An annual report from the Board of Education’s Office of the Inspector General reveals 1,460 complaints of Board and Chicago Public Schools misconduct were sent to the inspector general from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013. But only 22% resulted in investigations.
James Sullivan, head of the independent unit, blames lack of funding and a small, understaffed department for the hundreds of deferred complaints. He said the situation “creates a substantial risk that waste, fraud, financial mismanagement and employee misconduct go undetected.”
“Without an increase in budget and staffing levels, the risk of issues going undetected increases every year,” Sullivan wrote in the report.
Residency code violations accounted for 18% of the complaints–the most of any of the 27 complaint types.
But the report doesn’t mention investigations about CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, even though in April, reports claimed the executive still owned property in Ohio and was not compliant with CPS residency rules.
At that time Chi-Town Review reached out to the Office of the Inspector General several times, but Sullivan did not respond to any of the requests. CPS also denied direct requests for copies of complaints questioning Byrd-Bennett’s residency status. The inspector general’s report does not reveal how many, if any, of the 256 complaints about residency compliance mentioned the district’s CEO.
Eight cases of residency violations are outlined in the report, including a school clerk living in Blue Island, who was also investigated for stolen school iPads.
There were also incidents of teachers and administrators lying about class enrollment and grades to gain additional staff.
One investigation revealed that a former technology coordinator stole $400,000 from CPS by lying about giving the money to school vendors. The unidentified coordinator was later found dead in Tijuana, following an investigation.
Read or browse the full report below. Or read highlights on Twitter #CPSInvestigations.
[gview file=”http://www.cps.edu/About_CPS/Departments/Documents/OIG_FY_2013_AnnualReport.pdf” save=”1″]
