An employee in the District of Columbia’s beleaguered special education system was paid as a school employee at the same time he drew salaries from outside companies paid by the schools, documents obtained by The Examiner show.
Teacher’s aide Roy Holbrook signed four years’ worth of time sheets for Alternatives Unlimited Inc. at the same time he claimed he was working for the special education department, according to internal school documents .
After leaving Alternatives Unlimited, Holbrook then began filing time sheets for another school contractor, Integrated Urban Solutions, documents show.
Holbrook did not respond to numerous requests for comment. He has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing.
But the allegations against him, laid out in internal school memos and records, are yet another embarrassment to the city’s stricken schools.
The alleged double-dipping was uncovered after an Examiner investigation revealed that several special education employees were being paid their full salaries months after leaving the school system, costing the public hundreds of thousands of dollars.
It prompted special education officials to review their payroll records, according to one school source.
Special Education Director Marla Oakes reported the scandal to top school officials in March, the documents show. She told the officials that Holbrook’s supervisor, Bettye Jones, continued signing his time sheets without checking them, documents show.
Jones did not respond to requests for comment.
The matter has since been referred to the D.C. inspector general’s office, according to a top school source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because personnel matters are supposed to be confidential.
Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee was briefed on the Holbrook situation Friday. She told The Examiner that she was generally disappointed with the “broken” special education system.
“I have put special education and the revamping of the program at the top of my list,” Rhee said.
“We’re just not functioning effectively.”
Oakes did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did finance office spokeswoman Maryann Young, whose agency is supposed to monitor spending in the schools.
Mary Levy, a schools expert for the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, said she wasn’t surprised by the revelations of widespread payroll turmoil and scandal.
“It has happened many times before, and the automated systems that could make that impossible aren’t there,” Levy said.
Audit after audit have exposed systemic problems in tracking and protecting the public’s money in the $1 billion-plus school system; yet neither the finance office nor the schools have done anything about them, Levy said.
“The way the D.C. government is set up, you don’t know which agency is in charge, let alone which person is responsible,” she said.
D.C. Office of Special Education
» 10,088 students
» $139,632,675 budget
» Director: Marla Oakes
Source: D.C. Public Schools
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