By Adam Pagnucco.
Yesterday afternoon, the county’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a memorandum finding that that Sargent Shriver Elementary School violated MCPS policy when it transferred grant funds to its Parent Teacher Association (PTA). Furthermore, according to the OIG, the PTA is refusing to return the money to MCPS.
In October 2023, the OIG received a complaint “detailing numerous examples of disfunction” within the Sargent Shriver ES PTA. The OIG’s authority does not cover private organizations. However, it does have authority to investigate the handling of county funds and the elementary school’s principal had transferred $4,998.66 in MCPS grant money (which originated from Kaiser Permanente) to the PTA. The principal did so with the guidance and permission of MCPS’s Internal Audit Unit. The OIG found that MCPS policy prohibits transfers of the kind made by the principal. The story does not stop there.
The grant money was intended to be used to update a staff lounge. Once the money was in possession of the PTA, here is the OIG’s account of what happened next.
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On September 4, 2023, after the grant project manager requested that the PTA release the grant funds to complete work on the lounge project, the new PTA treasurer reviewed the accounting transactions, and suggested an independent audit be conducted prior to releasing the funds. The PTA subsequently denied the project manager access to the Kaiser grant funds. On the same date, the PTA withdrew all funds from the PTA account, including the grant funds, and transferred them to Free State PTA presumably for safekeeping. This move officially rendered the funds inaccessible by SSES [Sargent Shriver Elementary School]. According to email correspondence between the PTA secretary and Free State PTA, the funds will be held until the PTA requests they be returned.
The grant project manager has attempted to engage with the PTA to recover the grant funds and move the staff lounge project forward, but the relationship has become contentious. The grant project manager advised that the PTA’s secretary informed them ”you will never see that money” even though the grant funds are clearly MCPS and SSES’s funds. SSES’s principal has also been unsuccessful in attempting to recover the funds from Free State since the PTA’s secretary continues to withhold approval. As of April 1, 2024, the grant funds remained locked away with Free State against the wishes of SSES leadership.
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Here is the OIG’s conclusion.
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We found that SSES violated MCPS policy by transferring grant funds to the PTA, an independent party outside of MCPS’s control. We further found, and are concerned, that the funds have not been spent and that the current PTA is preventing them from being returned to MCPS.
We encourage MCPS to take action to retrieve the grant funds from the PTA and either spend them on a project supported by the grant or return them to the grantor.
This report has been shared with the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office for consideration of allegations of improper financial management by the PTA.
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My take: The OIG makes clear that the money should not have been transferred to the PTA. The bigger problem now is that the PTA is refusing to give public grant money back to MCPS. That’s intolerable. By invoking the State’s Attorney’s Office, the OIG has sent notice to this PTA and its parent organization that they must return MCPS’s money or risk facing criminal prosecution.