LAKE COUNTY — The Lake County Grand Jury”s 2007-08 report, released Wednesday, accused the Lake County Office of Education (LCOE) of fraud, exorbitant spending, misuse of grant money, employee abuse, wrongful dismissal, policy violations and negligence involving a student.
Superintendent of Schools Dave Geck is away for a two-week vacation, according to Deputy Superintendent of Schools Chris Thomas. She said the LCOE will respond to the allegations after he returns at the end of July.
“We”re taking the allegations very seriously, and we”re reading them very carefully. Some of them are very general in nature, and when a statement is made about something specific, and we don”t know where the specifics are coming from, it”s difficult to know how to respond,” Thomas said.
Responding to “several complaints alleging a wide range of violations,” the Grand Jury”s Public Services Committee interviewed “numerous witnesses” and LCOE administrators and reviewed copies of reimbursement vouchers and other documents, according to the report.
The committee found that Geck signed a document falsely stating that an administrator had the required three years of full-time teaching experience necessary to enter a graduate program. The administrator in question, who was not named in the report, told the jury under oath “they were an employee of LCOE but not a full-time teacher.”
The LCOE created a position in 2007, which was not publicly advertised, for the same administrator, along with a $25,000 raise, according to the findings.
“Numerous witnesses testified, under oath, that hostile conditions, including verbal and mental abuse, exist within the LCOE,” the report states.
In addition, an administrator who handles grant spending and several LCOE employees reported “a pattern of exorbitant spending,” according to the findings. The Grand Jury committee did not find documentation that grant money was misappropriated.
Three site supervisors were terminated or forced to resign “from a highly successful grant-funded program ? for pre-school children,” according to the report. None were allowed representation or had an improvement plan meeting, a necessary step before an employee is terminated, according to the report.
The report also alleges that a special needs elementary student was wrongly placed in a general education class. The findings go on to say that when the teacher reported the problem, the teacher was reprimanded, and reports about the student”s behavior were changed to “misrepresent the student”s academic achievements and behavior.”
Thomas said she could not comment about any specific allegations because some of the allegations involve personnel, which she said is confidential.
The 2003-04 Grand Jury investigated a complaint against the LCOE alleging the office did not follow policies and falsified documents. The committee found that payroll documents were illegally altered, according to a summary in the 2007-08 report.
The 2006-07 Grand Jury committee received a complaint about the LCOE”s administrative practices, but did not complete the investigation “due to unforeseen circumstances,” according to the report.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
