Peekskill Schools Reassign 4 Guidance Counselors for Sketchy Transcripts

Peekskill city schools have announced that three guidance counselors from the high school and one middle guidance counselor have been placed on a paid administrative reassignment due to irregularities in a small amount of student transcripts.

School Superintendent James Willis said the matter was brought to his attention by high school Principal Fred Hutchinson, who noticed the irregularities. The discrepancies affect a small number of current students at risk of not completion graduation requirements.

"This is obviously, an evolving story that we have not fully concluded investigating," Willis said in letter sent out by the school district. "I recognize that this may be frustrating, and all I can promise is that we will work as quickly as possible to resolve the situation and communicate details with our residents."

 Willis said the New York State Education Department was notified and is working with the school district to investigate the matter. He declined to reveal further details about the guidance counselors' roles in the incident, but said the district is currently in the process of recruiting and hiring additional guidance counselors to fill in the gap.

An assistant high school principal and other school support staff are filling in until more guidance counselors have been hired.

A copy of the letter Willis sent out explaining the situation is attached to this story.