Corruption in the Detroit school system runs deep

In the end, a school system that has seen more than its share of hardship, found that a number of people charged with trying to make the schools, and the lives of their students better, were engaging in rampant amounts of fraud and subsequently lining their own pockets.

Every year it is likely at least one corruption case will be either prosecuted or investigated in at least one school district somewhere in America. Yet few may reach the level of one corruption case that rocked the Detroit Public Schools, that involved a dozen principals, one school administrator, one vender, and spanned an estimated four years.

In the end, a school system that has seen more than its share of hardship, found that a number of people charged with trying to make the schools, and the lives of their students better, were engaging in rampant amounts of fraud and subsequently lining their own pockets.

On June 1st of this year, what was believed to be the last in a string of perpetrators, was sentenced to two years in jail, for her participation in a scheme to defraud the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) system.

Josette Buendia, 51, a former principal at Bennett Elementary School in Detroit, Michigan was found guilty of bribery and conspiracy to commit same. According to the Office of the District Attorney for Michigan’s Eastern District, Buendia “knowingly submitted fraudulent invoices” to DPS for the district to pay Norman Shy of Allstate Sales, a school supply distributor, in order to receive rewards in tens of thousands of dollars in kickbacks.

Buendia, as did a dozen of her colleagues working for DPS, submitted invoices to DPS to purchase goods, like supplemental teaching materials and other school supplies that either never arrived or only arrived in-part. In return, 12 principals and one administrator would receive rewards in the forms of gift cards, cash, and other types of kickbacks.

This particular scheme was going on from presumably four years, from 2011-2015, but similar forms of corruption may have been occurring since as far back as 2009. All total, Detroit Public Schools was bilked out of approximately $2.7 million dollars. According to David P. Gelios, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Division of the FBI’s Public Corruption Task Force these individuals “used their position as educators and leaders to enrich themselves at the expense of their students and the Detroit Public School system.”

Buendia in particular, was convicted of receiving approximately $46,000 in cash and gift cards. Rewards like these were distributed among 11 other public school principals in the Detroit-area and included one school administrator, Assistant Superintendent Clara Flowers, who is believed to have received a total of $1 million dollars in rewards, which may have included a new roof and gutters for her house.

These illicit activities seem even more appalling and egregious after the well-publicized dilapidated conditions of many of Detroit schools has come to light in recent years. Student often attend schools and sit in classrooms whose conditions are either completely deplorable or in varying degrees of disrepair.

Some students are made to sit in classrooms that are infested with bugs and rodents, and some that go without heat in the wintertime. As reported by the Detroit Free Press, U.S. District Attorney, Barbara McQuade, who rightly said, “the real victims are students and families who attend Detroit Public Schools.” U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts called this “one of the most puzzling cases.”

Notably this, and other similar kinds of fraudulent activity, may have been on-going since 2009 when vender, Norman Shy of Allstate Sales first came under scrutiny from the district. He reportedly faxed six invoices for school supplies from six different companies from the same fax machine. It appears Shy, who himself was sentenced to five years in jail, had discovered a way to circumvent Detroit School District’s purchasing rules, that limited transactions to $2,500 per purchase, by using multiple companies and submitting invoices on their behalf. Shy was never reprimanded and was allowed to remain as a vender for Allstate Sales.

Detroit Public School’s spokeswoman Michelle Zdrodowski points out, Shy was also under scrutiny for other incidents like one involving a building administrator accused for paying for goods before they were delivered. This is what’s commonly referred to as a “no-no.” Shy was again the focus of another inquiry into a similar incident in 2014 of the same type involving a principal.

Much of the fraud came under the guise of the “emergency management system,” that allowed principals the authority to order supplies directly. Most of these illicit activities were under the watch of former Emergency Finance Manager Robert Bobb, until the new Emergency Manager, Steven Rhodes eventually put an end to the practice. Rhodes installed a new protocol that now requires more than one person to sign-off on emergency purchases. Rhodes also re-instituted the Office of the Inspector General, now headed by Bernadette Kakooza. This office was inexplicably dismantled in 2015.

Yet more than the money lost, what was also tragically damaged is the trust of already beleaguered students and parents witnessing a school district in rapid decline. They watch their children, day after day, attend schools that are virtually falling apart, and that have become an indicative and insipid reminder of a city that is in the midst of equal amounts of dilapidation.

During the sentencing of Beverly Campbell, one of the few principals that showed any remorse for their behavior, Judge Victoria Roberts framed it best when she said, “This is totally unacceptable, particularly in a district like Detroit, which is suffering.” It may in fact be some time before parent and students of Detroit’s schools can regain any amount of confidence in the legitimacy of the city’s educators and administrators.