The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "school district superintendent" ...
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A Damaged District
For more than a year, Zahira Torres overcame obstacle after obstacle to document one of the worst school cheating scandals in the nation's history. Where other cheating scandals involved altering accountability tests, the El Paso Independent School District gamed the state and federal accountability systems by targeting Mexican immigrant students. In a number of cases, district officials refused to enroll students or pushed out students already enrolled -- denying countless students their constitutional right to an education. In other cases, they arbitrarily reclassified grade levels or altered transcripts, all in an attempt to keep students out of the testing pool. Torres' reporting sparked numerous results. The superintendent who masterminded the scheme went to federal prison. The state education agency removed the school board. And when Torres' reporting documented that the state was aware of details of the cheating in 2010 and cleared the district anyway, the new education commissioner ordered an independent investigation of how the agency missed the cheating.
Tags: schools; scandals; education; school board
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Charter School Investigation
Charter schools were created to bring educational innovation. Instead, some operators used the schools for private gain. Findings of this Philadelphia Inquirer series include high salaries that surpassed what was paid to district superintendents; operators collecting multiple salaries; operators hiring unqualified family members at high salaries; operators creating other entities to do business with the charter so they could collect additional funds; operators acting as charter school landlords and using the money to buy property for other businesses; operators running a charter through a for-profit company that gets all revenue and keeps the surplus.
Tags: charter schools; public education; school reform; charter school law; fraud; Philadelphia Academy; private gain
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Hillsborough County School District Land Investigation
The ninth largest U.S. school district, Hillsborough County (FL), in 2006 was "growing fast enough to fill five new schools" per year. To meet the demand, Hillsborough county used the services of 4 private real estate brokers, without using bids, in violation of its own regulations. Three of the four brokers have records of criminal, legal and financial problems. Some of those brokers simultaneously represented the sellers, or flipped the land themselves, resulting in land purchases often made substantially above appraisal values. Reporters from the St. Petersburg Times documented swampland purchases, and school sites surrounded by the homes of sexual predators.
Tags: land; school board; school district superintendent; real estate brokers; realtors; swampland; bidding practices; state FOI; land flipping; rezoning applications; condemnation; assessments; appraisals; financial investigations; land records; wetland maps; FBI investigation; Florida Department of Law Enforcement; Excel; Matthew B. Cox; Chester B. Luney; Fred Edmister; National Realty Associates; school planning; Wilson-Miller; Florida Real Estate Commission; 2606 East Caracus Land Trust; Laurence E. Fuentes; Fuentes and Kreischer Title Co.; Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation
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Questionable course
The Star-Telegram reveals how the Fort Worth school district spent $15 million for a largely untested computer math program that the superintendent proclaimed would eliminate the need for qualified math teachers. The program, doubted initially, ultimately fell short of promised achievements, yet superintendent Thomas Tocco charged ahead, blaming teachers, failing to inform the school board of problems, improperly diverting Title 1 money from the program and lobbying Congress to earmark money for the program maker, and persuading other school districts to buy the problematic program. Many educators endorsing the program had financial ties to the company.
Tags: CAR; Title 1; Fort Worth; Congress; Department of Education; Thomas Tocco; I CAN Learn; JRL Enterprises
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Blank Check
This investigation began when Eisenstadt realized that the budgets for the Manhattan Beach Unified School District didn't make a lot of sense. He found that poor planning and lavish spending cause the school district to run out of money before it completed the almost fifteen million dollars in projects that it promised that public during bond elections. In most cases the construction projects cost far more that the public was aware. Furthermore, Eisenstadt found that school board officials spent thousands of taxpayer dollars on personal trips and expenses.
Tags: school board; school district; superintendent; fraud; budgets; bond elections
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School District Scandal, Oakland County, Michigan
The Detroit Free Press reviewed more than 12,000 pages of records from an affluent school district and found that the district was wasting millions of dollars that were intended for special education students and instead spent the money on private-industry deals. James Redmond, the former superintendent, and other district officials created companies that provided worthless services and unused equipment, they fooled taxpayers into paying more money and then spent the money on a building that was meant to headquarter their private enterprise deals. After Redmond's reign as superintendent, the once-prosperous district is $20.4 million in debt.
Tags: James Redmond; embezzlement; Accountability 101. Oakland County
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Roslyn public school embezzlement: a collection of stories
The discovery that a school finance chief had taken money from the district led to further discoveries of embezzlement throughout the school system and all the way up to the superintendent. Dummy companies, misuse of school district credit cards, funneling money for personal expenses and even an accounting firm preforming inadequate audits were all revealed during this series of stories.
Tags: embezzlement; accounting; larceny; audit; school district; public school; Long Island
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School superintendent's super-sized pensions
This story in the Chicago Sun-Times, describes how loopholes in the state laws allows school superintendents to get hefty incomes and retirement packages. Their allowances often include cars or housing allowances as well. As the reporter found out many of the retirement packages were higher than those given to governors and all this money came from the taxpayers pocket.
Tags: School district superintendents; state laws; pensions for state employees; pensions for school superintendents; retirement benefits for school superintendents; retirement benefits
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The Super: L.A. Superintendent Roy Romer may be the most talented man ever to run a big-city school district. He's also bound to fail. There's a lesson in that.
Article talks about the challenges facing Roy Romer, former three-term democratic governor of Colorado, when he took over as superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). According to the story, "Romer had no constituency and no more knowledge of L.A. than a tourist. But he had the itch. 'I'm a challenge junkie,' he said. 'This is the hardest job in America.'
Tags: superintendent; Los Angeles; Los Angeles Unified School District; LAUSD; democratic governor; Colorado; Washington; Roy Romer; L.A.; schools; school district; classroom; administration; school reform
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Mid Kansas Independent Academy
An "entrepreneurial" public school superintendent with an MPA thought he would come up with a way to prop up declining enrollment in his district and garner a bigger portion of state education dollars. The district opened a public school for home school students. The Academy exists without a classroom. The district received full funding from the state for each student enrolled in the Academy. In turn, the Academy gave parents $2,000 to buy supplies. Parents were buying religious based books, a violations of state law.
Tags: Mid Kansas Independent Academy; home schooling; education money; Department of Education; public schools; TRANSCRIPT; TAPE; TV