Investigations into student-raised funds at 11 Montgomery County high schools reveal problems that spread beyond the use of the money for staff perks and leadership retreats.
At nearly all of the schools, large purchases were made with the money without principal approval, as required by district policy. Many of those purchases were made with staff members’ personal credit cards and were not properly recorded with the school.
The most extensive list of abuses, reported in The Examiner on Tuesday, occurred at Rockville’s Richard Montgomery High School under then-Principal Moreno Carrasco. In June, Carrasco was appointed by Superintendent Jerry Weast to direct secondary principal leadership for the entire district.
Under Carrasco, the school used student-owned funds to purchase “a notebook computer for the swim team, equipment for the school television studio, two printers, a projector for staff development presentations and a golf cart,” the audit said. While several purchases were acceptable uses of the money, none was added to district inventory records as required. In addition, staff purchase logs were not reviewed by the principal, nor were Carrasco’s purchase logs reviewed by anyone, the report said.
At Silver Spring’s Albert Einstein High School, more than $4,300 from student funds was spent on “recognition items such as movie passes, gift cards, meals and T-shirts.” Nearly $1,400 of that amount was used for teacher gifts, though district policy specifically prohibits such expenditures.
At Silver Spring’s Montgomery Blair High School, staff ate and drank nearly $10,000 more than its annual $4,000 allotment for refreshments. At Poolesville High School, a staff member received a $2,000 cash advance for the purchase of musical instruments, but only recorded $882 of receipts.
Churchill High School ended the audit with a nearly $100,000 deficit in its student funds; Seneca Valley closed out in a $72,000 hole.
Other problems shared among the high schools included a lack of oversight for student-operated projects such as yearbooks and event ticket sales.
School board member Pat O’Neill said the district takes the problem very seriously, explaining she recently attended a meeting about preventing fraud in the schools.
“The importance of a checks-and-balances system internally is very important,” O’Neill said. “There is a huge amount of money that runs through these high schools.”
