Grade changes 'misapplied' to USF recruit

Pasco County school officials say a principal who changed a student-athlete's grades had misinterpreted district policy and was not trying to help the student gain admission to the University of South Florida.

In a letter to USF, Pasco schools Superintendent Heather Fiorentino said her district offers students "multiple opportunities for success" but that officials at Wesley Chapel High School had "misapplied" provisions for the student-athlete and five others. She sent her letter to Robert Spatig, the college's director of undergraduate admissions.

Spatig last month asked Fiorentino and Wesley Chapel High School Principal Andrew Frelick to explain "an unusual number" of grade changes on the transcript of a recent graduate USF had recruited to play sports.

He wanted to know how grades in nine classes taken between 2005 and 2008 were increased in the student's senior year when he was applying to USF.

In several cases, two semester grades were combined as one grade, the higher of the two, for the full year. For example, English I semester grades of C and D on one transcript were changed to a full-year grade of C on a later transcript.

"Because the individual is a recruited student-athlete in a high profile sport," Spatig wrote, "it is all the more critical that we complete our due diligence by verifying that he received no special consideration as an athlete either to secure final qualifier status with the NCAA or gain admission as a freshman to USF."

In Spatig's two letters, obtained through a public records request by The Tampa Tribune, the recruit's name was redacted.

Only one Wesley Chapel senior signed with USF for an athletic scholarship for the coming school year, said USF assistant athletic director Chris Freet. That student was football standout Kamran Joyer, a 6-foot-3, 300-pound offensive lineman.

Joyer, who was denied admission to USF, has signed with the University of Louisville.

Pasco school policy allows a principal to eliminate one of two semester grades to increase a student's final grade in a class, but only when one of the grades is an F.

Of the nine grades Spatig had questioned, only one involved a semester F. None of the five other students had Fs.

Averaging the athlete's grades in several classes substantially boosted his grade-point average, Spatig noted in his letter.

With the other students, the changes had an insignificant effect, Assistant Superintendent Ruth Reilly said Tuesday. Even without the increase, their grades were high enough for admission to USF.