Accused APS educators face Friday deadline

Within the Atlanta Public Schools, it’s a deadline kind of day Friday.

For Midtown residents and others throughout the city, today is the last day to complete the survey on APS redistricting.

Here is a link to the comments form. The responses on Option A and Option B will be used by demographers to complete a final proposal for Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. Davis will then make his final report to be submitted to the Atlanta School Board. He is expected to give his plan in early March.

For complete information, see the APS' Pinterest Page. The APS Web site has updated option maps and other information, including documents in Spanish.

Meanwhile, sixty APS educators, who have been accused of cheating on a standardized test, have until today to chose between resigning or starting the firing process.

Last year, a state investigation determined that in 2009, almost 180 APS educators had either cheated or changed student answers on tests. APS is currently spending $600,000 a month to 120 educators who have been on paid administrative leave since last summer.

On Wednesday, some of the educators in question received an email, sent on behalf of Superintendent Erroll B. Davis, Jr., that read in part:

When you were placed on administrative leave with pay, you were reminded of your on-going duties and responsibilities including the duty to remain available to respond to questions or inquiries and to attend any meetings directed.

On behalf of the Superintendent, you are hereby directed to report at the following time and location in order to meet with APS representative to discuss your employment status.

Those mandatory meetings began Thursday and are expected to continue today. The APS imposed deadline is intended to expedite the process of removing the educators from the payroll. Attorneys for the educators said Thursday their clients have been wrongly accused.

What do you think? Is APS correct in its efforts to speed up the process of removing the accused teachers from the payroll?

- Louis Mayeux contributed to this story