EL PASO, Texas, April 2 (UPI) -- El Paso, Texas, schools graduated "ill-prepared students" even after a former superintendent was jailed for making the district a "diploma mill," an audit said.

Forensic accounting firm Weaver and Tidwell released a report Monday saying widespread cheating was present in the El Paso Independent School District more than a year and a half after the arrest of former Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia in August 2011.


The audit said "the district was run by a criminal" for much of Garcia's five-year term and many of the problems continued in his absence.

"Although Garcia was gone, the Bowie Plan infrastructure he created was still intact. In the rush to avoid accountability consequences for inadequate graduation rates, many district high schools became credit mills and, eventually, diploma mills, as unearned credits resulted in the graduation of ill-prepared students. These students are the victims of the culture Garcia promulgated, and it is not a culture easily undone," the report said.

The audit recommended personnel actions against district administrators, many of whom have resigned or been terminated by the school board. The report recommended actions against four principals and four assistant principals up for possible termination at Tuesday's school board meeting, the El Paso Times reported.