CUMBERLAND — A former Allegany County Public Schools student said the need for her high school transcript, which school officials have been unable to locate, has prevented her ability to get a quality job.
Kimberly Jones, who now lives in Howard County, said for years she tried to get her transcript from Allegany High School, from which she graduated decades ago.
In response to one of her requests, she received an August 2023 letter from ACPS that stated the school system “found that her records had not been uploaded to a new records system we obtained a few years ago.”
The letter stated it was to confirm Jones was an ACPS student “and finished her graduation requirements at Allegany High School in June 1979.”
Last month at an ACPS school board meeting, Jones said a couple years ago she completed and attained a high score in a training program to become a central sterile processing technician for surgical and medical equipment.
“They offered me a position at a hospital … to do my externship,” she said. “I could have got my certificate and got paid.”
That opportunity could have led to a permanent job, Jones said.
“The problem that I had is … there’s no records of me going to Allegany County schools,” she said.
“It’s been a problem with me for any kind of job outside of low-wage jobs.”
Jones said she was rejected for some jobs after employers conducted an in-depth background check.
“I was not considered because there was no record of a high school diploma for me, or graduation,” she said, adding that school officials in the past told her the only thing ACPS had that showed she graduated was a program for the commencement ceremony. “Right now … I work low-wage jobs.”
ACPS Superintendent Michael Martirano agreed to discuss the issue with Jones.
This month, Jones told the Cumberland Times-News her inability to obtain a transcript has caused problems for decades.
She said ACPS never explained what happened to her records, and the 2023 letter she received doesn’t carry the weight of her official transcript or prove she graduated.
“There has been no accountability,” Jones said. “They treated me like a fraud … I’m just really disappointed.”
In response to questions from the newspaper about the missing transcript, ACPS Public Information Officer Kris Kehrwald said Martirano and Wendy Main, the school system’s director of special education and student services, met with Jones after the recent school board meeting.
Since then, Martirano and Main have worked to rectify the issue, Kehrwald said.
“ACPS ordered a new high school diploma for Ms. Jones from our provider, Balfour,” Kehrwald said. “Dr. Martirano will issue, in his official capacity as superintendent, a letter to Ms. Jones stating that she is a 1979 graduate of Allegany County Public Schools.”
Kehrwald said ACPS uses a third-party vendor to scan and electronically store records and added “no major loss of student records has occurred.”
However, the school system didn’t answer specific questions, including how Jones’s records were lost, the method ACPS recently used to prove she graduated and whether any other documents might have been impacted.