We have been looking at other school districts around the nation, and we have found plenty of evidence of operations on a Good Old Boy system like what Gilbert Public Schools has become. We were heartened to discover some degree of accountability, although it seems to have been slow in coming.
The superintendent of the Steubenville, Ohio school district acted a lot like Good Old Dave Allison did in GPS before he retired:
The superintendent of the eastern Ohio district where two high-school football players were found guilty of rape in a high-profile case last year wiped information and lied to investigators about his knowledge of the allegations against the boys, newly released court documents say. Michael McVey has pleaded not guilty to felony counts of tampering with evidence and obstructing justice, and misdemeanor counts of falsification and obstructing official business.
McVey is accused of misleading authorities about the school’s investigation into the rape allegations and concealing knowledge about rumors of sex and drinking at a teen party four months earlier. The new filing alleges that he erased evidence that included emails and data on computer hard drives. McVey might have had someone wipe the hard drives for him, the document says.
Two elementary school principals, one of whom served as the team’s strength coach, were charged with failing to report possible child abuse or neglect.
The Steubenville case dates back to 2012. It seems that police investigations take time to complete. It’s nice to know that Superintendent McVey will be held accountable, if not for what he did, for the cover-up.
In Good Old Dave’s case, he just flat-out admitted he had destroyed documents over a period of several months. The Governing Board has admitted that a server was wiped, apparently in 2012. The police are investigating the situation. GPS GOBs are proud of themselves for getting rid of evidence. Sounds a lot like Steubenville!
We also looked to see how Dan Good is doing as superintendent in Columbus Ohio. We wished GPS could convince him (or someone like him) to take charge and pull the GPS administration out of the gutter it has fallen into. Dan Good got rid of the cabal he inherited:
The top four administrators who reported directly to then-Columbus school Superintendent Gene Harris would be demoted or reassigned or retire under a plan Superintendent Dan Good has outlined to the school board. The reorganization that Good describes in a Jan. 29 memo reshuffles the staff at the highest level of the district, creates positions, reassigns some people and seeks outsiders to fill district jobs. In the memo, Good said he has approached outsiders, including Worthington school Superintendent Thomas Tucker, about jobs with Columbus schools. …Although new positions are proposed, Good said the net of all the changes would not cost taxpayers more money.
It took a long time, but the state auditor fully investigated the culture of deceit that existed in Columbus; a Grand Jury is also investigating:
The findings of an 18-month state investigation released yesterday tell a story of a superintendent who presided over a culture in which administrators lost sight of their mission to educate children and instead focused on creating an illusion that they were getting good academic results. State Auditor Dave Yost’s long-awaited report found that some Columbus school employees set out to deceive the state and federal education departments — and the people of Columbus.
Columbus had a “top-down culture of data manipulation and employee intimidation,” Yost said. Under Harris’ supervision, former data czar Steve Tankovich and regional executive director Michael Dodds helped create a “bunker culture” in which people feared reprisals for challenging the system of data manipulation. The report shows nine key ways in which district employees altered data, often to the detriment of students, to make their schools appear to be better than they actually were.
In Columbus, the fraud scheme dated back to 2002. It sometimes takes a long time to bring malfeasance to justice. Note the similarity to GPS about the internal auditor position, which Good Old Clyde Dangerfield eliminated:
The district’s internal auditor at the time opened an investigation, but once the state OK’d the district’s policies, her authority and involvement was undermined. She was forced to resign. That audit, which would have examined the types of fraud Yost found, withered away and died.
It appears that Columbus also experienced an *exodus* of administrators, like some people claim has happened in GPS. We say that’s not such a bad thing:
District officials said yesterday that as many as 15 employees who had ties to the data scandal have left, either on their own or in agreement with the district. While they did not name those employees, the number includes the four high-school principals that the district started action against yesterday. Those principals appeared to be on a quest to improve their schools’ standing, even by cheating.
In St. Joseph, Missouri, the FBI stepped in to investigate Dr. Fred Czerwonka’s actions as superintendent:
Those questions began to surface in late March with concerns about stipends paid to administrators. That was followed by the St. Joseph district’s chief financial officer, Beau Musser, being placed on paid administrative leave. The Missouri auditor’s office contacted the district about conducting an audit of its budget. And the FBI moved in to look into issues surrounding the district.
Dr. Czerwonka also created administrative positions at a time when teachers’ supplies were cut. The district couldn’t afford raises for teachers, but Dr. Czerwonka wanted the district to pay for health insurance for administrators and their families. The money was given to them in a lump sum instead.
Mr. Thompson said he too was shocked by the stories. He also feels there’s more to be told. “The FBI doesn’t just show up on your door and you have one board member raising a stink and you kind of put two and two together,” he said. “Something is going on that needs to be told.”
The wheels of justice grind slowly, but we’ll be patient. For example, in a public corruption case in the Los Angeles area, Robert Rizzo, the former top administrator who oversaw an era of corruption in the small, working-class city of Bell, was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison on tax fraud charges and was ordered to pay $256,000 in restitution to the federal government.
Once the highest paid municipal administrator in California, and likely the nation, Rizzo became the face of the widespread corruption in Bell, doling out city funds to colleagues and business interests, falsifying public records and misappropriating public funds. Facing 69 felony corruption counts, Rizzo elected to plead no contest last year and offered to help the prosecution in its case against the city’s former assistant city manager, Angela Spaccia. Spaccia was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in state prison last week after being convicted of misappropriating public funds and other corruption-related crimes.
Closer to home, another school district had a problem with a guy who tampered with public records. He sounds as remorseful as the GOBs and their business as usual in Gilbert Public Schools:
Thirteen months after his arrest on charges of defrauding the Prescott Unified School District, autism advocate Ray Parenteau pleaded guilty to tampering with public records, a Class 6 felony. “I am only interested in the ability to move on. Everything I did was in the best interest of my son,” Parenteau said.
Sheeeesh. It’s ALWAYS “for the kids.”