COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed again they are investigating the finances of the Lee County School District.
News 19 received several copies of an email sent by Dr. Wanda Andrews, the Lee County Superintendent on Tuesday, May 7th, after our original story aired where we reported the investigation.
In the letter she stated to teachers and staff that SLED is not investigating Lee County School District.
On Monday, we confirmed with SLED over the phone that there is an ongoing investigation into allegations involving funds within the Lee County School District.
In order to double check our reporting we reached out to SLED again on Wednesday and received an email explaining that "The S.C. Law Enforcement Division began an investigation into allegations involving grant funds within the Lee County School District January 29, 2019."
In the email to teachers, Dr. Andrews also explained that Sanya Moses, Board Chairperson, issued a statement in reference to the press release and report from school board member Regitt James. Saying "Regitt James is acting alone, without the approval or support of the lee county board of trustees."
The statement was also included in the original report on News 19.
Dr. Andrews explained that Barbara Champagne is the grant evaluator, one of several paid positions prescribed in the School Improvement Grant approved by the state department of education.
Our Deep Dive team looked over the School Improvement Grant application by Lee County School District and verified that there is a grant evaluator position, that is paid between $30,000-$35,000 a year per school. There are three schools listed in the grant application.
The role of the evaluator is to collaborate with district and school personnel to develop an evaluation plan. That includes looking at results from state tests, student surveys and interviews with teachers.
According to the application, the evaluator is expected to go to the district office several times per month... And also provide an evaluation report at the end of the year.
We also contacted Dr. Robert Petrulis, Principal Consultant for EPRE. Consulting, LLC, who was named grant evaluator on the original proposal in 2016.
He explained in an email that two years ago he worked with Barbara Champagne and "provided assistance to the Lee County School District by helping to write their School Improvement Grant proposal. In the proposal, I was named to step into the role of external evaluator of the project. However, when the District received the funding, one of the administrators told me that they had decided not to use my services. That was last contact I had with them."
according to Regitt James' original press release on the allegations, he believes that Champagne's work in that role was never completed.
"It's something that they are trying to hide or keep away from me for some reason or other," says James. "That's why I asked for an investigation so that we could find out really what's going on."
Dr. Andrews explained that she served Clarendon County at the request of Champagne, as a consultant when she was appointed superintendent. And that this was also approved by both school boards and the state department of education.
News 19 was able to confirm that the Lee County School Board did approve Champagne's role, and in a September 18, 2017 meeting, explained that Champagne would be visiting the district twice a month with Dr. David Long from the state department of education.
Lastly, there was a claim that we did not reach out to Champagne nor Dr. Andrews about these allegations. However, several emails were sent between May 2nd and Monday, May 6, 2019 to both the Clarendon One School District and the Lee County School District for comment.
We also sent another request for comment to Dr. Andrews on Wednesday.