THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 22, 1996 TAG: 9605220186
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: 70 lines
Citing ``some discrepancies'' in former chemistry teacher Frank C. Schulz's grading policies, the principal of Manteo High School changed about 70 students' grades this month.
Schulz had submitted grades for the first nine-week marking period before he resigned unexpectedly April 3.
But Principal Everett Walterhouse said he ``had some suspicions there might've been some problems'' with the grades Schulz turned in before he stepped down. ``We were looking into them prior to his resignation,'' Walterhouse said from his Manteo office Tuesday. ``It was hard for me to support the grades in relationship to what was or was not done.''
So Walterhouse deleted all the grades from the first marking period report cards for students in Schulz's classes - and gave them their overall high school grade point average for the first nine weeks, regardless of what they might have earned. Students who had 95 overall averages at Manteo High, for example, but were getting a 65 in Schulz's class, got a 95 in that class for the marking period. Students in Schulz's college-level Advanced Placement Chemistry class also had their grades changed from the fall semester report cards.
``I can't go back and give them any knowledge or information they might have missed,'' Walterhouse said of Schulz's students. ``But I can make sure that none of them will be in a penalized situation grade-wise. I felt this was the fairest way we could work things out for everyone.''
After Schulz quit, sheriff deputies said that an investigation was started for ``the possibility of sexual offenses against juveniles.''
No charges have been filed against Schulz, 50, who taught chemistry at Manteo High for seven years. Police say they don't know his whereabouts. School officials have asked the North Carolina Board of Education to revoke his teaching license.
``We're certainly dealing with an unusual situation,'' Walterhouse said Tuesday, adding that he could not recall another instance in which a group of students' grades had been changed. Since Schulz resigned, Manteo High administrators have not hired a substitute. Chemistry teacher Vince Cook has been covering Schulz's classes.
Cook will grade students for this nine-week marking period.
``If their grade was inflated by our changes,'' Assistant Principal Allison Sholar said, ``that should show up and be corrected in the final nine-weeks' grade.''
Some parents and students were happy that the grades Schulz had handed out since January were deleted from permanent records. Others, however, expressed dismay that the new grades were handed out so arbitrarily. And one Manteo High alumnus said it was unjust that only students in Schulz's class this year benefitted from his resignation.
``A lot of people had perfect grade point averages and were still failing his class,'' said College of the Albemarle student Kim Jensen, who had Schulz for a teacher and graduated from Manteo last year. ``It's not fair. We all worked hard for him. We all had to struggle to pass his class. That was the only class I ever worried about.''
Jennifer Perciavalle, a Manteo High junior in Schulz's investigative chemistry class this year, said she got a 66 from Schulz for the first nine weeks of work. But her grade was changed to a 95 this month. She really deserved about an 80, she said.
``I'm happy with the better grade, obviously,'' Perciavalle said. ``But I know of people in my class who got grades from at least 88 to 100 now, after our report cards have already come out. I think they should've just given everybody in the class the same grade, like a `B' or something, if they wanted to be really fair.''
Senior Adrienne Lewis also benefitted by the grade change. But she, too, disagreed with the principal's policy of just omitting all of the work students already had done this semester. ``My grade was right,'' Lewis said of the one Schulz assigned to her. ``It wasn't what I wanted it to be. But it was what I earned.'' by CNB