Several years ago, educational consultant Gloria Donoghue walked into the Blue Nile bookshop on Georgia Avenue, Northwest. She was in town on business from Long Island, N.Y., where she had spent two decades working in special education.
“They had some wonderful books, jewelry and other wonderful things,” Donoghue recalled in a recent interview with The Examiner, sitting in an office in upper Northwest, drumming her long, lacquered nails on a dark wood desk.
Browsing the knickknacks at the Blue Nile that day, Donoghue struck up a conversation with the shop’s proprietor, Brenda Williams, and one of Williams’ employees and good friends, Nadine Evans.
“We just hit it off,” she said. “It was just us girls.”
The friendship that began in that bookshop became a business that is a featured player in a multimillion-dollar scandal that has embarrassed the District of Columbia’s charter school program. A grand jury now looks for evidence of fraud involving the company.
In May 2006, federal authorities raided the offices and home of then-Board of Education charter school executive Brenda L. Belton and carted away thousands of documents.
Belton and her daughter, Lindsay C. Holmes, have since become targets of a grand jury investigation. Grand jurors have been told that Belton used a series of companies to shuffle money to her friends, her daughter and herself, sources told The Examiner.
One of those companies, Equal Access in Education, billed the schools forhundreds of thousands of dollars of work — most of which was never done, school records show and sources close to the investigation said.
Investigators believe that Belton hijacked Equal Access’ name from a company called Equal Access Inc. that was registered as an approved school contractor.
Belton would use Equal Access’ approved status to ward off queries from school staff who worried about where the money was going, sources said.
Donoghue dropped in at the Blue Nile over the years, and her conversations with Williams and Evans began to focus on business. They agreed to form an educational consulting company they called Equal Access Inc. Its offices were above the Blue Nile.
“We thought there were some things we could do to help,” Donoghue said.
The charter school movement in D.C. was at its peak. Enrollment swelled and millions poured in from the federal and local government.
Much of the money was courtesy Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., a big fan of charter schools. Landrieu earmarked millions for the District’s charter schools.
As a result, D.C. became the capital of the charter school movement. At its peak last year, 55 charter schools were based in the District, more than any other city in the nation. There were thousands of students and some $300 million in local and federal funds.
There was an opportunity in that program, the friends agreed.
Donoghue had spent more than 20 years in education. Evans was a lawyer by training. Williams had worked as staff director to former Mayor Marion Barry.
“She had some connections she wanted to play around with,” Donoghue said of Williams. “She had the D.C. swagger.”
Donoghue pulled up stakes in New York and moved to D.C.
One of Williams’ connections was Brenda Belton, who was appointed executive director of the Board of Education’s charter school office in 2003.
As head of the office, Belton had nearly unlimited authority over 18 charter schools that enrolled some 4,000 students. She had access to a budget of nearly $1 million over two years and hundreds of thousands more from the No Child Left Behind Act and Landrieu’s earmarks.
Williams and Belton were longtime friends. Williams is Holmes’ godmother.
Belton and Holmes, in turn, were members of Delta Theta Sigma, a sorority whose members were some of D.C.’s leading women, including former District Council Chair Linda Cropp. Many of the contractors that Belton hired were Delta members.
“I didn’t get the connection,” Donoghue said. “I wasn’t thinking politically.”
Belton sat on the committee that selected Equal Access as a contractor. Pearl Sandifer, another friend of Belton whose picture was on Belton’s desk and who was later paid as a charter school contractor, sat on the selection committee, too.
Belton recommended Equal Access to the board in 2003. The board approved a contract for the company to monitor 14 charter schools.
Belton would tell authorities, and Donoghue, that it was a five-year contract. But no documents exist to show that it was a five-year deal, a source familiar with the investigation said.
Donoghue said she was glad of Williams’ connections, but she wanted Equal Access to stand on its own.
“I put my very best foot forward,” Donoghue said. “We met the criteria and we outscored the competitors. I believed it was fair and square.”
Before the work got under way, Evans left Equal Access. She accepted a job as a special education hearing officer in the D.C. public schools.
That left Williams and Donoghue to run Equal Access.
That changed quickly.
Within a few months, Donoghue had submitted the first invoices to Belton’s office. She was on her way to pick up the checks when Williams stopped her.
“She said, ‘You don’t have to go. I’m going,’ ” Donoghue said. “She just took over. Like I missed something.”
Donoghue was stunned.
“I didn’t see it coming,” she said. “I didn’t know that the friendship between Brenda Williams and Brenda Belton was that powerful. I’m Southern-bred and I was not going to have a knock-down, drag-out fight in front of the staff. And that was it for me.”
Donoghue walked away from Equal Access Inc., she said. The next time she thought about the company was when she received a subpoena from the grand jury. It’s not clear when Equal Access Inc. gave way to Equal Access in Education — or how. The schools and the D.C. finance office have blocked requests to explain where public dollars went.
But the checks were soon being made out to Equal Access in Education.
Invoices from that company showed that Equal Access in Education was at 26 Underwood Place, NW. It’s a building Belton used to own and that Holmes now co-owns.
For more than a year before federal agents raided Belton’s home and office, Belton collected checks to Equal Access, sources told The Examiner.
In 2004, Williams applied for a charter for a school she called Young America Works Public Charter School. The school’s founding documents list its address as Georgia Avenue, home of the original Equal Access.
Belton sat on the committee that approved Young America’s charter.
According to Young America’s latest tax return, posted on the Web site of a group that tracks nonprofit organizations, Williams paid herself $72,268 in fiscal 2005. The school has obtained more than $1.7 million in federal and local funds.
The Examiner has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the school board, asking it to explain how Young America spends its money, but school FOIA officer Karen Jones Herbert — another former aide to Barry and a member of Delta Theta Sigma — has not responded to the request.
Williams hired Nadine Evans, the other original partner in Equal Access Inc., as Young America’s principal. She earned $50,000 per year, Young America’s tax returns shows.
Attempts to reach the women were unsuccessful.
Donoghue said the episode embarrassed her and she would rather forget Equal Access ever existed.
“I’m clear that I’ve been in the dark about a lot of things,” she said. “I’m clear that I’ve been played.”
Anyone with information on the D.C. schools can call Bill Myers at 202-459-4956.
Timeline
Key moments in the investigation of the charter schools scandal:
» Mid-March 2006: Schools financial analyst Steve Kapani told the school board that he suspected his boss, charter school executive Brenda Belton, funneled money to friends and to herself. Kapani also notified the D.C. Inspector General.
» May 31, 2006: The FBI raided Belton’s office and home and the offices of the Public Charter School Board.
» Early June 2006: Belton and Kapani were put on administrative leave.
» Early October 2006: Belton was notified that she is the target of a grand jury investigation.
» Oct. 16, 2006: The Board of Education voted to fire Belton.
