An investigation by the Texas Education Agency found a current Clarkston School District employee was allegedly involved in a cheating scheme that has rocked an El Paso, Texas, school district.

The results of the investigation into the Canutillo Independent School District were released earlier this month and allege James Fry, the former Canutillo High School principal and current director of curriculum, instruction and assessment in the Clarkston School District, helped manipulate federal accountability measures by not creating certain subgroups of students.

Fry was the principal of Canutillo High School from July 2008 to June 2012. He started his job at the Clarkston School District in July.

State investigators also forwarded the report to the Texas Education Agency's division of investigations after concluding Fry allegedly violated state law, rule or policy, according to the report. The report does not cite what specific laws he allegedly violated.

Fry denied the allegations, telling the Tribune he was easy to blame because he moved out of the state.

"I continue to work to contest the allegations against me because they are untrue," he said, later adding, "there was at no time any deliberate intent at breaking any policies, rules or laws - only helping children."

Clarkston School District Superintendent Darcy Weisner declined to comment, saying he had not had a chance to look over the report.

According to the Texas report, Fry allegedly helped manipulate the number of limited-English proficient students during the 2010-11 school year. The report alleges Fry directed the district's English language facilitator to re-evaluate the transcripts of ninth-grade "newcomers" to award additional credits and reclassify them as 10th-graders. Fry later retracted this directive after realizing this would cause the subgroup to be evaluated in Adequate Yearly Progress, according to the report.

By doing so, Fry "failed to ensure that transcripts of students new to the country were true and accurate," according to the report.

Adequate Yearly Progress measures student performance on statewide assessment tests, such as the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. To be evaluated for Adequate Yearly Progress, a school must have 50 or more students enrolled in a subgroup, such as limited-English proficient students. The limited-English proficient subgroup did not meet the minimum size in 2010, 2011 or 2012, and was therefore not part of the Adequate Yearly Progress status for the school in those years, according to the report.

In a statement to the Texas Education Agency, Fry wrote that Canutillo Superintendent Damon Murphy "stated that we would not have a (limited-English proficient subgroup)" in a communication to Fry. In addition, in a text message to Fry, Murphy said the school needed to exit students from limited-English proficiency so they wouldn't hurt the graduation rate, according to the report. Murphy resigned in December from the school district under pressure.

The Texas Education Agency investigation stems from an internal audit by the school district last year. Texas Education Agency spokesman Gene Acuna said any allegations of student data manipulation are taken seriously.

"In most cases, the data is manipulated to benefit the school district on state or federal accountability ratings," Acuna said.

Fry also allegedly directed his staff to administer a test typically taken by 11th-graders to one ninth-grade student and eight 10th-grade students to avoid the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills exam, which is the state standardized test, according to the report.

Additionally, a number of ninth-grade, limited-English proficient students were allegedly dropped from the subgroup without the proper meetings or consultation, a violation of state requirements, according to the report.

The Texas Education Agency required several actions the district must take, including a progress report, program monitoring, a corrective action plan and accreditation sanctions, according to the report.

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Gaboury may be contacted at kgaboury@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2275. Follow him on Twitter @KevinGaboury.