PRINCETON: State sending investigators to PHS

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   Investigators from the state Department of Education were due to visit Princeton High School this week as part of an ongoing probe into an allegation into false student attendance records.
   Richard Vespucci, a department spokesman, would not disclose Wednesday what day investigators planned to visit the high school. He also would not say whom investigators intended to interview or if those interviews would be under oath.
   In general, he said DOE investigators could interview staff and examine district records. He did confirm the state is “looking at attendance records.”
   Superintendent of Schools Judith A. Wilson said Thursday the DOE has “been on site one day, and will spend an additional day in the near future.” She did not elaborate.
   This comes as the Daily Princetonian, the student-run newspaper at Princeton University, published a story this week quoting recent PHS graduates now attending the local Ivy League school as saying attendance records are changed for students at risk of not graduating.
   The department said last week that it is investigating an allegation false attendance records were filed to allow an undetermined number of students to graduate. The state has not said what triggered the investigation or when it expects the probe to conclude.
   ”Impossible to predict,” Mr. Vespucci said when asked how long the investigation will last.
   This week, Ms. Wilson said the district had provided attendance and credits earned records to the state for “recent graduates in the last four graduating classes who had more than 18 absences in their senior years.” Eighteen absences is 10 percent of the 180 days schools must be open to get state aid.
   Ms. Wilson has said that, in October, the state sent the district a letter requesting the information although Mr. Quinn has said there was no indication at the time of any investigation. Ms. Wilson said Monday that no high school or other district employees had been suspended pending the outcome of the probe.
   Mr. Vespucci declined to get into what would happen to the Princeton High graduates, now in college or elsewhere, who received diplomas they might have been ineligible to receive. In 2012, the high school had a 94.79 percent graduation rate, state data showed.
   A public report will be issued after the investigation is over, the state has said. Mr. Quinn said last week that the school board has no plans “at this time” to do its own probe of the issue.