Top brass at scandal-scarred Bellport High School and its district – where administrators allegedly changed the grades of a football player so that he could win a full scholarship to Syracuse – should immediately be suspended, three disgusted members of the South Country School District school board told The Post.
Administrators at Bellport High School — including longtime coach and current superintendent Joe Cipp Jr. – were implicated in a recent independent report of inflating star gridder Ryan Sloan’s grades last year.
After months of heated meetings, three formerly silent board members — Rob Powell, Lisa Di Santo Grossman and Jeannette Mistler — have written an open letter to the rest of the board demanding the suspensions or immediate resignation of school board president Victor Correa and Vice President Kevin Kirk.
“It is well past the time to remove those in the positions of power who attempt to obscure the obvious truth by pointing fingers in all directions and feigning outrage,” reads a copy of the letter obtained by the Post. “The only acceptable course of action is to suspend all district employees clearly implicated in the grade-changing scandal.”
“Lastly, but certainly not least, in order to restore true leadership to the South Country School District we call upon the Board President and Vice President to resign their positions,” the letter states. “Both have failed to carry out their elected duties when they failed to reveal the initial allegations about grade changes to the entire board.”
The comes after an independent investigation into the fixing accusations that found wrongdoing — and asserted that Cipp Jr. must have been involved in the corruption.
While the report is conclusive, Cipp’s supporters on the board — including current board president Correa, his former quarterback — have labeled it a “preliminary” investigation whose results remain unclear.
“That’s just a stall tactic,” said one board member. “They still think they can get away with this. It’s incredible. The report couldn’t be any clearer.”
The investigation revealed that administrators pressured teachers to inflate Sloan’s grades and revealed that potential whistleblowers were transferred from the school. Student transcripts obtained by The Post showed that a slew of Sloan’ grades were hiked.
Despite the mounting evidence against Cipp Jr., former Assistant Superintendent Nelson Briggs, and current Principal Bernie Soete, the trio has firmly denied any wrongdoing.
