City schools launch investigation after Project Baltimore report

BALTIMORE (WBFF) - The Baltimore City Public School district has officially launched an investigation into one of its own, just two days after Project Baltimore reported allegations of grade changing at Northwood Appold Community Academy II in northeast Baltimore.

The investigation will be conducted by the Office of Staff Investigations. While it’s underway, the school district and school board will no longer address questions or comments about NACA II for legal reasons.

Project Baltimore spoke with four employees of NACA II. We’re protecting their identities because of the nature of the allegations and because they fear retaliation. They told us students who failed courses required for graduation were still given diplomas because grades were changed.

“Some earn the grades, some don’t,” one educator told us. “What I did was, I put the grades in. If someone changed the grades, that was on them.”

Project Baltimore obtained final grades, as submitted by a teacher, and report cards from NACA II.

We found six seniors who failed a required foreign-language class, yet every one graduated. Another student graduated after being absent or late to school more than 100 days during the year, and had a first quarter GPA of 0.000.

We reached out to the operator of NACA II, Dr. Cecil Gray, after learning of the district’s investigation.

He declined to comment.

In a previous statement, his attorney told us the allegations were false.