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The teacher was right and the school district was wrong in the Rio Grande High School grade change flap, a state investigation has concluded.

State Education Secretary Veronica Garcia said on June 20 that the findings of her department's probe "support the actions of the teacher" who gave a failing grade to a senior, the son of former Albuquerque Board of Education member Miguel Acosta and Bernalillo County Commissioner Teresa Cordova.

Elsy Fierro, the district administrator who overruled teacher Anita Forte and changed the student's failing English grade to passing, will be referred to the state's Educators Ethics Bureau "for the next appropriate action against her," Garcia said.

Fierro faces possible suspension or revocation of her administrative license, state officials said.

Fierro was the Rio Grande cluster administrator who ordered Rio Grande Principal Al Sanchez to change the grade. When he refused, Fierro awarded a D to the student.

"I thank the state for their evaluation of the situation," Sanchez said this morning. "We'll continue to do the right thing at Rio Grande High School."

The grade change allowed the student to attend the commencement ceremony and receive his diploma in May, but it caused a furor during graduation season.

On June 6, Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Beth Everitt announced she had removed Fierro from overseeing Rio Grande High School, citing a need for more oversight for the school.

Fierro remains director of instruction for the Rio Grande cluster middle and elementary schools.

Everitt upheld Fierro's decision to overrule the Rio teacher, saying the school did not follow procedures for notifying families of failing grades and did not provide intervention to help the student succeed.

But the state's investigation found Rio Grande school personnel followed district policies and "appropriate notification was provided" to the student's family, contrary to the parents' claims, Garcia said.

In a statement issued the morning of June 20, Everitt said she had not reviewed the state's findings. She was flying back to Albuquerque from a conference at Stanford University.

"We have questions about the process involved with this investigation and how we will proceed to the next level," Everitt said.

She said she wanted to talk to the principal and teacher.

"The superintendent is deeply concerned about the implications of these findings for all students, teachers and parents," said district spokesman Joseph Escobedo.

Garcia's investigative team concluded Fierro provided "incomplete and inaccurate information" to Everitt and her associate superintendents Nelinda Venegas and Susie Peck "in an apparent attempt to gain support for the grade change directive."

School board member Marty Esquivel said the findings "confirm what the rest of the universe knows" - that the district was wrong to overrule the teacher.

He said the superintendent "needs to admit it was wrong, accept responsibility and move on. The community wants her to own up to it."

Esquivel said it was his opinion that district administrators "searched for a reason to change a grade for a former school board member and public official."

The findings did not address any potential consequences to the student.

The findings align with a draft settlement of the teacher's grievance against the school district.

The teacher "properly assigned the grade," according to the proposed settlement presented Monday to the school board.

Everitt told three board members on June 18 that the agreement would be official once she and Ellen Bernstein, the union president, signed it.

They had not signed it as of June 20. Escobedo said the settlement was not final, because "they weren't happy with the language" and were rewriting it.

Bernstein declined to comment. "I don't have anything I can say at this point."

In reaction to the settlement, board members wanted to know how Everitt was going to answer the obvious question: Why was the teacher's grade changed if it was properly assigned?

"You'd better have a good answer," Esquivel advised Everitt.

The wording of the document was an admission by the district that the teacher was right, he said.

It was imperative for the superintendent to tell the public the "reason the grade was flipped," he said.

Everitt said she needed to work on a statement with the district's attorney, Art Melendres.

"The full information won't ever come out," she said. "There is student information the public can't have."

Everitt said she stood by her contention that Rio Grande High School did not follow procedures and did not have the systems in place to support the student, an observation shared by the accrediting team from the North-Central Association which examined the school.

"They did the minimum," she said of Rio's notification process and intervention system.

The student's parents, Cordova and Acosta, have said the school failed to properly notify them of his progress and did not have interventions to help him and others at risk of not graduating.

"There were six major things that didn't happen," Everitt said of Rio Grande's handling of the matter, but she did not elaborate.

However, the state investigators found that "the student's parents were provided with a minimum of five notices that their son was failing English and two of these notices specifically stated that failing a class could result in a failure to graduate."

The report also said that "the teacher exceeded the policy requirements by allowing 4 weeks to turn in make-up work. . . . Additionally, the teacher allowed the student to take an additional final exam in order to improve his grade. This option was not afforded to any other student."

"The teacher was willing to accept a 57.5 percent as a passing grade if the student scored a 100 percent on the second final, which he failed to do. The student had all of the questions and all of the answers and only needed to memorize the answers," the report said.

The board's discussion on June 18 with Everitt took place in a public study session, a meeting Everitt said she thought was closed.

She apologized for bringing up the matter, which was not on the meeting agenda.

Esquivel said since it was a public meeting, the agreement with the union could not be kept confidential.

"It's out," he said. "We're in open session."

Everitt asked the settlement with the union be announced at the July 11 school board meeting because she was going to miss today's meeting due to an out-of-town trip.

Board member Robert Lucero said he thought the draft settlement was a good document and a way to say "we're doing some positive things so it never happens again, right or wrong."