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Teacher linked to cheating demoted
By KELLY RYAN © St. Petersburg Times, published October 6, 2000 A Pinellas County elementary school teacher has agreed to give up her classroom job and serve a 73-day suspension without pay amid allegations that she helped her students cheat on the district's practice FCAT. Superintendent Howard Hinesley is recommending that the School Board on Tuesday approve the punishment for Helen Hoss, 55, who has been teaching in the county since 1987. If the board approves, Hoss will take a pay cut and be allowed to remain with the district as a paraprofessional. She will not be allowed to run her own classroom or administer any tests, though she still might work with students. The accusations involve a test called the PR FCAT, or Parallel Reading FCAT. The test, given three times a year, helps students prepare for the real FCAT and helps teachers decide which students will be promoted to the next grade. Hoss was teaching at Clearview Avenue Elementary School on Jan. 5 when the district says the cheating took place. According to the district, Hoss directed her students to write more on their practice FCAT tests and actually filled in an answer for a student who was sick. In the next two weeks, the district said, Hoss wrote additional answers on her students' tests and tried to disguise her handwriting to match the students'. A handwriting expert hired by the district "gave an expert opinion that there were indications that Ms. Hoss wrote the entries on more than one student's tests," said Jackie Spoto, an attorney with the district. One particular sentence, "Some look like stones," appeared in nearly all the tests and appeared to have been written by the same person, the expert said. Superintendent Howard Hinesley originally recommended that Hoss be fired, but the district got information that a medical condition may have contributed to Hoss' poor judgment. District officials would not elaborate, except to say that Hoss had been seeking counseling and taking medication since summer 1999. Hinesley and Spoto said Hoss' punishment is appropriate because it prevents her from managing her own classroom. "I consider this a demotion and a big demotion," Spoto said. Hoss' new salary has not been determined, but it is expected to be a significant reduction from the $44,150 she earned annually as a veteran teacher. Hoss, who started her teaching career in 1967 in Georgia, did not return calls. She has been a curriculum specialist and a teacher at several elementary schools, earning satisfactory evaluations. At the time of the practice FCAT, she was teaching a class that combines fourth- and fifth-graders. Hoss' attorney, Mark Herdman, also did not return calls. Spoto said Hoss has not yet been assigned a new job, though it won't be at Clearview.
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