Why Was the former Indian River School District CFO Able to Get a State Job in the First Place?

Below is a media advisory that was released on October 20, 2016 by Tom Wagner in response to media inquires. Thanks Kevin Ohlandt for posting this on Facebook. The Auditor’s Office is going to comp employees time to get the Indian River Investigation/Audit Report done. I started emailing (see below email) Tom Wagner back in May 2016 right after I learned about Indian River’s CFO. To the Auditor’s Office: How about getting an investigation/audit done because of inquires from the General Assembly.

The News Journal reported in April 2016 that Indian’s River CFO Miller was put on paid administrative leave. Delmarva Now reported in May 2016 that Indian’s River CFO Miller resigned.

Miller also had been audited in his previous job as chief financial officer of the Brandywine School District. He faced criminal charges as the result of that audit and resolved his legal troubles by entering a no contest plea before Superior Court Judge Carl Goldstein. How was this guy even able to obtain another state job in one of our school districts, that is the question that we all should be asking? In this article, it states that Miller will be in a position a year from now to seek under another state law, to have the criminal record resulting from the charges expunged. Unbelievable!

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MEDIA ADVISORY

State Auditor’s Investigation into the Indian River School District

Posted On: Thursday, October 20, 2016

Dover, Del. – In response to media inquiries regarding the Auditor of Accounts’ (AOA) investigation into the Indian River School District, members of the media are advised that AOA intends to release its report in advance of the District’s referendum vote scheduled for Tuesday, November 22, 2016.

State Auditor R. Thomas Wagner, Jr. has authorized compensatory time for individuals working on this investigation in an effort to expedite the release of the report.

For more information, please contact John Fluharty at 302-857-3937. 

Providence Creek Academy Charter School Investigated…Once Again Shows School Leaders Misused Thousand of Dollars in Tax Dollars!

Yesterday, the Auditor of Accounts released another report showing that school leaders at Providence Creek Academy Charter School in Clayton misused thousands of dollars in school funds. You can view the entire report below.

House Bill 186 would require all charter schools to go through the Auditor of Accounts for their audits, currently all public schools except for charter schools goes through the Auditor of Accounts. Sen. Sokola’s bill, Senate Bill 171, will still allow charter schools to select their own auditors. The issue is allowing charter schools to select their own auditors. Academy of Dover’s auditors audited Academy of Dover for three years. The reason why Academy of Dover was audited by the state someone phoned in an anonymous tip to the Auditor of Accounts hotline–the Auditor of Accounts opened an investigation. Because of the fraud and mismanagement of tax dollars now we are using additional tax dollars to investigate these schools not only through the Auditor of Accounts but also through the Attorney General’s Office.

I was in a meeting yesterday discussing both bills with Sen. Sokola and the Delaware Charter Schools Network. The Charter Schools Network reasoning for not supporting House Bill 186 is the original charter law allowed charters to have flexibility and to have extra freedom from state bureaucracy in exchange for tougher consequences for poor academic performance. Apparently, the current system is not working and we the taxpayers have seen over and over the cases of mismanagement to outright fraud involving our tax dollars. Charter Schools should have their audits performed under the Auditor of Accounts just like our public schools—charter schools are public schools funded by local school and state taxes.

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DE Online article: Audit finds Providence Creek school leaders misused funds

 

An Opinion Piece on how we deal with campus sexual assault

The News Journal opinion piece written by Cleta Mitchell and Trent Lott – Rethinking how we deal with campus sexual assault.

As of July 2015, there were 124 colleges and 40 school districts currently under investigation for handling of sexual assault. The University of Delaware being one of them, they were placed on the list in May 2014. To see the entire list and to read more, click here.

Below is a portion of the opinion piece and it is so true, things need to change on our college campuses. RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) reports that sexual assault is one of the most under reported crimes, with 68% still being left unreported and only 2 out of every 100 rapists serve time, this is just unacceptable!

When a perpetrator has been found guilty by the school, the most serious punishment available is expulsion. But those who commit sexual violence should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. As the Rape, Incest and Abuse National Network (RAINN) wrote to the White House last year, “It would never occur to anyone to leave the adjudication of a murder in the hands of a school’s internal judicial process. Why, then, is it not only common, but expected, for them to do so when it comes to sexual assault?”