ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : This Time, the Right Lesson

Board members of the Brea-Olinda Unified School District showed appropriate judgment in reassigning the high school principal who failed to tell them that counselors had changed students’ grades, apparently in violation of state law.

The trustees last month decided to make John Johnson the temporary director of support services for the district, a post in which he will oversee some personnel and handle student expulsions and suspensions. They said Johnson, who had been principal of Brea-Olinda High School, would hold the job at least until June; his assignment after that is yet to be decided.

Because Johnson has tenure, he could return to teaching in the district if he wished.

In making the reassignment, the board members rightly recognized that they could not let Johnson remain principal. Indeed, some had considered firing him, though that action might have prompted a legal battle.

In Johnson’s favor was the fact that that he acted quickly last year to order a halt to the unauthorized changing of grades as soon as he learned of the practice. However, he was wrong in not immediately notifying the school board, which found out about the practice last spring only when a teacher complained after learning of the grade changes.

At that point, the trustees moved with commendable dispatch to bring in two outside investigators, who found that counselors at the academically respected school had made about 600 alterations to student records over several years.

In some cases, low letter grades were changed to “pass”; in other instances, course titles were switched or students were given double credit for classes they repeated in order to improve their grades.

Harmful lessons were presented by this scholastic sleight of hand, which turned out to be far more widespread than initially thought. First of all, students not receiving the unearned favors got a twisted message: Why pay attention in class and do homework when the loafing student in the next seat got an equally high grade? Also injured were those whose records were altered; they learned they didn’t have to live with the deserved grade and that supposedly inclusive rules easily could be skirted.

The superintendent who then was overseeing the district has retired, and the counselors allegedly involved in the grade changes no longer work for the district.

The Brea-Olinda school board members have correctly instituted rules changes to prevent future abuses. This time, a beneficial message has been sent: Good grades come from classroom work, reading, study and homework, not from a secretive stroke of a pen.