CITY OF NEWBURGH — Local state lawmakers are pressuring the state to address the alteration of grades and attendance records in the Newburgh school district.

A grand jury report released Thursday by the Orange County District Attorney's Office contains findings that indicate school staff tampered with athletes' attendance records and grades for years.

The report did not find criminal wrongdoing by the school district. District Attorney David Hoovler said the report instead found widespread "systemic failure."

Lawmakers, stunned by the grand jury findings, are eager to determine who should be held accountable, starting with the state Education Department and an apparent lack of oversight noted in the grand jury report.

"On a scale of one to 10, 10 being the most troubling, this is a 10 as far as school district operations go," state Sen. James Skoufis said on Friday.

Skoufis, who leads the Senate's Investigations and Government Operations Committee, said he had a 15-minute phone conversation with Newburgh Superintendent Roberto Padilla on Thursday. Skoufis is also expecting a call back from the education commissioner by Monday.

Padilla told Skoufis there will be a more comprehensive response to the report next week, Skoufis said.

"Without getting into specifics, he was alleging that there are components of the report that were not true," Skoufis said. "... If they're adamant that pieces of this are not true, they (the district) need to back that up because certainly the allegations are alarming."

Assemblyman Colin Schmitt, of New Windsor, and Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson, of Newburgh, are also urging the state Education Department to take action.

Schmitt sent a letter to Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia on Friday requesting her immediate attention to the grand jury report.

"I urge you to immediately review this report and take any and all action necessary to hold the responsible parties accountable and ensure these ... acts never happen again," Schmitt wrote.

Jacobson, like Skoufis, said he also wants to get to the bottom of what happened in order to hold the appropriate people accountable. He also wants to speak to Elia.

"It's very troubling because, if this was happening, it's a great disservice to the students involved because they're really being undercut in having a proper education," Jacobson said.

Blowing the whistle

Rich Desiderio said he is the whistleblower who brought about the DA's investigation. Desiderio is a former girls varsity basketball coach at Newburgh Free Academy and current fourth-grade English teacher at Horizons-on-the-Hudson Magnet School.

Desiderio first alerted the state Education Department on May 18, 2017, according to a copy of complaints he filed with the state's Fraud, Waste and Abuse Division that he provided Friday to the Times Herald-Record.

Desiderio said he first became concerned about attendance-record manipulations when he was recording fourth-quarter grades in June 2016 while teaching special education at NFA's main campus.

Desiderio noticed a student, whom he knew to be in Syracuse at a state track competition, was ineligible to compete, per district policy limiting athletes to three unexcused absences. This student had exceeded the unexcused absence limit in five out of seven classes, according to attendance records from Infinite Campus provided to the Record.

Desiderio reported the student's ineligibility to the NFA Main principal on June 11, according to an email provided by Desiderio. He said he was not trying to cause harm to the student, but wanted to uphold the rules and do right by the student.

Four days later, Desiderio revisited Infinite Campus to check the same student's attendance records and found records had been altered to show the athlete in good-standing in all seven classes; absences in one class were reduced from six unexcused absences to two, according to documents provided to the Record.

But Desiderio did not immediately notify the state Education Department. He said he first notified district administrators, but that it seemingly went nowhere.

On May 18, 2017, Desiderio wrote in his complaint to the state Education Department, "The school district mishandled attendance and then changed the records, I believe illegally, to reflect that absences were either excused or never took place."

He was notified the state received his complaint the next day.

On June 23, 2017, he wrote to the state, "I have no idea where you all are at with this investigation? I appreciate you looking into it seriously because there are thousands of kids affected by this corruption and incompetency... I implore you to dig deep and expose this."

Four days later, he provided the state more "anecdotal evidence" of record manipulation. He followed up again on July 28, 2017. Desiderio said he never heard back.

Hoovler said Thursday his office was notified about a complaint sent to the state Education Department in July 2017.

Hoovler initially deferred to the state. His office called the Education Department to follow-up on the complaint twice in July 2017. Hoovler said his office was told to expect an update and review from the state in September 2017. After that date came and passed, Hoovler's office opened its own investigation, he said.

"The Department takes allegations of testing and grading irregularities, and misconduct against educators extremely seriously, however, we cannot comment on specific complaints," the state Education Department said in a statement Friday when asked if complaints were ignored. "In order to protect the fairness and integrity of our processes, the Department does not confirm or deny the existence of investigations."

lbellamy@th-record.com