School & District Management

Chicago School Board Investigates Its Own Spending

By Dakarai I. Aarons — November 25, 2009 1 min read
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Chicago’s mayorally appointed school board is launching a second internal investigation into how its members spend expense-account money.

The school district’s inspector general had begun such work after the Chicago Tribune started asking questions about expenditures, including those of board president Michael Scott. Scott was found dead last week and his death was ruled a suicide.

The interim board president told the Tribune that after seeing some of the initial documents compiled as a result of the newspaper’s request, the board felt hiring a former federal prosecutor to do a review was prudent.

Board members are allowed to spend $24,000 a year, and the board president $36,000, levels that were increased dramatically under Scott’s brief second tenure as board president, which began in mid-March.

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A version of this news article first appeared in the District Dossier blog.