Educators Named In APS Cheating Probe Told To Stay Home

ATLANTA,None — More than 100 teachers, principals and other administrators named in the Atlanta Public School cheating scandal can stay home with full pay as they appeal their termination.

Channel 2 Action News obtained a letter sent out Tuesday by school Superintendent Erroll Davis. It advises employees that they are on paid administrative leave until the matter is resolved. It also states, "You are not to report to your office or go on any APS school property without prior authorization or request."

Educators Named In Cheating Probe Told To Stay Home

The certified letter also warns employees not to delete, destroy, or modify in any way any information contained on APS equipment.

The appeals process for teachers could last many months. In the meantime, school officials are hiring replacement teachers and principals, whom they hope to have in place by opening day Aug. 8.

Many of teachers and principals implicated in the cheating scandal received annual cash bonuses for raising CRCT scores. Channel 2's Tom Regan emailed a request for records to APS officials.

He also spoke with Verdaillia Turner, president of the Atlanta Federation of Teachers. She estimate millions of dollars in bonuses were paid over the years to educators for improving standardized test scores.

"What we know is that it was a thousand per year per teacher. Principals got as much as five thousand." said Turner.

Turner told Regan she supports proposed legislation that would require educators and administrators convicted of cheating to repay test bonus money. "It's fraud when you take money you did not earn," Turner said.

State Rep. Billy Mitchell is sponsoring a bill in the Georgia Legislature that would require educators convicted of test cheating to return incentive pay.

"No one should be unjustly enriched at the peril of our students," said Mitchell.

WSBTV