Mayor Adrian Fenty will call the District of Columbia’s auditor into a meeting to ask about her progress investigating the multimillion-dollar charter school, an aide to the mayor told The Examiner.
D.C. Auditor Deborah Nichols has had a draft report on the charter school scandal at least since the late summer, sources on Nichols’ staff said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the report has not yet been made public. Nichols has not published her findings, saying that she has to get reactions from school officials.
An aide to the mayor who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Examiner that the mayor will ask for a meeting with Nichols to find out what’s happening.
Fenty wants control over the city’s stricken public schools and has vowed to make public education his administration’s top priority.
Nichols is one of dozens of investigators who have pored over the Board of Education’s charter school program in the past year.
The D.C. Inspector General, the U.S. Department of Education, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office are conducting a criminal probe of Belton’s office.
Authorities were told last year that Belton used charter school contractors to shuffle money to herself, her family and friends.
Fenty last week told The Examiner that he’d check on Nichols’ progress.
Nichols’ report will not dwell on the criminal allegations but likely will focus on the institutional problems that led to the scandal. Some close to the mayor hope the report will name the key players who allowed Belton to have a free hand in doling out hundreds of thousands of public dollars, the aide said.
Fenty met with the inspector general’s office earlier this month for a briefing on looming problems in the city. The charter school investigation didn’t come up, the source said, leaving the mayor looking for answers on what went wrong.
Anyone with information on D.C.’s schools can call Bill Myers at 202-459-4956 or e-mail [email protected]
