Perry County Schools superintendent quits rather than face dismissal

Taking the easy way out for all, the superintendent of Perry County Schools has submitted his retirement to the local board of education rather than face likely firing at a special meeting of the board.

John Paul Amis headed the district when the ACT cheating scandal started to unfold several years ago.

At one point after the scandal broke Amis told the public that none of his staff were under investigation and the issue was closed.

In fact, the Kentucky Educational Professional Standards Board had active investigations in progress. Eventually, several staff members received certificate actions for failure to control test materials, marking the first time that forensic testing evidence had been used in Kentucky as a basis for such action.

So far, the actual person or persons responsible for altering student test sheets have not been identified.

Amis had troubles with more than ACT cheating.

Perry County Central High School landed on the Persistently Low-Achieving Schools list, providing a sad testimony to the low level of academic performance in the school district.

The district’s ACT Composite Score in 2012 of 17.3 for statewide 11th grade testing ranked very low, 154th place out of 169 Kentucky school districts that received scores.

That same ACT test cycle showed only 21 percent of the district’s students scored well enough to avoid remedial courses in math and only 34 percent read well enough for college according to benchmarks established for Kentucky’s public postsecondary education system.

Apparently, local school district personnel had enough. The word was out that Amis faced firing if he did not resign or retire voluntarily. Amis took the financially smart way out.