{"id":58138,"date":"2023-06-15T16:46:40","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T20:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=58138"},"modified":"2023-06-15T17:17:01","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T21:17:01","slug":"lee-county-school-board-audit-findings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2023\/06\/lee-county-school-board-audit-findings\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee County School Board audit findings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

In the recent Florida Auditor\u2019s report again local advocates have been successful in having the auditor look at their complaints of fraud, waste and abuse. If not for the hard work of many advocates and whistleblowers protecting public funds and advocating for transparency many of these violations would go unnoticed and would be purposely ignored by the School Board. This is the third Florida Auditor\u2019s report that we have been able to participate in and presently we are working on the Federal complaint which I hope brings forth transparency and exposes the misconduct of the district. Do not believe what public officials from the district and the public communication department of the Lee County School District is feeding the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

—–Original Message—–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2021 9:18 PM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To: BoardOffice <BoardOffice@LeeSchools.net>; Giovannelli, Melisa <MelisaWG@LeeSchools.net>; Savage, Dr. Kenneth <KennethAS@LeeSchools.net>; Spiro, Dr. Jeffrey <JeffSS@LeeSchools.Net>; Fischer, Mary <MaryBF@LeeSchools.net>; Vaughn, Elizabeth <ElizabethSV@LeeSchools.net>; Gittens, Gwynetta <GwynettaSG@LeeSchools.net>; Lloyd Jr., Roger <RogerWL@LeeSchools.Net>; Florida Auditor <flaudgen@aud.state.fl.us><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subject: Unemployment payments complaint<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*******************************************************<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTICE: This message originated from outside the District’s network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*******************************************************<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ufeffBoard Members:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you seen the list of employees that collected unemployment while they were also being paid by your Human Resources department during Covid in the spring of 2020?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Unemployment determined that those employees should have not been paid and requested to be reimbursed, due to the fault of your Human Resources Department who authorized those payments without verifying the status of the employees involved. Those funds should have never been authorized. The amount I was told is approximately 1 million dollars or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is just another example of the ineptitude and incompetence of your oversight and the failures of your superintendent in properly supervising and placing the best employees in the right positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are all the transgressions of the superintendent forgiven at the end of each year? As there have been so many since he has been the superintendent and nothing has ever been done to hold him accountable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you aware of the budget cuts school districts are going to face this year. Allowing these mistakes to continue without any objection makes this board culpable and negligent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this district was actually being managed by a real board and CEO, all of you would have been removed for mismanagement of funds from the corporation. All the share holders would demand your resignations. All of you will be responsible for running this district financially into the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope you have made the connection that sales tax money comes from sales. With the rate of unemployment now increasing and the poverty levels also rising, your capital funds will also be impacted. Therefore, proceed in the creation of a Taj Mahal school on 70 acres. Forget that millions of dollars were expended on the Williams property to build that school originally there and it was abandoned to appease a board member and her associates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cost of fill and monthly maintenance for such a large property of wetlands will require more custodians, sprinklers, lawn care, cameras, and security personnel. I don\u2019t believe anyone on the school board considered this. Nor have you considered the wear and tear and increased costs of upkeep due to the additional use of the facilities by the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you know that after Estero High School was built, it was mentioned that they would not build another school like it due to the additional annual costs of maintenance because of the added courtyard?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you know that the wrong security system and cameras were originally installed at Bonita Springs High School which cost the tax payers millions of dollars to change? Have you asked what is the cost for the up keep of Bonita Springs High School?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What will you do when the sales tax revenue is not generating funds as you expected? As you have proven in the past you would rather allow the other schools in North Fort Myers, Dunbar, Riverdale and Lehigh to forgo any repairs in order to appease one board member from Estero? The latter is the most probable as the district has never exhibited fair practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the recent Florida Auditor\u2019s report again local advocates have been successful in having the auditor look at their complaints of fraud, waste and abuse. If not for the hard… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":58139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32,85],"tags":[2384],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58138"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58143,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58138\/revisions\/58143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}