INDIANAPOLIS | Four Gary high school students took more than an educational experience away from a career conference in Nashville, Tenn.
In addition to sandals, souvenirs and tickets to a pricey buffet cruise, the teacher leading the trip sent each student home with an iPod, shelling out nearly $1,200 in school funds on the portable audio players, state auditors disclosed recently.
The State Board of Accounts two-year audit of Gary Community School Corp. cites several other examples of improper spending by officials at individual schools but none are as lavish as the July 2005 health occupational studies conference in Nashville.
A Gary Area Career Center instructor and a retired teacher -- neither of whom are named in the audit -- bought themselves shorts, shoes, skirts and tops, sending the center $126.99 in bills. And they shelled out $376.95 for themselves and the four students to take a buffet-style lunch cruise on the General Jackson Showboat, a 300-foot paddle-wheel riverboat that cruises the Cumberland River, the audit alleges.
The teacher was issued two $1,750 advance checks from the center's cosmetology fund and provided receipts upon completion of the trip. State auditors say the teacher spent $1,168.95 of the $3,500 to purchase five iPod Nanos and accessories for the four students.
The audit also notes that the four students and two staffers each had their own $171-a-night hotel room, with a federal vocational education grant tapped to cover the $5,133.75 tab for their five-night stay.
The auditors reported uncovering another $1,572 in improper spending at Banneker Elementary, where student activity funds were used to purchase a full-page ad congratulating a local pastor, a $97 floral arrangement for the principal's birthday and 10 tickets to a $50-per-plate political fund-raising dinner for Richard Ligon, a candidate for Lake County sheriff.
The state pointed out another $156 in alleged improper spending at Bailly Middle School, where student activity funds paid for a prayer breakfast and an end-of-year party for office aides, auditors said.
A Gary schools spokeswoman didn't respond Friday to questions about the audit. But in letter to state auditors, Superintendent Mary Steele-Agee stated that those responsible for the improper spending have been asked to repay the district.
"We have requested repayment of the funds from the former career center director, former Bailly principal and Banneker's principal," she wrote. "We will continue with annual mandatory training for administrators regarding the allowable expenditures per (state) guidelines."
