Retired Roanoke school veteran Doris Ennis will take over as top administrator at William Fleming High School starting Aug. 1, according to Superintendent Rita Bishop. Meanwhile, an internal investigation into a testing scandal at the school found that the problem extends well beyond the scale initially thought.

A state report last month found that testing irregularities kept 31 students with disabilities out of state-mandated tests, but Bishop said Thursday that far more students were affected over the past several years. Many of those students do not have disabilities, she said, although she couldn't give an exact number.

Bishop said the affected students are being offered remedial courses at Forest Park Academy this summer to help them make up the tests and courses they were excluded from during the school year.

The report from the Virginia Department of Education blamed Principal Susan Willis and four other Fleming administrators for the problems. The four administrators have either left the school system or been reassigned, but the school board has yet to take action on Willis. Willis has hired an attorney and a public relations firm in an attempt to keep her job.

According to the report, Willis and the other administrators shifted special education students out of courses to keep them out of Standards of Learning tests. Manipulating the schedules of special education students in that way, while illegal, may have resulted in higher pass rates for the school.

Ennis, whose title will be administrator on assignment, will open Fleming's new $57 million building Sept. 8. She is a former superintendent who spent 45 years working as a teacher, principal and administrator in the school system.

Ennis will take over for Irving Jones, the school system's retiring executive director for high schools, and Joseph Harris, an assistant principal at Patrick Henry High School, who were appointed last month to oversee Fleming's transition to its new building.

In other news, preliminary information from the Virginia Department of Education suggests that all but two Roanoke schools earned state accreditation last year. William Ruffner Middle School and Westside Elementary School were the only schools not to be accredited, said Jean Pollock, the school system's director of research, testing and evaluation.

Even though it was not accredited, Ruffner made dramatic progress on state tests, Pollock said. The school has since closed as a money-saving measure.

"They made some great gains," she said.

Results for Hurt Park and Roanoke Academy for Mathematics and Science elementary schools had been closely watched by administrators after those two schools took in many of the students from the former Forest Park Elementary School. Officials sent special tutors and mentors to Hurt Park and Roanoke Academy last year to ease the students' transition, which may have helped the schools earn accreditation this year.

Last year, seven Roanoke schools failed to make accreditation, including Hurt Park, Ruffner and Westside. The year before that, eight schools were not accredited.

State officials determine whether a school earns accreditation based on its pass rates on end-of-the-year tests in reading, mathematics, science and history.

Final statistics won't be released until the fall.