KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? The superintendent of the Piper School District made the decision to change the grades of 28 students accused of plagiarism, some school board members said, although he has said he supported the teacher who wanted to fail the students.

Supt. Michael Rooney discussed the decision in December during a closed meeting with the Piper school board, igniting a controversy that brought national attention and criticism of the school district. It also prompted a civil complaint and a recall petition against board members.

Rooney ordered Pelton to change the failing grades on the students’ class projects, prompting Pelton to resign. Board members came under severe criticism because people assumed the board had made the call during the secret meeting Dec. 11.

This week, the board publicly reaffirmed that decision and agreed to pay fines for breaking the Kansas Open Meetings law. Wyandotte County Dist. Atty. Nick Tomasic then agreed to drop the civil complaint he had filed against the board, freeing members to talk for the first time about the controversy.

Three of the four interviewed by The Kansas City Star said Rooney made the call to change the grades, not the board. They also admitted that their handling of the controversy did not help the situation.

‘A learning experience’

“I was just ill-equipped to deal with the publicity and the firestorm that went with this,” Board President Chris McCord said. “It was certainly a learning experience.”

Rooney repeated this week that he supports Pelton and he reluctantly ordered her to make the grading change. But he said he was the one in the board’s closed meeting who suggested a compromise on the grading system.

“That wasn’t my initial position,” he said, but it seemed a reasonable way to address some parents’ and students’ concerns while still punishing the students for plagiarizing.

Rooney said he thought it was appropriate to seek the board’s opinion because the board sets the district’s policy on cheating. The policy states that a student who cheats should fail the assignment, and his proposal deviated from that policy.

Parents who are upset with how the board handled the situation are collecting signatures to force a public vote to oust McCord and board members Greg Netzer and James Swanson. State law prohibits recalling more than three members.

The plagiarism rumors started in November when Pelton began grading 118 leaf projects. Nine of the first 13 graded were plagiarized, Pelton said Friday.

She called in Principal Mike Adams, who agreed that plagiarism had occurred. They began contacting the students and the rumors started. People mistakenly began saying that as many as 70 percent of the class could flunk, Pelton said.

Parents ‘uncomfortable’

That’s when parents started calling board members.

“The parents talked to the teacher, the principal and the superintendent,” Netzer said, “and they were uncomfortable with the responses they received. I think they followed the appropriate chain of command” in coming to the board.

Board member Leigh Vader said parents had a right to talk to the board, “but it never should have been taken up as a board action, period.”

Vader said she was the only board member who objected on Dec. 11 when Rooney suggested changing the project’s grading system. Although the board didn’t vote that night, Vader said it was clear to her that Rooney was reacting to what he was hearing from the board.

McCord said it was a coincidence that parents addressed the board Dec. 11.

McCord, Netzer, Swanson and Vader said they did not intend to change the grading system when they went into closed session. But Rooney wanted to know how they felt, they said.

“We had a conversation with the superintendent and a decision came out of that that the superintendent made to change the grading,” McCord said. “If anything I said influenced him to make that decision, it wasn’t my intent to do that.”

However, McCord said, “the teacher said they plagiarized, and we went with that decision. … I think that the important thing to remember is that every student whom Ms. Pelton accused of plagiarism was penalized for it.”

Pelton said Friday she was surprised to hear that Rooney made the proposal to change the grades. She said Rooney told her Dec. 12 that the board had made the call.

Pelton said teachers probably would feel better if the superintendent made the decision. But it probably doesn’t matter much anymore, she said.