What in the world is going on in Dougherty? Spending $18,000 on a speaker? Officials lying for free lunches?
There has been a lot of attention on Atlanta schools in the wake of the CRCT cheating scandal, but the second bad actor in this drama, Dougherty County, has garnered less attention. One reason is location: Albany is far from the media center of Atlanta so there has been less press about the blatant cheating there on state exams.
But given what is now unfolding in Dougherty, it seems that close attention to this under performing and troubled school system is long overdue. In fact, this district seems a possible candidate for state takeover based on these breaking news stories.
According to the AJC, the state Department of Education has determined that the Dougherty County School District is not eligible to receive at least $10 million in federal funds because of concerns that the district has inflated the number of students who qualify for federal meal assistance. The agency also said the district has not properly overseen federal grant programs.
An incredible element of this story, reported by the Albany Herald, is that one of the questionable uses of federal money was the $18,000 paid to a motivational speaker for three appearances. That is $6,000 per appearance, an unbelievable expense for any school system in these hard budget times. Such extravagant expenditures undermine the arguments from schools that they need more money to function.
Two weeks ago, The Albany Herald obtained an email dated June 26 from GADOE Title Programs Division Director Margo DeLaune to DCSS Superintendent Joshua Murfree in which she wrote that “additional information and/or supporting documentation is needed for the items listed below that were paid with Title I, Part A monies.”
The 34 items in question ranged from $22 for emergency and registration cards to $91,000 for consulting fees paid to Darrell Sabbs and Associates.
All total, the state was seeking supporting documentation of more than $142,000 in Title I expenditures and gave the system until July 13 to respond to the request.
Delaune confirmed Tuesday she had received some documentation from the local system, but said she didn’t know at the time if it was all of the information requested by her office.
In addition to the Sabbs contract, the state was also seeing information on an $18,000 check cut to motivational speaker Joseph Washington for three appearances before students at Dougherty, Monroe and Albany high schools. “A motivational speaker is not an allowable Title I, Part A expense,” LeLaune wrote. “In addition, the cost of $6,000 per day appears not to follow the reasonable and necessary component of an allowable Title I, Part A expenditure.
“Please provide follow-up documentation to support the necessity of the cost and how this meets the compliance of academic interventions for Title I, Part A expenditures.”
The AJC further reports on the state DOE decision this week to withhold funds:
The department’s move is an extraordinary step, one no one at the department can recall being taken before. If a district is found to use federal funds in inappropriate ways, the state is responsible for paying the money back. “Our teams have been down there and worked with them and worked with them and worked with them,” Georgia Schools Superintendent John Barge said. “They’re not where they need to be.”
The district, which includes the southwestern Georgia town of Albany, has had its share of troubles in recent years. Investigations found that it and the Atlanta Public Schools system were major hubs for standardized test cheating in 2009.
The cheating investigation in Dougherty County also uncovered evidence that a principal in the district and her husband had falsely claimed that they were eligible for a free lunch program reserved for the poor. The couple was indicted, and similar charges were filed against Dougherty County School Board Member Velvet Riggins based on a tip to police, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reported.
The governor removed Riggins from office earlier this month, according to the Albany Herald.
Losing $10 million for this school year would be a big blow for the district, whose operating budget is listed on its website as $114.8 million. The district could still receive the money if it complies with federal documentation requirements and clears up questions about the number of students who are eligible for federal meal assistance.
Hearing about possible misuse of the federal meal assistance program in Dougherty, the Georgia Department of Education attempted to investigate it in late May, state documents show. Department officials, however, were denied access to program records when they visited the district, according to a letter the department wrote to Dougherty Schools Superintendent Joshua Murfree Jr.
The state warned Dougherty in that letter that it could place a hold on all federal funds that are distributed to districts based on the number of students who qualify for federal meal assistance.
In addition to questions about how many Dougherty students actually qualify for federal meal assistance, state officials also had concerns about the district’s oversight of other federal grant programs.
Dougherty receives money from the federal School Improvement Grant program, from a program created to assist homeless students and from the Race to the Top program.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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103 comments Add your comment
Good ole Boys at the Gold Dome
July 20th, 2012
4:09 pm
@Gator -My mistake but I thought you and your son was dead. I use to go to your store in Newton when I was kid.By the way Baker split from Mitchell county several years ago .They do have a nice High School in Newton.By the way,every county has some questionable citizens and you my friend was one of the most corrupt in Baker county.Hate to talk about the dead but you brought Gators name up.
Ralph Christian
July 20th, 2012
4:21 pm
“Governor Deal should clean house and have that system run by the state.” Say what???? The most corrupt politician in GA (and among the top twelve most corrupt in Congress ever) be given the hand in this matter????
jess
July 20th, 2012
4:21 pm
I have a friend whose sister worked in the food services area of a local high school. She was the person who took applications for free, and reduced price lunches. Soon after she got the job, a woman she knew came to sign her three children up for free lunches. The applicant asked what the maximum income was for her to get free lunches. My friends sister told her she just needed to put her actual earnings in and the school would inform her if she qualified. The applicant got very mad and asked to see her supervisor, which she arranged. Shortly afterwards her supervisor returned and informed my friends sister that she was never to question what someone put down as their income, and if they asked about the limits she was to tell them. She then explained that the system gets extra funds based on the number of free and reduced price students they have so it was to their benefit to sign up as many as possible. She quit soon after this.
Google "NEA" and "donations"
July 20th, 2012
4:33 pm
@Ralph:
You live in a majority Republican state. Democrats will never again be able to block schoolhouse doors, and teachers won’t be required to join unions.
Get over it!
Good ole Boys at the Gold Dome
July 20th, 2012
4:49 pm
@ Google “NEA”—-I’m a Republican and 60+ years old.Georgia was a Democrat state for 100 years.Did not turn Repub until 2000.Never was schoolhouse doors blocked and never were teachers required or forced to join unions.In fact a law was written in the state in the 60’s that prohibit any state public employee from joining unions.This law included state employees and Teachers.Hate to say this but I feel like the education system was run at a more efficient way when the Democrats were in charge.
Prof
July 20th, 2012
4:51 pm
@ Google. Curious blog-thread on which to brag that this is a majority Republican state!
Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
July 20th, 2012
4:54 pm
When you combine gross incompetence with a larcenous heart, what you get is a government bureaucracy. There is, over time, no other outcome.
Its bad
July 20th, 2012
5:06 pm
I was an honor roll student k-12 down there except for 4th grade. My dad was concerned so he met with my teacher mrs rockmore (sp) back in 1984. He asked about me and how i was doing. Her reply was. “oh he be doin ok”. My dad told me to just get through 4th grade best i could after hearing who i was dealing with. Backwards doesnt begin to describe that poor city
bootney farnsworth
July 20th, 2012
5:11 pm
to beat the drum again….
the way this stuff happens is due to the lack of checks/balances in education. most educational entities have none at all, and the few which do are corrupted so badly as to be useless.
-the USG has none, and so at least four schools overspent last year and prices are skyrocketing.
-the local school systems have elected school boards, but they are packed with people voted in along racial and party lines.
-places like Atlanta and DCSS ….. defy polite description.
I can almost promise you the same thing happened with this as what happened with Tricoli forced Jimmy Carter & the Atlanta Center down GPC’s throat. lots of good people raised objections only to be let known pursuing them would land them in serious hot water
another comment
July 20th, 2012
5:20 pm
I once made the mistake of hiring a graduate of Albany State. He had been a TQM expert at Lockhead. Was an absolutely worthless employee. That was the last time I would ever hire an employee from a HBC in Georgia. One way we can save ourselves alot of money is to eliminate all of these raciest historicaly Black colleges. They do not provide an adequate education, just a fake sense of entitlement.
bootney farnsworth
July 20th, 2012
5:22 pm
three easy steps to fix this, but they’ll never happen:
-an approval board for things beyond a $10,000 dollar amount. the board must be a mix of educators and businessmen with no real dog in the fight to make them as objective as possible.
-an end to racial/party block voting. sorry Detta, but its a well established fact in Georgia that blacks tend to support blacks first and foremost, and democrats then to support democrats the same way.
same probably holds true for republicans, but statistically Georgia has only been electing republicans for a short period of time.
-a genuine voice for the worker bees who see all this going on, know very well what the impact is, but have no way of expressing their concerns without getting roasted for it. be it a union or some kind of independent staff advocate, something rank n file can turn to with protection
bootney farnsworth
July 20th, 2012
5:23 pm
@ another comment
if you’ll toss aside such a huge pool of talent based on one alleged incident…
you’re either a fool or telling quite the lie.
bootney farnsworth
July 20th, 2012
5:25 pm
” raciest historicaly black colleges”… (his spelling, not mine)
sounds fun. where do I send my resume?
bootney farnsworth
July 20th, 2012
5:27 pm
@ another comment
after taking a moment to reread your post…..
with your profoundly bad grasp of reality and even worse spelling and grammar, there’s no way you’re hiring anyone above janitorial staff.
another comment
July 20th, 2012
5:33 pm
The Free lunch program and it’s tie in to the extra Title one funds is the biggest source of fraud out there. Every single application should be audited. How can you qualify for Free lunch, but have enough money for $300 hair styles, acrylic nails, designer hand bags, designer clothes, $300 nikes, air jordans, the list goes on and on. Then to beat all, their kids show up with I-pads, I-phones, and thousands of dollars worth of video equipment to do group project. But my child has to do all the written work. They don’t have a laptop or a color printer that might be helpful in doing school work.
How can 72% of the students in a Sandy Springs middle School be free lunch when the lowest apartments are $1,200 per month. The least expensive houses are $325K, most are well over $500K.
bootney farnsworth
July 20th, 2012
5:39 pm
@ Maureen
those of us who have faced this issue for some time now know its NEVER been about the lack of resources. its the abuse and misuse of said resources.
no great choice
July 20th, 2012
5:40 pm
another comment
I don’t think your info on apartment prices in Sandy Springs is correct. Spend some time around Pitts Road and look into those complexes. No way 1200 dollars.
The Deacon
July 20th, 2012
6:01 pm
I am in the residential mortgage industry.
If you want a loan the bank must verify your reported income from the IRS.
I must also pass an ANNUAL credit and criminal background check to stay employed in the industry.
Do you think elected officials should be put to the same strict guidelines?
The Deacon
Former Walton county teacher
July 20th, 2012
6:21 pm
@ jess The same thing with free and reduced lunch goes on in Walton county schools. I was told “just turn them in—everyone gets it.”
The Good Life City
July 20th, 2012
7:32 pm
As a recent transplant to Albany, I can tell you that things are every bit as bad down here as the article implies. Housing prices in DoCo are great b/c no one wants to put their kids in school here. Any attempt at reform is met with race baiting politics. Perhaps the biggest slap in the face was a few weeks ago when the proposed career academy for the school system was voted down, with the deciding vote cast by Velvet Riggins, the one facing trial for fraud. Nuke and start over.
say what?
July 20th, 2012
7:50 pm
Spending Title I funds on motivational speakers and food should be outlawed. The guy who gives out the “impossible to I’m Possible” t-shirts had annual visits to Columbia MS in DeKalb. He was to motivate kids right before the CRCT.
Now that DCSD has decided to give MORE money Title I funds directly to the principal’s look for the final nail in the coffin for DCSD. If only people would do monthly open records request on Title I fund expenditures could taxpayer money be protected. These are the same principal’s who have returned in excess of $14 million in Title I funds back to the central office, which then had to return the money to the state DOE. Some of these school principal’s now have $500K in Title I funds.
Bye Bye accreditation in DeKalb. Unless parents and the communities demand transparency and get every expenditure on a monthly basis of every Title I penny spent.
Joe Bart
July 20th, 2012
8:58 pm
Funeral Home Directors can be great motivational speakers. I hope all his upbeat engagements net more than $6000/appearance. We can only hope he doesn’t get behind in his work like Ray Marsh who was caught in 2002 with over 300 corpses rotting on the property. Got work piles up while you are taking money.
Lisa B.
July 20th, 2012
9:00 pm
The 2:08 post by “Down in Albany” summarizes exactly what is happening in the Dougherty County School System. Albany is the metro area for our region. Our workforce is dependent on the caliber of education offered by public schools. The Dougherty County School System employs some excellent teachers. Some kids get access to those excellent teachers. Too many students are getting ripped off.
Kyle
July 20th, 2012
10:17 pm
I live in Albany and all you have to do is read dudecrush’s post to see what is wrong in Albany. 75% of the population will not take their responsibility for their actions and blame it on the 25%. Please come down and visit and you will see corruption at it’s finest. 75% expects to be handed everything and the board members and commissioners think they can do whatever they want without asking. Come down and you will see why the 25% down here pray for Mitt Romney.
Fixit
July 20th, 2012
10:19 pm
@dudecrush: ummm, yes Whatley is guilty too, but Murphree has approached so many issues with a let’s white-wash approach, nothing is corrected.
I have sat through numerous board meetings this year and he is not sure of policy nor does he have clear standards for administrators. Nepotism is another issue and is woven all through the system administrators and directors. The board is not all corrupt nor is every teacher, but there are too manyy in important positions who are.
The state needs to step in beginning with the top administrators. Our County needs to see these clowns held accountable and students need the system to be led by individuals with a higher level of integrity than has been present in a very long time. So thankful to see corrective actions might happen after all.
Truth in Moderation
July 21st, 2012
1:18 am
@Lee
Thanks for the motivational link.
My favorite soundbite, “Take the NO and let it grow!”
That would definitely motivate a bunch of teens!
Where can I get on this list of approved speakers? How about, “Give me my fee, it will set you free!”
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
July 21st, 2012
6:42 am
(S)kipper,
Race isn’t the problem. Self, as opposed to public, service is the problem.
In my area, the largest BOE is equally divided betwen White and Black people several of whose primary interests lie in retaining their power and influence with little, if any, real regard for the academic development of the poor children enrolled in the public school system they oversee.
bootney farnsworth
July 21st, 2012
8:21 am
@ Craig
I see your point, but I disagree. Race, to the point where some people view it as the most important factor in decision making, is very much the problem.
Fred in DeKalb
July 21st, 2012
10:01 am
Jess and others, most know that there is fraud in the Free and Reduced lunch program. It is allowed by the Federal government through the USDA. By law, no more than 3% of the applications can be audited. Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC attempted to have a higher standard for audits and were threatened by the Federal government that they could lose all federal funding for this program. You can read about this at,
http://educationnext.org/fraud-in-the-lunchroom/
If you want to lodge a real complaint, what don’t you question the agricultural subsidies that taxpayers continue to provide? You might find it interesting as to who receives most of those monies. Instead most of you would rather go after the family that gets an extra $360 per year (assuming $2 for lunch for 180 days) per child. Don’t get me wrong, both are wrong in this but why don’t you go after the big fish instead of the small fry?
jess
July 21st, 2012
11:27 am
Fred. The issue is not who you go after. The issue is the fact that we cannot trust our government to be good stewards of our money. The other issue is that the government, and many non-profits use the number of children recieving “lunch” benefits to justify many, many other entitlement programs. The amount of tax money spent using fraudulent stats as a justification is huge.
Alvin Hall
July 21st, 2012
12:04 pm
It sad none of these people or for the kids it’s all about them put those asses in jail white or black.
bootney farnsworth
July 21st, 2012
12:44 pm
in the filter?
really?
for that?
get a reality grip people!
Trapped
July 21st, 2012
1:38 pm
As a resident of the Albany area I can tell you the Governor needs to get involved now! He is only dragging his feet because he has no chance of carrying Dougherty County in 2014, so why waste time and resources to help. But his lack of action leaves voters like me hung out to dry.
My business is here, what is left of it anyway, but we are seriously considering a move to Dahlonega or Kennesaw. As sad as this is to say, Albany was once a very nice place to live, but no longer. And the brutal truth is, the decline has EVERYTHING to do with race.
HS Math Teacher
July 21st, 2012
1:58 pm
Aside from this mess, take a look at their EOCT scores of this district. Our educational & political leaders are giving every public school system a blanket curriculum, cutting funding (but funding the rich-ass charter school crowd with OUR taxes), giving us a raincoat and throwing us out into the piss storm. Georgia has a bad case of SAT score envy, and a very stupid approach to finding a remedy.
Proud Teacher
July 21st, 2012
2:12 pm
HS Math Teacher, you are so right. Instead of letting the real teachers teach in a decent academic atmosphere, they place the blame for student failure solely upon the teachers while the administrators reap any benefits that might befall the school. Then they threaten the teachers with private and charter schools: “Teachers, if you don’t perform well, we’ll lose our students to charter and private schools and yo will be out of a job. Play nice and make the students want to come here.” i.e., accept rude behavior, poor work performance, and give passing grades. I know there’s nothing to be done about the private schools, but there certainly needs to be a halt to the blood-letting the charter schools are doing to the real public schools.
Daughterty County Schools have been run beyond selfish and now who pays again? Governor Deal or any governor of Georgia needs to step in with a realistic approach to education and help the public school classroom teachers to salvage what we can of what the administrators – local and state – have left us to work with. We in education don’t need anymore ivory towers. There’s been too much of that already.
catlady
July 21st, 2012
5:03 pm
c jae, did Deal give up the governorship back to Purdue? (I understand it is easy to get them confused)
The Good Life City
July 21st, 2012
5:28 pm
If you need any further explanation of what is wrong, check out this link to article in the Albany Herald today:
http://www.albanyherald.com/news/2012/jul/20/clergy-throw-support-behind-williams-brown/
Mandrake
July 21st, 2012
5:46 pm
I suggest that all readers take a stiff drink and visit open.georgia.gov to see what your school system does with money. Then, click on “Other Expenditure Information” and search away.
What has been printed about Dougherty is not even the tip of its iceberg. We are well beyond a “few bad apples” in Dougherty with a school system that won’t provide information under a freedom of information request to the press or even the BOE members. The school system is a great big jobs program involving unfettered, open nepotism and a web of friends taking care of friends to the detriment of the taxpayer. It will not follow basic rules and regulations including those it writes. The only hope for the system, if there is any, is a state takeover and perhaps a very large enema.
Fred in DeKalb
July 22nd, 2012
12:10 am
Mandrake is right! People in DeKalb and especially DSW like to talk about friends and family. They obviously don’t know the history or have not been to other parts of the state where this is a part of the culture. Yes, those is Doughtery did something wrong but where do you think they got this idea they could do something like this and get away with it?
Prof
July 22nd, 2012
11:59 am
If you look at the link provided above by The Good Life City, be sure to read the blog comments following the main article. Remarkable.
dudecrush
July 22nd, 2012
2:55 pm
Enter your comments here
SmartK12Funding
July 23rd, 2012
10:53 am
Transparency and accountability are key! And Georgia is lacking on both accounts. Nice to see the State stepping up to the challenge. Hope to see more of it, and hope to see more focus on ensuring how we spend our ed dollars. Now more than ever it is vital to be efficient and effective.
SmartK12Funding
July 23rd, 2012
11:02 am
@ Trapped Your comment is telling and a quiet nod to a serious problem in Georgia: the fact that a dismal education system does not make for an attractive place to grow or start businesses. For the sake of our students and citizens, something’s gotta give. It’s our job to ensure that our youth become productive members of society whether that means university, tech school, or straight to work. But too many of our kids are not even graduating…What if we changed things and followed through on Georgia’s bold step towards accountability and transparency and moved to focus funding on student outcomes? What could happen? http://bit.ly/NZidtq
Gerry Hill
July 23rd, 2012
2:53 pm
I worked in Child Neutrition here. By law, they were not allowed to audit applications-earnings etc., unless it was the Govt.’s random picked out ones. So a lot of the blame being thrown around-is from those not educated on the rules of this game.
Child Neutrition does need overhauling. When you encourage a program (Free Lunch) for money reasons, and not need- (For each child in free lunch- the Govt pays- say $1, and a child paying say ,65,)
Children were given what none of us would call a good breakfast- fast food junk, in the classroom, to count them as eating free…and numerous other too numerous items to mention- The Morals of the situation have gone to Hell.It definately needs to be changed also when these “needy” children, get a free lunch, and pay for what they really want-and don’t need, in the other line at lunch. It needs rehauling when a Mother would send her kindergarden kid to school the first day, with no lunch, and no money-knowing the School System will not let her child go hungry- just becase the child has NOT been approved yet for free lunch.
In this county-Welfare is a big, big bunch of folks not really needy-or telling the truth. If we had enough people to investigate- instead of intake- the money might be there for our needy old folks, and other really needy groups.
Mrs. Edwards-I have known over 40 years. I am so sorry for her, in what has happened with Velvet, and Edward-but as a Mother-over 50 years, I know we are not to blame for those ADULT children.
They have a right to go either way-and the responsibility is theirs. So quit throwing the rocks there. Judge her on her own merits for the office she has, and is going to try for..
skipper
July 23rd, 2012
3:37 pm
@Craig……no offense, but you have not been to Warrenton or Sparta lately…….yes there were past injustices, and incompetance knows no color, but many negative sterotypes are SO prevelant in these areas; and they (unfortunately) appear to be well earned. Once hurdles were cleared, it did not guarantee that competance to do the job would be a consideration. Albany suffers the same problem.
skipper
July 23rd, 2012
5:02 pm
p.s.;
This, again, is awful, but nobody would move to Sparta, Warrenton, or Albany for that matter as a relocation place if they had school age kids. Call it what you will, but it is a fact………how will these places attract businesses? And yes, I have been to all these places…..two of the three numerous, numerous times!
SGaTeechur
July 23rd, 2012
10:21 pm
Stereotypes are often, very often, based in fact. Unfortunate, but true. Albany is a disaster. People are afraid to go there to shop because of the thugs. It is scary. The school system is corrupt from the ground up…I know there are a few good people in the system, but they can make no changes nor try to correct things without the race card being slammed on the table. We heard for years and years about how the state would take over if schools did not perform to a certain level. I know that was in reference to test scores, but this system needs a state takeover the worst. Divide them by sexes and put department of corrections officers in every classroom to maintain order.
Pardon My Blog
July 24th, 2012
6:51 am
I lived in Albany and attended the schools there until the mid 70’s. Up until that point Albany was a great place to live. I have gone back many times to visit friends and family and have seen the deterioration and corruption (Shirley Sherrod’s husband was part of that) first hand. Unfortunately I see alot of the same in DeKalb.
skipper
July 24th, 2012
8:18 am
Maureen,
Yes, it sorta reeks of racism, but how exactly do you overcome the thug culture, etc. of the previously mentioned places??????? The majority rules; look what they have to show for it. Folks talk about honest dialogue? Outsiders in “lilly-white” areas say “Racists” but have NO experience in such a setting. Meanwhile, cities like Albany go to the dogs….
Pardon My Blog
July 24th, 2012
10:26 am
@ Gerry Hill – Child Neutrition, really? Nutrition means “The process of nourishing or being nourished, especially the process by which a living organism assimilates food and uses it for growth and for replacement of tissues”. Could not find Neutrition in the dictionary and you used it twice.