“Look at the decisions they made in closing the schools,” Byrd-Hill said. “They moved schools that were performing well and put them in underperforming schools.” IDA BYRD-HILL is one of many frustrated parents who feel that Detroit Public Schools has been on the wrong course for a very long time, without any serious intervention. — Andre Smith photos

An audit conducted by the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Education has made it clear to Detroit Public Schools that it must show documentation of how it spent $17 million of Title 1 Funds or pay back that amount to the federal government.

The audit report covered the District’s use of Title 1 funds from 2004 to 2006, totaling $53,530,913, and partly blames the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) for not providing adequate oversight of federal grant funds distributed to the District.

The report was contained in a confidential memo obtained by the Michigan Chronicle in its investigation of DPS finances under past administrations of Dr. Kenneth Burnley and William Coleman. Burnley served as DPS CEO from 2000 to 2005. His tenure, critics say, was marked by exorbitant spending on office decoration. He was replaced by his top aide, Coleman, who ran the District from 2005 to 2007. He stepped down after the Detroit Board of Education conducted a nationwide search for a new superintendent and hired Dr. Connie Calloway.

“DPS did not have adequate policies and procedures in place to review Title 1 contracts, invoices, employee insurance benefit costs, and adjusting journal entries to ensure they were adequately supported, reasonable and allowable,” the audit found.

The $17 million in OIG findings “is related to accounting for time and effort documentation of kindergarten teachers ($11.5 million), Michigan Early Childhood Education program teachers ($3.6 million) and substitute teachers ($1.9 million) who were paid from Title 1, served Title I-eligible students and worked on allowable activities.”

DPS and MDE staff, according to the memo, are still working on gathering documentation, policies and procedures on the remaining $17 million that involves verification of time for kindergartens, Early Childhood and substitute teachers.

Ida Byrd-Hill, founder of Uplift Inc., an educational non-profit group and a parent of two DPS students, said the auditing of Title 1 Funds only confirms the longstanding perception about DPS — that it was more about shady business than educating Detroit’s children.

“The last administration did some dirty dealing,” Byrd-Hill said, referring to the immediate past District superintendent Coleman who was indicted on corruption charges by the federal government. The government later dropped the charges of bribery, money laundering and brought a new charge against him in the Dallas Independent School District federal corruption investigation.

From 2002 to 2007, Coleman’s wife, Deborah Broderick, was in charge of the District’s Early Childhood Education program, one of the programs cited in the audit report for a questionable $3.6 million spending without documentation as part of the $17 million findings.

Dr. Carla Scott, Detroit School Board president, said, “My understanding is that they are still trying to find supported documentation for this money. If we find any evidence of wrongdoing, we are going to pursue prosecution aggressively. Quite frankly, the reality is that this board and this superintendent have tried to correct a lot of things that were not under our watch and continue to move forward to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Byrd Hill said, “Education is the only way to get out of poverty. Any time you deny our kids an education, you are denying them the opportunity to get out of poverty. The problem I have now is that you have educated people who are denying our kids the opportunity to get out of poverty.

“Every year, the federal government disburses millions of dollars to more than 50,000 public schools across the country to use Title I funds “to provide additional academic support and learning opportunities to help low-achieving children master challenging curricula and meet state standards in core academic subjects.”

This year alone, DPS’ Title I Fund is over $130 million.

On its website, the U.S. Department of Education stated that its Title I program “reaches about 12.5million students enrolled in both public and private schools. Title I funds may be used for children from preschool age to high school, but most of the students served (65 percent) are in grades 1 through 6; another 12 percent are in preschool and kindergarten programs.”

Byrd-Hill noted that the District spends half of its Title I fund on the schools and the other half goes into a reserve.

“The kids do not get access to all of that money,” she said. “So technically they should never have a deficit. That’s not fair to the children of Detroit.“

Byrd-Hill deplored unnecessary spending under past DPS administrations, an issue that has always been the rallying point for many education activists who protested against Burnley after he took over as DPS CEO following the 1999 state takeover of the District.

During the takeover administration, Burnley had absolute power to approve all contracts worth more than $250,000 without board approval. He borrowed more than $200 million from the state. The District had a $90 million surplus at the time of the state takeover and ended in a deficit after the five-year takeover ended.

By comparison to the School District of Philadelphia, DPS has more personnel at central office, according to Byrd-Hill.

“DPS has 238 curriculum administrators for 101, 000 students. In Philadelphia they have 100 curriculum administrators for 333,000 students,” she said. “We (Detroit) are really top- heavy now. How do you have more administrators than a bigger school district?”

Overcrowded classrooms, Byrd-Hill said, could be addressed if the school board was doing what it was elected to do.

“It starts with the board,” she said. “One of my kid’s classrooms had 80 kids last year. They (the school board) would rather have 80 kids in the classroom when you could alleviate that by having fewer administrators. You cannot keep taking care of your friends at the expense making class sizes bigger.”

Byrd-Hill said she is considering taking her children out of the District.

After a year in office, she said, superintendent Calloway is being set up to fail because most of the District’s current problems were created “by an elected board led by Jimmy Womack.”