Former WCPS Assistant Superintendent Sentenced to 6-Plus Years in Jail

A former assistant superintendent for Walton County Public Schools was sentenced to 76 months of prison time Wednesday (Nov. 13) in Mississippi for bribery-related crimes. 

According to ClarionLedger.com, Harvey Franklin, who served as the superintendent for the Greenville Public School District from July 2009 to May 2012, pleaded guilty in August 2012 to three counts of accepting bribes from Conyers woman Edna Goble. He took more than $270,000 in bribes from Goble to influence the Greenville school board to use a reading program under her company, Teach Them to Read Inc. 

The school system paid $1.4 million in federal grant funds for the program, known as "Early Detection Necessary Action" or EDNA. Goble pleaded guilty to one count of bribery in October 2013 and awaits sentencing. She faces a maximum three-year prison sentence under a plea deal.

Franklin implemented the same program at Walton County Public Schools while he was there. WCPS spokeswoman Kim Embry told Loganville-Grayson Patch last year that WCPS spent $1.675 million on the reading system for Title 1 elementary schools from 2002 to 2009.

"WCPS used the EDNA reading program in Title I elementary schools from 2002 to 2009 as a tool to improve reading comprehension," Embry said. "In the 2009-2010 school year the program was cut from the budget as a cost saving measure because the curriculum department and schools using the program felt that the money could be better used elsewhere during lean budget times."