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A legendary football coach at Long Island’s Bellport HS has been accused of successfully pressuring school officials to pump up a star player’s math grades so the teen would qualify for a full athletic scholarship to Syracuse University, The Post has learned.
The blockbuster charges of grade-fixing were leveled against then-head coach Joe Cipp Jr. — who was also the district’s superintendent at the time and remains in that position — and assistant Superintendent Nelson Briggs. The allegations are in a notice of intent to sue the district filed by former Bellport Principal Kevin O’Connell, who claims he was fired after refusing to fudge the student’s transcript.
In a deposition, O’Connell said that after a meeting — which involved himself, Cipp, Briggs, all-state lineman Ryan Sloan and Sloan’s guardians — unidentified school officials changed Sloan’s senior algebra mark from an F to a D.
O’Connell also said Briggs had Sloan’s sophomore algebra and junior geometry final grades changed from D’s to C’s to help him score a free ride to the $52,000-a-year university.
Getting a kid into a Division I school such as Syracuse would be a feather in the cap of any high-school coach, O’Connell told The Post — and more than 30 Bellport students, including Sloan, achieved that success under Cipp’s reign.
“Mr. Cipp was willing to go to extreme measures to have [Sloan’s] grades . . . altered,” O’Connell said in the deposition.
O’Connell — asked why he was canned at the end of the school year — replied, “I was terminated because of fear that something was going to come out relative to [Sloan’s] grades, relative to past performance, relative to the alteration of documents.
“The reason for my dismissal was my refusal . . . to not alter these grades or direct the teacher who was responsible for the grades to make the change.”
O’Connell, now an administrator at Roosevelt HS in Nassau, described the tense meeting during which he felt pressured to change the grades.
Although he acknowledged that Cipp never directly asked him to alter the grades, “There were certain actions that took place at this meeting which indicated that Mr. Cipp was willing to go to extreme measures to have these grades . . . altered,” O’Connell explained, according to the deposition.
When it was clear that O’Connell wouldn’t play ball, Briggs ordered a secretary to go into the computer system and change the grades, O’Connell said.
Briggs replaced O’Connell as principal this school year.
According to documents reviewed by The Post, in Sloan’s sophomore year, his report card indicates a final grade of D in algebra. It notes that he had “excessive absences and/or lates” and “low grades on tests/quizzes.”
But his final transcript shows a 76, the equivalent of a C.
In his junior year, Sloan’s report card shows a final grade of D in geometry; his transcript gives him a 79.
And in his senior year, his report card and transcript show a final grade of 65 — despite scores of 65, 50 and 50 during his first three marking periods.
Sloan managed the passing grade by allegedly scoring a 77 in the fourth quarter and 71 on his final exam.
But O’Connell said in his deposition that the later two scores were inflated to allow Sloan to get the requisite amount of math credits needed to get a scholarship to Syracuse.
Sloan — now a freshman lineman at Syracuse — praises Cipp in a video posted on YouTube in April for “getting my grades back up.”
“He’s done a lot for me,” the 6-foot-4, 325-pound gridder says. “Like in school-wise and helping me stay out of trouble and stuff.”
Reached yesterday on campus, Sloan said he knew nothing about his grades being changed.
“I really don’t know anything about that. I don’t think Coach Cipp would ever do that. I worked my ass off to get to where I am today, just like anyone else,” Sloan said.
Cipp — in a hastily called meeting with other administrators yesterday, after The Post questioned the grades — angrily denied that he ordered Sloan’s grades changed.
He insisted that the final transcript was accurate, suggesting the grades might have been brought up if Sloan had attended summer school.
Asked why Sloan’s summer-school math grades aren’t then reflected in the transcripts — as they are for his English and physical-education grades — Cipp said only, “They just give a final grade.”
About O’Connell, Cipp snarled, “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Didn’t happen. It’s sour grapes from a guy who got fired.”
Victor Correa, president of the Board of Ed. of the South Country School District, which oversees the school, said O’Connell’s allegations were investigated and found to be untrue.
“The district reviewed that student’s record, as well as other students, to ensure that grades being transcribed were being done correctly. The review concluded that grades were accurate,” Correa said.
Sloan is enrolled in the College of Sport and Human Dynamics at Syracuse. He hasn’t played this year, which is typical for a so-called red-shirt freshman, to extend his eligibility for college sports.
Attending Syracuse was the opportunity of a lifetime for Sloan, who never knew his dad. His mom died of heart disease when he was young, and he was accidentally blinded in one eye at 3.