Ellington

Over a year ago, a Jackson Public Schools employee warned supervisors that a private tutoring company may have overbilled the district by $400,000 or more. To date, JPS has not sought repayment, however, despite receiving citations from the state for lax oversight of tutoring companies.

The Jackson Free Press first revealed July 22 that one tutoring company, Jackson-based Gray & Associates, may have overbilled the district during the 2007-2008 school year by at least $117,990, which the company denies. District documents indicate that, at three middle schools—Chastain, Blackburn and Siwell—Gray & Associates' total bill to the district exceeded the maximum it could charge for the number of students it served.

However, correspondence between district employees, which the JFP examined last week at district offices in response to a public records request, shows the discrepancy could have exceeded $400,000.

Royce Smith has coordinated the district's tutoring program, called Supplemental Educational Services, which uses federal funds to pay for private tutoring at under-performing schools, since the fall of 2007. On Sept. 29, 2008, he sent an e-mail to several district higher-ups, including Superintendent Lonnie Edwards. Smith alleged that the district overpaid Gray & Associates by at least $400,000 for tutoring during the 2007-2008 school year. Gray & Associates submitted incomplete sign-in sheets, he said, and did not itemize its tutoring hours. State regulations require tutoring companies to bill school districts based on an hourly, per-student rate.

Smith also stated in the e-mail that he had not seen invoices for the 2007-2008 year until September 2008.

A month later, on Oct. 29, 2008, Smith formally requested a legal opinion from JPS attorneys, after District Counsel JoAnne Shepherd asked him by e-mail to complete a request form. In his legal request, Smith alleged that Gray & Associates had overbilled the district using "fraudulent paperwork."

"The amounts that were over paid (sic) may exceed $400,000," Smith warned again.

Smith's request asked for a response "as soon as possible." The JPS District Counsel's Office did not include any response to Smith's request in the documents it provided the Jackson Free Press, though.

As of press time, Shepherd had not returned calls.

Smith and his supervisor, Cynthia Johnson-Armstrong, have previously referred all requests for comment to the superintendent and did not return calls this week.

JPS Superintendent Lonnie Edwards told the Jackson Free Press July 31 that the district has not asked Gray & Associates for any repayment. The district is following the state's lead on its tutoring program, he said. On Tuesday, he reiterated that position.

"We have no new information," Edwards said.

Edwards also said that he was not "familiar" with Smith's Sept. 29 e-mail alleging problems with the district's tutoring program.

"If it was that time last year, I may have forwarded e-mails to (then-Deputy Superintendent) Dr. (Bonita) Potter, because I'd just gotten here," Edwards said.

Juan Gray, owner and executive director of Gray & Associates and the Terry police chief, told the Jackson Free Press July 20 that JPS has not asked him to repay any money. Any apparent discrepancies were a result of confusion, Gray said. The state did not ask him to provide detailed documentation until midway through the 2007-2008 school year, he said.

Quentin Ransburg, director of Mississippi Department of Education office that supervises all Supplemental Educational Services programs in the state, has said that "fee for services" has always been the state's requirement. In early June 2009, Ransburg's office delivered a report stating that the district "misappropriated federal funds" in paying Gray & Associates without verifying the correct fee for services. Days later, it retracted that report and delivered a second, defanged version. This second report only cited the district for not ensuring that only eligible, low-income students received tutoring.

MDE spokesman Pete Smith told the Jackson Free Press that this second report was the only official version, and the previous version had been a draft. "The official report stated that there needed to be better internal controls and better documentation," Smith said.

The "official" state document made no mention of overpayment.

District Counsel Shepherd provided correspondence and other documents for inspection by the Jackson Free Press on Thursday, Aug. 13. When asked to provide copies, however, Shepherd sent JFP Editor Donna Ladd a letter asking for $347.70 to compensate the district for reviewing and redacting student names and other personal information.

According to her letter, Shepherd spent 5.5 hours reviewing the documents, and along with her staff, spent another 2.5 hours redacting. She charged an hourly rate of $50.76 for the reviewing and $27.41 for redacting.

State law allows public bodies to charge "reasonably calculated" fees "to reimburse it for, and in no case to exceed, the actual cost of searching, reviewing and/or duplicating" records. Mississippi's public-records law requires public bodies to collect fees before complying with a request, however.

The Jackson Free Press challenged the fees in an Aug. 25 letter to the district, saying that JPS is "artificially inflating the costs beyond the reach of the citizenry or a free press."

Previous Comments

ID

151265

Comment

This is ironic, coming on the tail of JPS's desire to log 16 section land to "maximize income for the district."

Author

jrow42

Date

2009-08-26T14:46:37-06:00

ID

151267

Comment

Sad that there isn't more outrage about this.

Author

Jeff Lucas

Date

2009-08-26T15:57:32-06:00

ID

151269

Comment

Hey, public Melton outrage took a while, too, but it caught up.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2009-08-26T16:21:32-06:00

ID

151303

Comment

What's more of a tragedy is that several of the schools cited in the article are no longer receiving SES funds and cannot provide tutoring. I have some kids there that need it and it isn't available this school year.

Author

Lori G

Date

2009-08-27T12:40:01-06:00