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D.C. School Board Member May Abandon Campaign
D.C. school board Vice President Carolyn N. Graham, who is running for president, says the disputed memo "casts a shadow."
(By Jonathan Ernst For The Washington Post)
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Graham said she turned over the memo this week to the D.C. inspector general's office.
Patterson blames Graham and Cafritz for ignoring numerous warning signs about Belton and defending her reputation. Patterson said she contacted the chief financial officer and asked officials not to authorize money to Belton's office unless it verified the invoices. In April, Patterson said, "I was asked by the board president and board vice president to please rescind what I had said about Belton. They didn't like the criticism of Dr. Belton's office."
Graham said she did sign a memo at Belton's request in May. That memo, she said, was addressed to the school system's then-chief financial officer, John Musso. "I knew if he got it, he would have taken the requests through the process" to verify the legitimacy of the requested expenditures, she said.
But the memo that Graham says was forged was sent to someone who reported to Musso in the chief financial officer's office. The chief financial officer's office paid the $44,251 requested in the memo.
Cafritz and other board members said they voted in a closed session Monday to fire Belton, who had been on paid administrative leave since June. Members said she was dismissed because of poor job performance, not because of the investigation. They said she did not always show up for work and often filed late reports that had to be redone.
The action came five months after the FBI raided the school board's charter school office as well as Belton's home and the Equal Access property on Underwood Place.
Belton's attorney, Vincent H. Cohen Jr., did not return calls.
Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that Equal Access had submitted invoices for $350,000 in expenses.
According to one memo of understanding between the charter office and Equal Access in August 2005, the company would provide assistance to charter schools that did not make adequate yearly progress in reading and math under the No Child Left Behind law. The assistance included help with lesson plans, homework assignments and curricula.
About a month later, Equal Access submitted an invoice to Belton's office for $43,000 for work that it described as consulting with 15 schools and training language arts teachers. One school was Booker T. Washington Public Charter School in Columbia Heights.
Principal Richard Jackson said he had never heard of Equal Access, although the invoice said the school had received help in reading and math. "None of that ever happened," said Jackson, the principal for three years. "I didn't see anybody who came in do any of those things."
Staff writer Carol D. Leonnig and staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.
