completed the terms to their buy-back contracts.

SMITH reviewed the Attendance Report for student and acknowledged the unexcused absences - ns accumulated after he signed his buy-back contract would probably need to be accounted for and the lack of documentation could not established if all of-- unexcused absences had been satisfactory addressed.

SMITH acknowledged that the extra credit factors of, 3 times and 2 times the credit, for actual hours completed on the last scheduled mandatory senior Saturday school for May 18, 2013, was arbitrary established by him and the attendance review committee. Smith stated the credit factor was established because he and the attendance committee knew that some of the students would not successfully complete the requic:ed buy-back time unless the students were given an arbitrary incentive, because some of the students were so far behind in completing the credit recovery process.

lA Investigations presented to SMITH an analysis relating to several students that indicated the students owed a significant number of buy-back hours and even if the students received extra credit for attending the final mandatory Saturday school on May 18th, several students would still owe buy-back time. SMITH acknowledged that additional student logs would need to be located to account for the missing hours. (W1 -25)

SMITH stated that once students completed clearance of books, uniforms, fees, attendance, etc., a final clearance form was generated that would clear the student for certification for graduation. SMITH said the final clearance form(s) for senior students relating to attendance and the credit recovery process could not be located.

Assistant Principal SMITH never mentioned whether any academic goals and objective (learning activities) were required for the credit recovery process. SMITH acknowledged the additional management controls needed to be implemented at Kimball High School to effectively document and manage the attendance committee and the credit recovery process. (W1-26. Memorandum of Interview. Conducted with Assistant Princioal SMITH. dated: November 25. 2013)

Investigator's Notes: Texas Education Code §25.092. Minimum Attendance for Class Credit, states a student may be given credit if the student completes a plan approved by the principal that provides for the







student to meet the instructional requirements of the class. The board of trustees is required to adopt policies establishing ways for students to make up work or regain credit lost because of absences. A district may establish ways to make up work or regain credit that are workable in consideration of the circumstances. The section does not require students to spend a certain amount of time in a "Saturday school" or other educational setting equal to time missed during the regular school hours. However. the district should be prepared with other options that give the student a reasonable opportunity to make up work or regain credit even under challenging circumstances, including excessive absences that occur late in the school year. Assistant Principal SMITH did not have sufficient management controls in place to effectively manage the process and he failed to maintain adequate documentation that could justify and support any management decision made relating to the Kimball campus buy-back plan or any credit recovery procedures.

The credit recovery process for Kimball High School states:

"4. In order to participate in the credit recovery program, students must be current with all assignments, have attended all classes at least 75% of the time classes have been offered, be current with all assigned work and have all passing grades for each class. "Frazier was not current and was not passing core subjects per teacher testimony".

9. Students may also recover credit upon completion of a project assigned by the teacher of the class in which credit has been denied. The project must be commensurate to the number of absences and a deadline will be given for completion of the project." (W1-27. Kimball High School Credit Recovery Process)

TOBY DANIELS AND SPECIAL FUNDING POSITION INVESTIGATION:

The final allegation in this investigation stated that certain teacher assistants paid with special education, Title I, funds were not performing their assigned duties at the Kimball campus and that the administrators were abusing the special education funds.

lA Investigations contacted Jordan Roberts, Director from Grants Management regarding the Title I special education funding criteria for Kimball High School teacher assistants Toby DANIELS, Demarco KING and Monica Gray. Roberts responded that KING and Gray were paid with District general funds from account "199" and only DANIELS was subject to compliance with Title I funding. Roberts provided DANIELS Semi-Annual Certifications for the school years 2011 - 2012 and 2012 - 2013. A review of DANIELS semi-annual certifications indicated that DANIELS certified that 100% of his job duties were related to activities which were in compliance with his funding agreement. Additionally there were no adjustments to the certifications indicating that DANIELS had spent time on other duties not dedicated to his Title I funding agreement. Principal JONES signed the documents as DANIELS supervisor certifying that DANIELS complied with the T itle I funding agreement without any adjustments. (W16-1 . Jordan Roberts. Email Messaae and DANIELS Semi-Annual Certifications for the school years 2011 - 2012 and 2012- 2013. dated: Auaust 12. 2013)







Dionel Waters (Assistant Principal) sworn statement . regar~~_ .O,AW.E;~S.' . job assignment is quoted verbatim:~

"When I first arrived at Kimball in February 2012, I had to learn the roles and responsibilities for each employee. According to his job code, Mr. Toby DANIELS is a special education teacher assistant in the FLS (functional learning skills) unit. On the day in question, Toby was not where he belonged. Since my first day at Kimball , Toby used a walkie-tal kie and assisted in the hallway. I informed Toby that this upcoming school year (2013-2014), he would not have a walkie-talkie and will be in the FLS unit 100% of the time."

lA Investigations interviewed Suzie Jones, Teacher for Functional Living Skills (FLS) at Kimball High School regarding DANIELS assignment in the special education department. Suzie Jones provided a sworn affidavit and her statement is quoted verbatim: (W17-1. Suzie Jones. Affidavit. dated: October 15. 2013)

" I've worked w ith Toby DANIELS for the last three years and he has been my teacher assistant.

During the 2011-2012 school year during the fall semester he was assigned a student to do one-on-one work based learning, but after the student transferred in Jan. 2012 he continued with the work based learning class for the remainder of the school year.

During the 2012-201 3 school year I recommended that Mr. DANIELS be in my unit to assist me with the FLS unit. During that time he would be in the unit about 50% of the time. I believe Mr. DANIELS was assigned other duties by administration such as hall duties, work based learn ing, special education bus duty for the other time in the instruction times that he was away from my FLS unit.

When Mr. DANIELS was assigned to me there would be several problems with him being in the unit. He would be away from his assignment many times and would not be available to assist me in the FLS unit. He had a walkie-talkie and he would leave the unit many times as if he was being called for another assignments. He had me assume that he was being called away for ·other duties. I had asked him to turn off the walkie-talkie during instruction time, but he would only lower the volume on the walkie-talkie. This would occur a lot during instruction t ime. Mr. DANIELS would always tell me he was assisting in the hall or there was always a reason why he was not in the classroom. I advised Assistant Principal Waters about my concerns relating to Mr. DANIELS and Mr. Waters would have a discussion with Mr. DANIELS as to why he was not assisting or completing h is job assignment as a teacher assistant for the special education unit FLS. Mr. DANIELS was moved from my unit in late fall 2012 and then Mr. Gray was assigned as my teacher assistant."






Referral To Outside Agency.


The Dallas lSD may wish to consider forwarding a copy of this Report of Investigation to the TEA Educator Standards and Certification Legal Division for any action they deem appropriate.

The District's ~ffice of Huma~ Capit~l Management may wish to forward this Report of Investigation to the Dallas lSD Pollee and Secunty Servrces Department for any action they deem appropriate.

Explanations And Defenses Offered

Demarco KING is no longer a District employee and he would not consent to undergo an interview with lA Investigations.

On October 29, 2013, lA Investigations interviewed Principal Earl JONES regarding all of the allegations identified in this report. Principal JONES provided a sworn affidavit and his statement is quoted verbatim: (W18-1 . Earl JONES, Affidavit with Attachments, dated: October 29. 2013) Also attached to Principal JONES sworn affidavit are statements JONES provided to senior administrators .

INVESTIGATION:

"In the midst of preparing for the grade process Ms. Haynes was communicating with the teachers to pick up their validation reports for verification. We had our regular Kimball Symposium where Ms. Haynes was allowed to issue val idation forms to the teachers . These would have been to teachers who had not picked up their forms from her. The deadline to complete this work was at hand, and she needed to ensure all teachers had their information.

Those teachers who were not at the meeting or had not picked up their reports; t rying to meet deadlines, Ms. Haynes had them delivered to them using the assistance of teacher assistants and monitors. Ms. Haynes did not ask me if she could use the assistants to help her, but considering the timelines I would have supported her in getting the documents out, including getting assistance or calling the teachers down specifically.

The duties and responsibilities of teacher assistants are to provide support for the teachers and students to reach goals that have been established. They are under the direction of the teacher and are not considered teachers or employees of record. Mr. DANIELS was out of his scope of responsibilities when he approached teachers about the status of j •• [ _ & This is carried out by the c-oach or between teachers. Mr. KING, while being a head coach, his conversation around : . was not in his scope of responsibility, as.-. was not one of his athletes.

My conversation with Mr. KING after learning of the document being altered was about why? Mr. KING shared with us that he s imply wanted to average what~ scores would be with particular changes. I shared with him (KING) that he had made changes on a legal document, and it looks as though these were only grades changes, not






KING Demarco 511 21 11635

calculations. I asked why he had not used scratch paper to make these calculations. He (KING) shared that he felt there could be new validation forms issued, so he wrote on these. I shared with him that it looks as though, from what we had in front of us, he made grade changes and the document was a legal document. This does not look good, and there would be consequences around this. Neither Mr. KING nor Mr. DANIELS was authorized to go from teacher to teacher to seek grade adjustments. This is something they took on themselves.

The data controller Ms. Haynes shared with me that the grades were caught before they were sent forward in Chancery for finalization. She indicated to me that she would be going back to each individual teacher and has them verify any changes. This would happen before she would submit for final verification and grade reports. Unfortunately the preliminary report card was sent to reflecting the grade changes. In communicating with Dr. Reyna, she directed me not to follow up and contact 3 £[that she would have that done.

The process for attendance verification lies with the teacher. The attendance committee meets to address attendance issues and truancy as well. Mr. SMITH my assistant principal is the administrator who provides leadership for this committee. There are other members who have certain duties and responsibilities. The specific procedures of this committee are to ~gress of the attendance of students. All of the documentation for~ has not been located as of yet. Based upon the documents provided, it remains unclear whether or not completed his contract for his buy back hours. The process for record keeping and retaining documents will need to be addressed so that the tracking of students can be cross-referenced. Moving forward this committee will need to track the more habitual students more closely. Perhaps have status reports generated on a weekly basis. Identify the actual record keeper, and designate a secure area to retain records. This will help when there are changes in the membership of the committee, and would make the records accessible to anyone choosing to view them. There should not be multiple places to hold or retain records. Based on the information provided on the attendance report for~ W additional class periods would need to be accounted for through the teacher or the attendance committee."

On November 11, 2013, Principal JONES advised via an email message that the campus did not have any other documents relating to ·• I buy-back contract other than what had been previously provided to lA. (W18-2, Email .message from Earl Jones. dated: November 11. 2013)

TOBY DANIELS TITLE I FUNDED POSITION:

"Mr. DANIELS had a schedule to follow for his duties as Special Education teacher assistant. His schedule required him to be out of the original classroom from time to time. His duties and responsibilities reflected him serving students with special needs. From time to time Mr. DANIELS may have veered from his schedule, or he took too long to return from a required assignment. It would be difficult to make adjustments to his certification form as to how much time he may have been doing other duties. Mr.







DANIELS had been counseled with about following his schedule. He no longer carries a radio, and his schedule is far more specific. His schedule last year probably allowed too much flexibility in it, thus giving Mr. DANIELS opportunity to be unaccounted for. With that his semi-annual certification forms could have been adjusted to reflect the various schedule times out of the classroom. This year his schedule is very precise, without the numerous opportunities to venture from the classroom and his required duties. It is being monitored by the assistant principal assigned to special education.

Ms. Monica Gray, who is currently a full time teacher, was a teacher assistant last year, but was under 199 funding. This allowed more flexibility in her schedule and duties assigned to the needs to the campus .

.-nnr•.n~• JONES acknowledged but declined to include in his sworn based on the information obtained by /A Investigations that

to gra.. Principal JONES did not necessarily know how, necessary, the graduation status of ·col.J!d b Principal Jones said he was aware of the Superintendent's Directive, dated: August 30, 2013, relating to Federal Funded Positions. Principal JONES also reviewed DANIELS semi-annual certification forms for the school years 2011 - 2012 and 2012 - 2013. Principal JONES acknowledged that adjustments should have been made on the certification forms to account for the hours during the instructional day when DANIELS was not in compliance with his position that was funded with Title I funds. Principal JONES declined to record the above acknowledgements in his sworn affidavit because JONES stated he had been through this before with OPR. The Superintendent's Directive and DANIELS Title I semi-annual certification forms are attached to this memorandum (W1-13. Earl JONES. Memorandum of Interview with attachments) The memorandum was contemporaneously written during Principal JONES interview on October 29, ~Principal JONES certified for graduation the Kimball High School senior class to include ~on May 29, 2013 (W1-14 .• 2013 Kimball Senior 2013 Certified List. dated: May 29. 2013)

Toby DANIELS sworn affidavit articulated his defense regarding his special education position and his statement is quoted verbatim: (W8-1)

" I am a special education teacher assistant and during the 2012 - 2013 school year I spent 100% of my time in the classroom or equivalent to the classroom with my students. I have reviewed the semi-annual certifications forms for the 2012 - 2013 school year and the information on the document is correct, I did spend 100% of my hours in the classroom. I did not spend any time outside of the classroom or the classroom equivalent which includes the one-on-one work based program. Ms. Suzy Jones had a problem with me because I had the walkie-talkie in the classroom not because I was not physically in the classroom. Mr. Waters told me last school year that I was not going to be issued a walkietalkie in the 2013-2014 school years because I guess they hired a new hall monitor. Last school year there was no fulltime hall monitor in the new wing and I did not serve as the hall monitor in the new wing or any other wing/hallway on the campus during instruction time. I have reviewed, initialed and dated the semi certification forms that were presented to me by OPR."







Assistant Principal SMITH provided a response to whether student K I should have been certified for graduation. SMITH added the following to his sworn affidavit that is quoted verbatim : (W14-1)

"Based on the information in my possession, it can't be determined if the student~· I As an assistant principal at Kimball, I~

give • treatment in regards to attendance and his obligations."

SMITH's RESPONSE TO THE ANALYSIS OF THE ADDITIONAL BUY-BACK CONTRACTS AND ATIENDANCE CREDIT RECOVERY PROCEDURES FOR THE CAMPUS

Assistant Principal SMITH was interviewed on November 25, 2013 regarding the campus buy-back process and the attendance credit recovery procedures for the campus. SMITH provided and sworn affidavit and his statement is quoted verbatim: (W14-4. Llewellyn SMITH. Affidavit. dated: November 25. 2013)

"The departments that I work with include mathematics, attendance and truancy, athletics, foundations, safety and security, custodial, and food services.

As the assistant principal assigned to oversee attendance and lead the attendance committee one of our major charges is to monitor the attendance of students keeping them in compliance with the 90% rule which basically states that students must be in attendance 90% of the time a class is offered to receive credit in a class. When student's fall below 90% attendance they are identified through .excessive absence and credit intervention reports (from these reports the amount of seat time is figured) and scheduled to meet with members of the attendance committee to be placed on what is commonly referred to as a Principal's Plan which reads as such: When a student's attendance drops below 90 percent but remains at least at 75 percent of the days the class is offered and earns a passing grade, the student may earn credit for the class by completing a plan approved by the principal that provides for the student to meet the instructional requirements of the class.

Our 2012-2013 Plan Follows:

1. Each three weeks, Attendance office personnel will submit an excessive absence/credit intervention report (9-22absences per course/per semester) to the appropriate attendance committee personnel.

2. In order to participate in the credit recovery program, students must be . current with all assignments, have attended all classes at least 75% of the time classes have been offered, be current with all assigned work and have all passing grades for each class.

3. Attendance Committee Personnel will figure the amount of recovery time owed and issue mandatory tutoring/credit recovery forms to students with 9 to 22 absences per course. Students may recover hours, one hour per hour missed, by attending tutoring before/after school or Saturday school.

4. A list of all students in the warning stages (4-8 absences) or recovering credit is generated and posted outside of the attendance office.







5. Teachers will maintain a tutoring log which will be turned in to their appraiser.

6. Students must return the Mandatory Tutoring/Credit Recovery form to the Community Liaison in the Parent Center w ithin three days of the end of the semester.

7. Students may also recover credit upon completion of a project assigned by the teacher of the class in wh ich credit has been denied. The project must be commensurate to the number of absences and a deadline will be given for completion of the project.

8. Failure to complete the credit recovery hours or the designated projects will result in the continued denial of credit.

9. Parents/ Students I Representative may appeal the decision of the Attendance Review Committee. The request shall be in writing to the Superintendent or designee and must be filed within seven days of the response or, if no response is received, with in seven days of the response deadline.

Under §25.092, a district may establish ways to make up work or regain credit that are workable in consideration of the circumstances. The section does not require that students spend a certain amount of time in a "Saturday school" or other educational setting equal to time missed during regular school hours. The district should be prepared with other options that give the student a reasonable opportunity to make up work or regain credit even under challenging circumstances, including excessive absences that occur late in the school year. Additionally, this law is not intended to penalize students for not attending a class before the student was enrolled in the class. Students, including migrant students or transfer students, who could not have attended a class before enrollment should not have the days of class that occurred before their enrollment counted against them for purposes of "the 90 percent rule" . As with any other student, to receive credit a student who enrolls after instruction for the year or semester has begun is required to demonstrate academic achievement and proficiency of the subject matter as required under §28.021 and 19 T.A.C. §74.26.

This plan has served as our plan for the past three years and to my knowledge can be altered or individually tailored to specific students extenuating circumstances/needs with attendance committee approval.

On the day of May 7, 2013 members of the attendance committee were scheduled to meet with several high priority seniors.to place them on a plan. The students were . ,,.._,

II UIIE I . IB t-)1£', . .. . and ' 7 n a 2 I &. As reference earlier, the plan called for them tp make up allotted time by attending before or after school tutorials and/or Saturday School. The hours that these students needed at that time ranged from 3 to 36 hours. Documentation that we are able to gather indicate that most students completed a reasonable amount of time aided by our last Saturday School for seniors held on May 18, 2013 from (6am- 12pm) in which several students times were tripled (an incentive agreed on by the attendance committee for students that arrived between 6am-6:30am) or doubled (students arriving between 6:31am-7:00 am) since th is







was the last Saturday school to make up time. Saturday school sign in sheets show that all students met with on May 7, 2013 attended except IT I a Students needing additional time after the final Saturday School were not allowed to attend Senior Activities (i.e. Senior Picnic etc.) or arrive to school late prior to graduation. They instead were required to come to school to recover necessary time. Clearance records for all students (books, uniforms, fees, attendance, etc.) are then generated for final clearance. I have searched for documents pertaining to final clearance for attendance and to this point have been unsuccessful in my attempts. The Community Liaison served as the primary record keeper/manager of all documentation pertaining to attendance buy back/credit recovery and truancy and at this time that documentation has not been found."

Relevant Policies, Procedures, And Statutes.

Dallas lSD Policy- EMPLOYEE STANDARDS OF CONDUCT DH {LOCAL)

All District employees shall perform their duties in accordance with state and federal law, District policy, and ethical standards for professional educators. [See DH (EXHIBIT)]

All District personnel shall recognize and respect the rights of students, parents, other employees, and members of the community and shall work cooperatively with others to serve the best interests of the District.

VIOLATIONS OF STANDARDS OF CONDUCT:

Employees shall comply with the standards of conduct set out in this policy and with any other policies, regulations, and guidelines that impose duties, requirements, or standards attendant to their status as District employees. Violation of any policies, regulations, and guidelines may result in disciplinary action, a report to SBEC, and/or termination of employment. [See DH (LEGAL), DCD, and DF series]

EMPLOYEE'S DUTY TO REPORT:

Any employee who knows or has reason to know of or suspects an occurrence of fraud, misappropriation, or financial impropriety shall immediately notify one or more of the following: The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) using the District's Fraud Hotline at (800) 530-1608, The Police and Security Department, or The employee's supervisor. [See CM(LOCAL) and CHE(LOCAL) and CHE(LOCAL) (REGULATION)] An employee who suspects his or her supervisor of fraud, misappropriation, or financial impropriety should report such matters to OPR. Any fraud reports received by a supervisor or the Police and Security Department shall immediately be reported to OPR.

EMPLOYEE'S DUTIES DURING AN INVESTIGATION:

During an investigation, an employee shall:






4. Cooperate with the investigative process as follows:


a. Throughout the course of an official District administrative investigation or inquiry, every District employee has an affirmative duty to provide all relevant and factual in-formation about matters inquired. Employees failing to cooperate with the investigation shall receive a directive from an administrator to cooperate. The employee's failure to comply with the administrator's directive constitutes "insubordination," a violation that will be grounds for disciplinary action up to and including termination. [See DCD and DF series]

b. When directed by an administrator or a District investigator, an employee shall submit an administrative statement. Intentional falsification, misstatement, or the concealment of a material fact in connection with an administrative investigation shall be deemed as "providing untruthful statements" and shall be grounds for disciplinary action up to and including termination.

Dallas ISO Pol icy- EMPLOYEE STANDARDS OF CONDUCT DH {EXHIBIT)

The Texas educator shall comply with standard practices and ethical conduct toward students, professional colleagues, school officials, parents, and members of the community and shall safeguard academic freedom. The Texas educator, in maintaining the dignity of the profession, shall respect and obey the law, demonstrate personal integrity, and exemplify honesty. The Texas educator, in exemplifying ethical relations with colleagues, shall extend just and equitable treatment to all members of the profession. The Texas educator, in accepting a position of public trust, shall measure success by the progress of each student toward realization of his or her potential as an effective citizen. The Texas educator, in fulfilling responsibilities in the community, shall cooperate with parents and others to improve the public schools of the community. 19 TAG 247.1

1. Professional Ethical Conduct, Practices, and Performance

Standard 1.1. The educator shall not intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly engage in deceptive practices regarding official policies of the District, educational institution, educator preparation program, the Texas Education Agency, or the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) and its certification process. Standard 1.6. The educator shall not falsify records, or direct or coerce others to do so. Standard 1. 7. The educator shall com ply with state regulations, written local Board policies, and other state and federal laws.

Dallas ISO Policy- FISCAL MANAGEMENT GOALS AND OBJECTIVES FINANCIAL ETHICS - CAA (LOCAL)

Section I General Provisions:

All Trustees, employees, vendors, contractors, consultants, volunteers, and any other parties who are involved in the District's financial transactions shall act with integrity and diligence in duties involving the District's fiscal resources .


REPORTS:






Any person who suspects fraud or financial impropriety in the District shall immediately report the suspicion directly to the chief administrator of the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), to the District's Fraud Hotline, to the Police and Security Department, or to his or her supervisor. An employee who suspects his or her supervisor of fraud or impropriety should report such matters to the OPR. Any fraud reports received by a supervisor or the Police and Security Department shall immediately be reported to the OPR.

Reports of suspected fraud or financial impropriety shall be treated as confidential to the extent permitted by law. Limited disclosure may be necessary to complete a full investigation or to comply with law. All employees involved in an investigation shall be advised to keep information about the investigation confidential. In the case of report of fraud or financial impropriety against a Board member, the Superintendent of Schools shall consult with the Board President or the highest Board member not affected by the report regarding the appropriate review procedure, which may include the appointment of a special ad hoc committee.

In the case of report of fraud or financial impropriety agains~ an employee, vendor, contractor, consultant, volunteer, and/or any other party involved in the District's financial transactions, the Superintendent of Schools or designee shall refer the matter for investigation directly to the chief administrator or a designee of the OPR.

Dallas lSD Policy - ATTENDANCE FOR CREDIT - FEC (LOCAL)

ATTENDANCE COMMITTEES:

Each school shall have an attendance committee appointed by the principal in accordance with legal requirements for efficient implementation of Education Code 25.092.

PARENTAL NOTICE OF EXCESSIVE ABSENCES:

A student and the student's parent or guardian shall be given written notice prior to and at such time when a student's attendance in any class drops below 90 percent of the days the class is offered.

METHODS FOR REGAINING CREDIT:

When a student's attendance drops below 90 but remains at least at 75 percent of the days the class is offered and earns a passing grade, the student may earn credit for the class by completing a plan approved by the principal that provides for the student to meet the instructional requirements of the class.

The Superintendent of Schools or designee shall develop guidelines for the principal's plan.

If the student fails to successfully complete the principal's plan or when a student's attendance drops below 75 percent of the days the class is offered and earns a passing grade, the student, parent, or representative, may request award of credit by submitting a written petition to the attendance committee.



FILING PETITIONS:





The petition may be filed immediately but no later than 30 days after the last day of the first semester or the last day of the school year of the second semester for secondary schools, and the last day of the school year for elementary schools, for which credit is lost for lack of attendance. The attendance committee shall review the records of all students whose attendance drops below 90 percent of the days the class is offered, whether or not a petition is filed.

Students who have lost credit because of excessive absences may regain cred it by fu lfilling the requirements established by the principal 's plan or the attendance committee.

LOSS OF CREDIT FOR LACK OF ATTENDANCE:

Students with excessive absences that are not excused by the attendance committee will be given the grade earned, but will not be awarded credit. The earned grade will be shown with an asterisk(*) denoting that no credit is given. However, students with excessive absences may regain the lost credit by complying with specific conditions imposed by the attendance committee, on a case-by-case basis. [See below]

ALL UNEXCUSED ABSENCES:

The attendance committee shall impose one or a combination of one or more of the alternative learning activities listed below for a student to receive credit lost because of excessive unexcused absences. Completion of class and homework assignments for days of absence and earning a passing grade are required . The attendance committee may require the student to:

1. Satisfy time-on-task requirements before and/or after school; 2. Complete additional assignments, as specified by the attendance committee or teacher; 3. Attend tutorial sessions as scheduled; 4. Attend Saturday classes; 5. Attend evening classes; and 6. Complete independent study projects, as specified by the attendance committee or teacher.

At a minimum, time attending one or more of the optional programs should equal the number of hours the student needs to make up [see EIA(LOCAL)]. In all cases , the student must also earn a passing grade in order to receive credit.

Dallas lSD Policy- ATTENDANCE FOR CREDIT - FEC (REGULATION)

SECONDARY:

The parent shall be notified by the school after the student has missed five percent of the days any class is offered in a semester. The purpose of this written notification is to make the parent aware that the student has missed several classes and may be in jeopardy of losing credit for the semester course if he or she misses ten percent of the days the class is offered. If the student continues to miss class, the



REPORT OF INVESTIGATION Internal Aud it Investigat ions




school shall notify the parents, after the student has missed ten percent of the days the class is offered, that the student has lost credit for the course for the semester. The parent may file a petition to appeal the loss of credit to the attendance committee.

The school will make every effort to schedule appeals conferences at a convenient time for the parent.

PRINCIPAL'S PLAN FOR REGAINING CREDIT:

When a student's attendance drops below 90 percent but remains at least at 75 percent of the days the class is offered and earns a passing grade, the student may earn credit for the class by completing a plan approved by the principal that provides for the student to meet the instructional requirements of the class.

IMPOSING CONDITIONS FOR AWARDING CREDIT:

The principal's plan shall include alternate learning activities that the students must successfully complete within a designated time to receive credit lost because of excessive absences. Upon completion of the alternate learning activities, the principal shall make a f inal determination to reinstate credit or uphold the denial of credit for any course or courses for which alternate learning activities were assigned.

The principal shall document all assignments and decisions in writing as follows:

1. All absences shall be considered in determining whether a student has attended the required percentage of days. If makeup work is completed, absences for religious holy days, requ ired court appearances, and health care appointments shall be considered days of attendance for this purpose. [See FEB]

2. The principal shall consider whether or not the student has completed assignments, mastered the essential knowledge and skills, and maintained passing grades in the course or subject.

3. The student or parent shall be given an opportunity to present any information to the principal about the absences and to discuss ways to earn or regain credit.

4. The principal's plan shall impose one or a combination of one or more of the following suggested alternative learning activities to meet the instructional requirements of the class. The principal may requ ire the student to:

a. Participate in an academic probation plan; b. Participate in alternative learning programs to regain credit; c. Complete additional assignments, as specified by the principal or teacher; d. Attend tutorial sessions as scheduled; e. Attend Saturday classes; f. Participate in a mentoring program; g. Obtain credit by examination; h. Attend evening classes; and/or i. Complete independent projects, as specified by the principal or teacher.

In all cases, the student must have earned a passing grade in order to receive credit.







Dallas lSD PRINCIPAL'S HANDBOOK OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES 2010 - 2011

Section 10- Compulsory School Attendance and Enforcement

Attendance Committee:

The principal shall establish an attendance committee with a majority of its members being teachers including a campus employee assigned as chairperson. [FEC (LOCAL) and Texas Education Code 25.092] The attendance committee shall review the records of all students whose attendance drops below 90 percent of the days the class is offered, whether or not a petition is filed. Students who have lost credit because of excessive absences may regain credit by fulfilling the requirements established by the principal's plan or the attendance committee [FEC (LOCAL)]. The attendance committee shall develop a plan to ensure early identification and recommendations for students with potential credit loss due to excessive absences.

The attendance committee shall have regular scheduled meetings (secondary schools a minimum of regular, scheduled bi-weekly meetings and all elementary and magnet middle schools a minimum of one scheduled meeting each six-week). All members shall be trained in district and campus attendance policies and truancy enforcement procedures. The attendance committee shall maintain agendas, sign-in sheets and record the outcome of all attendance and hearing actions and appeals. Scheduled meetings shall be posted in the attendance office with the campus process for initiating an appeal and the process for submitting a student for committee review.

Documentation:

Campus administrators shall implement all necessary procedures to ensure that accurate attendance record keeping is maintained. The principal or designee shall provide all currently and all late enrollees with a copy of the Student Handbook, Campus Attendance Plan, and State Compulsory Attendance Law warning notice upon enrollment.

Section 12 - Grade Entry and Verif ication Procedures

The principal shall annually develop written documentation of his/her school's grade entry and verification procedures. The grade reporting procedures document shall include the activity date, the activity description, the title of the person responsible for the activity, and the name of the person responsible for the grade. The District's grade change form shall be used. The form shall be used as documentation and placed on file for reference during the school year. The principal shall ensure that each person responsible for a grade entry and/or verification procedure is informed of his/her responsibilities and attends appropriate training sessions provided by school staff, School Leadership and Administrative Services, Campus and Administrative Support, and/or the Learning Community Office.

The principal or his/her professional level designee shall review grade reporting procedures with all school staff involved in the grade reporting process prior to the end of the first grade reporting cycle and periodically throughout the school year prior to the end of each grading cycle as necessary.







Superintendent Directive- Federal Funded Positions- Dated: August 30, 2013

There has been a practice in the Dallas Independent School District (Dallas lSD) of having certain campus employees, who are totally funded by federal dollars, work at least part of the school day as extra-curricular coaches. This is a clear violation of the rules or the funding agreement. The Dallas lSD is, once again, in the position of having to self-report legal violations to the proper authority and to repay the state and federal government significant funds.

As of today, that practice stops. Persons funqed by federal dollars must spend 100% of their time during the school day working per the terms of his or her funding agreement.

Anyone signing a certification form in which they attest that 100% or his or her time is spent during the school day working per the terms of his or her funding agreement must be aware that they will be held personally accountable if it turns out that such is NOT the case. This is a vitally serious issue and will be dealt with accordingly. Again, be aware that individuals violating the terms of this directive will be held personal accountable and may be subject to termination.

(Notation)

DECISION OF THE COMMISSIONER Docket No. 040-R2-1099 Rayford Gibson v. Tatum Independent School District (Excerpt) "With no mitigating circumstances, one must conclude that lying to cover one's tracks during an investigation is per se grounds for termination."

Conclusions

The investigation substantiated that former Dallas lSD employee, Demarco KING of Kimball High School improperly contacted teacher Richard Dennis in an effort to have Dennis mod and increase the academic grade for student which would have for the NCAA Clearing Hous.e and eligible for KING was a teacher assistant at the campus assigned to assist teacher Richard ennis. When Dennis declined to modify ,. 71& grade, KING altered II :1 r-- Dallas lSD Grade Validation Report. The alteration of the report caused Dallas lSD to be falsified on an official Dallas lSD report card that was forwarded KING's actions were in violation of Dallas ISO Policies - Employee s of Conduct DH (LOCAL) and Employee Standards of Conduct DH (EXHIBIT).

The investigation substantiated that Toby DANIELS, Teacher Assistant Kimball High School, improperly contacted teacher Richard Dennis and pressured Denn· increase 7 HJ academic grade for the Physics class, which would have made DANIELS also made improper contact with other campus teachers in a'llilffort to increase the academic grades for Ill p DANIELS knew Demarco KING was going to alter Physics grade and DANIELS failed to report KING's intentions to ca_mpus administrators. The investigation also substantiated that DANIELS failed to

.· .




SMITH Llewellyn 181 42 11633



adhere to his assigned Title I duties and DANIELS falsified his semi-annual Title I certification funding documents claiming that he spent 100% of his time during the school day working per the terms of his· funding agreement. DANIELS was not truthful when he denied pressuring any teacher to increase

grade. DANIELS was not truthful when he stated he did not know who changed ... ! j grade. DANIELS was not truthful when he said he spent 100% of his time during the school day

g per the terms of his funding agreement. DANIELS actions were in violation of Dallas lSD Policies - Employee Standards of Conduct DH(LOCAL); Employee Standards of Conduct DH(EXHIBIT); Fiscal Management Goals and Objective Financial Ethics CAA (LOCAL) and the Dallas lSD Superintendent's Directive- Federal Funded Positions, dated: August 30, 2013.

The investigation substantiated that Llewellyn SMITH, Assistant Principal Kimball High School, failed to maintain adequate management controls, oversight, and maintain acceptable document management/retention procedures in order to administer the District's attendance policies and procedures and the campus attendance committee functions. Assistant Principal SMITH did not have sufficient management controls in place to effectively manage the credit recovery process and he failed to maintain adequate documentation that could justify and support any management decision made relating to the Kimball campus buy-back plan or credit recovery procedures. SMITH's actions were in violation of Dallas lSD Policies- Employee Standards of Conduct DH (LOCAL); Employee Standards of Conduct DH (EXHIBIT); Attendance for Credit- FEC (LOCAL); Attendance for Cr.edit - FEC (Regulation); and Dallas lSD Principal's Handbook of Administrative Procedures 2010- 2011 .

The investigation substantiated that Earl JONES, Principal Kimball High School, failed to maintain adequate management controls, oversight, and maintain acceptable document management/retention procedures in order to administer the District's grade reporting policies and procedures; the District's attendance policies and procedures and the campus attendance committee functions. Principal JONES failed to adequately maintain management control, oversight and acceptable policies and procedures on assigned personnel which provided the opportunity for KING to falsify • Ill • grades and provided the opportunity for Toby DANIELS to make improper contact with c~ teachers and pressure at least one teacher (Dennis) into • . Jl academic grades for student-..,for NCAA eligibility purposes. Principal JONES also failed to ma1ntain adequate management controls over DANIELS which allowed DANIELS not to adhere to his assigned Title I duties. Principal JONES falsified DANELS semi-annual Title I funding documents claiming that DANIELS spent 100% of his time during the school day working per the terms of his funding agreement. Principal JONES actions were in violation of Dallas ISO Policies - Employee Standards of Conduct DH(LOCAL); Employee Standards of Conduct DH(EXHIBIT); Attendance for Credit - FEC (LOCAL); Attendance for Credit - FEC (Regulation); and Dallas lSD Principal's Handbook of Administrative Procedures 2010-2011 and the Dallas lSD Superintendent's Directive- Federal Funded Positions, dated: August 30, 2013.

lA INVESTIGATIONS RECOMMENDATIONS: The District may wish to determine the validity of student ~and other seniors at the Kimball campus. Based on the record keeping at the campus, insufficient academic criteria for the credit recovery process and the arbitrary seat-time ratio given to senior students, the Internal Audit Department will be auditing the District's compulsory school attendahc~ and enforcement procedures and practices for all District high schools.

Internal Audit Investigations understands that it is not our function to recommend what personnel actions, if any, should be taken, and have not done so, leaving such latter determinations for the Human Capital Management and Legal Services Department.



Gilbert Chiquita, Inspector Internal Audit Investigations

REfiORT OF INVESTIGATION Internal Audit Investigations



Dallas Independent School District

Forwarded:

Norman R. Epstein Director Internal Audit Investigations Dallas Independent School District



disd grade changing investigation of smu freshman keith frazier

Documents