A D.C. finance executive asked for a meeting with Board of Education officials to discuss apparent irregularities in the charter schools’ finances one week before the FBI raided offices looking for evidence of wrongdoing, a letter obtained by The Examiner shows.
Sebastian Lorigo, executive director of the Office for Integrity and Oversight for D.C.’s central finance agency, sent the letter in response to concerns over the ways the schools were handling their audits.
The letter is dated May 25. It states that a recent audit of charter schools’ financialstatements found a host of irregularities in their reporting, including:
» 11 of 13 schools that didn’t follow reporting guidelines, at least five schools appeared to owe more money than they had.
» One school took out a $3 million loan that may have violated regulations capping loans at $1 million.
» Auditors may have been paid for work that wasn’t necessary.
The letter was addressed to Josephine Baker and Brenda Belton, the heads of D.C.’s two public charter school offices.
In an e-mail Monday, Baker said that Lorigo asked for a review of two of her schools, and the request was granted. The letter was a follow-up to a May 22 meeting, and another round of meetings wasn’t necessary, Baker said. The letter went out six days before the FBI raided the two offices and Belton’s home. A grand jury is now looking through boxes of seized documents, witness statements and bank records to see if Belton was paying friends and relatives for work they didn’t do.
Through her lawyer, Belton has denied any wrongdoing.
Lorigo’s letter was the last in a series of warnings to schools officials that something was wrong in the charter offices.
It closes by asking for a meeting with the D.C. Board of Education and the Public Charter School Board, the public bodies that were supposed to monitor the city’s charter schools.
The letter is a footnote in the ongoing battle over control of D.C.’s failing public schools.
School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey has asked for an independent financial officer to report to him; Chief Finance Officer Natwar Gandhi has opposed Janey’s request and the dispute has gone from the District Council to Congress.
Gandhi has also fought — unsuccessfully — to have a single auditor examine the city’s charter schools instead of the myriad auditors now looking over the schools’ books.
Presumptive mayor Adrian Fenty, a supporter of Gandhi, has demanded control of the schools — something current Mayor Anthony Williams tried but failed to do.
On Saturday, former City Administrator Robert Bobb became the fourth candidate to declare for the Board of Education’s presidency.
He refused comment on the ongoing charter schools scandal, but he did promise “transparency” and “openness” in the public schools.
‘Holistic mentor’ got paid double
A “holistic mentor” who addressed staff of embattled charter schools executive Brenda Belton and Board of Education Vice President Carolyn Graham was paid the equivalent of twice her going rate.
Rebera Foston, the “holistic mentor” and motivational speaker, was given separate checks dated June 1, 2006 — one for $9,000 and another for more than $3,000. Foston said that she charges $1,500 per day for her seminars. A four-day seminar should therefore cost $6,000. But Foston said the balance of the fund was for one day of preparation and four days in a hotel and expenses.
Graham wrote a check for $3,000 to the schools and it was received June 6, according to records kept by the D.C. finance office. But it is unclear why Graham didn’t chip in for the one day of preparation or for Foston’s hotel and other expenses.
– Bill Myers
