The Sumter County School District falsified data by creating "shell schools" for low-performing students, according to the findings of a year-long investigation by the state Department of Education's inspector general.
Those students received virtual, or online, instruction in separate classrooms.
The program, called SOAR, ran from 2017 to 2021 at various campuses, including Wildwood Elementary, South Sumter Middle School, Wildwood Middle High School and Webster Elementary.
After the first year of the program, parents were not notified that their kids had been officially withdrawn from the main school, according to the inspector general's report. It found that SOAR involved a total of 200 students and was intended to boost school grades, though only one school showed a benefit. Wildwood Elementary's grade improved from a C to a B in the first year.
But former Superintendent of Schools Richard A. Shirley and his Assistant Superintendent Deborah Moffitt told investigators SOAR was designed to help those students.
Shirley retired last year, after leading the district for 28 years. His replacement, former Villages Charter High School teacher Logan Brown, was elected in November.
Brown said the findings are "a black eye for the district."
"The state of Florida has codified the parental bill of rights. And so parents have a choice when it comes to education, and we want the kids in Sumter county to come to school here in Sumter County. And so in order to make sure that we're doing that, they need to have trust in what we're doing."
That's why transparency is key, Brown said.
The report upheld allegations that Shirley and Moffitt violated professional conduct rules by falsifying student data and failing to notify parents.
Brown said the Inspector General's Office sent the report to the Office of Professional Practice.
"Mr. Shirley is retired now," he added, "and so I don't know what disciplinary action the Office of Professional Practice takes, but it has been forwarded over there to their leadership for that action."
Attempts to reach Shirley by telephone were unsuccessful.
In an email, Moffitt said she was a dedicated 37-year district employee acting under the direction of the superintendent and School Board.
“Efforts to assist students who were struggling and needed additional help was always a transparent goal of Sumter schools,” she added. “The timing of this report and the anonymous complaint that started it is suspicious as the records from this time frame are no longer available as was the (district’s) retention policy.”
She said those records would have shown “all matters were handled transparently, with parental consent to assist students achieve.”
