NO CHARGES AGAINST CLINTONDALE STAFF
School board votes to reinstate three who claim retaliation
In a controversial move, the Clintondale Board of Education has chosen not to forward a request for criminal prosecution against three longtime employees accused of misconduct charges.
The three were accused of accepting thousands of dollars for off-hours work from a third-party educational management company.
They say the investigation was retaliation for refusing to process reimbursement requests for alcohol, sunglasses and other items submitted by the superintendent and two school board members from a recent junket to California.
Following a lengthy meeting Monday night, in which two of the employees asked that their disciplinary hearing be held in public session, board members said they weren’t convinced the trio had any criminal intent as they had been told by their supervisor to do the work.
“We are satisfied with the board’s decision,” Lee Walmsley, human resources director, said Tuesday in a statement. “We have no further comment per the advisement of our legal counsel.”
The board also voted to reinstate the workers, who had been suspended with pay during an investigation into the actions in the south Clinton Township district. In addition to Walmsley, the accused officials were Sherry Moss, a payroll accountant, and Linda Klein, who oversees pupil accounting.
Board president Beverly LewisMoss was the sole vote against the two motions.
School boss lays out charges
Clintondale Superintendent Rodriguez Broadnax could not be reached for comment Tuesday. He had planned on forwarding the request for prosecution to the Michigan Attorney General’s Office for misconduct and violating the terms of their contract.
At issue was a report prepared by Recon Investigations of Bingham Farms, which conducted interviews and gathered facts surrounding the case. The district paid about $10,000 for the report.
A two-page summary was read at Monday’s meeting by the superintendent.
For several years, the school district had used ATS Educational Services of Clinton Township to recruit dozens of teachers and mentors for its virtual classes. The three administrators worked to integrate and fingerprint the ATS teachers, who were then considered Clintondale employees.
ATS would compensate the administrators, according to school officials.
But as word of the arrangement got out, numerous entities told Clintondale officials that accepting pay from a third party was not a good business model.
“The investigation found these individuals accepted money from ATS after they knew or should have known that the process the process was inappropriate and possibly illegal,” Broadnax said, reading from the Recon report.
He added the payments were sanctioned by the district “implicitly if not explicitly” for several years. In 2020, the Macomb Intermediate School District advised both district leaders, Walmsley, and Klein the process was not acceptable and possibly illegal.
The following year, Clintondale’s finance director instructed the district to “stop the practice immediately.”
“Ms. Walmsley and Ms. Klein decided regardless of the dis
dale’s finance director instructed the district to “stop the practice immediately.”
“Ms. Walmsley and Ms. Klein decided regardless of the district’s position, they were entitled to the additional funds and they deserved it,” Broadnax said from the report. “They arranged to receive the funds directly from ATS.”
Officials said the three, who have 60 combined years of experience, split a total of $8,625 three ways.
Responding to Walmsley’s repeated claims that the three were instructed to go along with the plan despite being told the practice was illegal, some school board members questioned why they proceeded.
“If I had the slightest inkling it was illegal, I wouldn’t do it,” said Beverly Lewis-Moss, the school board president.
Victims of retaliation
The three administrators say they are the victims of acting as whistleblowers and catching school board members and the superintendent using questionable spending habits.
“We feel we are being targeted by the superintendent,” Walmsley said during the disciplinary hearing. “We know too much and (Broadnax) wanted us out of the way.”
According to Walmsley, reimbursement requests from the superintendent, a school director and two unnamed board members from a national school board conference in San Diego included alcohol, sunglasses, personal items, a parking citation, gifts for Broadnax’s wife, and food that was higher than school board policy allowed.
Moss determined the alcohol and personal items failed to meet the threshold of school policy and refused to process them. It was not known how much alcohol was in question.
Walmsley said there were other improper matters involving Broadnax, including having school employees driving his children places, that were objected to.
In terms of the Recon probe, Walmsley filed a 1099 form independent contractors with the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of three women in order to pay taxes on the ATS payments.
According to Walmsley, who is the daughter of longtime former school board member Joan Walmsley, the three performed the work in off-school hours as instructed by past school leaders. The school officials told her Clintondale needed the per-pupil funding that would follow the teachers, she stated at Monday’s board meeting.
“We didn’t hide anything,” she said. “I was told to get them in the system, that we needed the FTEs and we need it in a timely manner, so that’s what I did. I was an at-will employee. I did what my supervisor told me to do.”
Walmsley said “there was no way” the trio could have processed the up to 60 teachers on district time. Due to budget cutbacks, many employee duties had increased.
Clintondale supporters and employees filled the meeting room for Monday’s meeting. More than 120 people were tuned into the Zoom video conferencing website.
Mark Titus, a former longtime school board member, called on district leaders to apologize to the three women for causing them stress in their lives. He said the current board president had missed nearly 20 board committee meetings, and questioned her dedication to students.
“You’re a disgrace to this community,” Titus said. “You’ve destroyed what we built.”
The day after the meeting, Clinton Township taxpayer Steven Williams said he was “pretty shocked” the district wasn’t pursuing charges. He wondered how the administrators could work with Broadnax after the kerfuffle.
“When you’re talking about illegal actions involving the district, that puts Clintondale at risk,” he said. “And now you’re putting them back into their positions. Clearly, that’s not a way forward. Their actions were found to be not above board.”