Houston

Texas School District's Errors Result in More Resignations

Four more administrators have resigned from a school district north of Houston where the graduation eligibility of nearly 600 students has been jeopardized by a series of errors committed by district leaders.

The latest resignations announced Friday by the Spring school district bring to seven the number of administrators who have departed amid an investigation into various scheduling and transcript errors, including some that date back years.

The announcement comes ahead of a special meeting of the school board Sunday in which Superintendent Rodney Watson is expected to seek the termination of five administrators, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Spring officials are rushing to verify whether the students have met the state's graduation requirements. Officials say the problems include students being directed to repeatedly take the same course despite passing each time.

A district review also determined there were a number of missing transcripts and documents, a batch of birth certificates and Social Security cards found on the floor of a room, and courses listed on transcripts with no corresponding grade.

The Texas Education Agency has said that it's referred the matter to a special investigations unit, the Chronicle reported.

The review was prompted by a notice the district received in December from the TEA saying it had not received exam data for some students.

District officials, who oversee more than 36,000 students, say they've identified ways to help the hundreds of seniors graduate in May, including accelerated online courses and special exams that give course credit.

An agenda for Sunday's board meeting lists the administrators Watson is seeking to fire, including Christine Porter, the district's chief financial officer and a former associate superintendent for fiscal and human resources.

Porter's attorney, Jay Brim, said the district is targeting Porter because she had overseen the student information system. But he said her duties did not include "auditing" the data in the system, the newspaper reported.

"At this point we don't know what it is that (Watson) claims is good cause for her being included on this list," Brim said.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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