After helming oversight of Chicago Public Faculties through the tumult of the COVID-19 pandemic and amid a sea change within the district’s dealing with of sexual misconduct complaints, Will Fletcher resigned as CPS inspector basic, efficient final Friday.
Beneath Fletcher’s four-year tenure, the Workplace of the Inspector Normal uncovered a number of patterns of fraud and monetary mismanagement in CPS and expanded its Sexual Allegations Unit, which is dedicated to investigating alleged adult-on-student sexual misconduct.
Whereas stress between CPS leaders, the lecturers union and Mayor Brandon Johnson has just lately escalated into requires a brand new CEO, and a mediator as CPS and CTU negotiate a brand new contract, the IG’s workplace has remained unbiased of district politics and the personnel change is barely as a consequence of a “once-in-a-lifetime” alternative to tackle a brand new function, Fletcher stated.
The Board of Schooling will vote on a decision Thursday acknowledging that Deputy Inspector Normal Amber Nesbitt has stepped into Fletcher’s function as performing inspector basic.
Fletcher stated he’ll subsequent launch a brand new inspector basic’s workplace, answerable for overseeing the Gateway Improvement Fee, an company created by the states of New York and New Jersey to handle a bunch of infrastructure tasks that may price no less than $16 billion and entail bridge, rail and tunnel tasks amongst each states.
“I beloved being the inspector basic for Chicago Public Faculties,” stated Fletcher, a CPS alumni and mum or dad. “Over the past four-plus years, we’ve been capable of construct a staff and construct an workplace that has responded to the amount of complaints that we obtain and has been capable of do impactful investigations that actually matter to the varsity district.”
Revelations involving district funds that the IG’s workplace has delivered to gentle lately embrace Paycheck Safety Program fraud amongst CPS staff; the lack of tens of hundreds of expertise units, cumulatively value thousands and thousands; failures to confirm fraudulent requests for additional pay; and almost $30 million in funds CPS made with out situations to bus distributors who laid off drivers on the onset of the pandemic, reasonably than paying to maintain them on workers, as CPS had supposed.
The OIG additionally fashioned its Sexual Allegations Unit, often known as the SAU, in 2018, after a Chicago Tribune report uncovered conflicts of curiosity in investigations previously helmed by the CPS Legislation Division. Citing “appalling” districtwide “failures” in CPS’ dealing with of sexual abuse allegations, the U.S. Division of Schooling’s Workplace of Civil Rights entered the district right into a legally binding settlement in 2019, mandating reforms and federal monitoring.
The OIG now investigates all adult-to-student sexual misconduct complaints and refers instances involving alleged student-to-student sexual misconduct to CPS’ Workplace of Pupil Protections.
Fletcher famous that CPS is the one Ok-12 faculty district that has fashioned an investigative unit that addresses the “gulf between the varieties of incidents that the police or that legislation enforcement will examine, and the varieties of incidents which might be nonetheless critical sufficient to be investigated and dealt with in a accountable, thorough approach.”
Fletcher, who was appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot in June 2020, stated he’d like dad and mom to know that each grievance is taken severely. “There’s loads of consideration paid to every allegation. There are loads of assets invested in attending to the underside of every allegation,” Fletcher stated, noting there’s been a “main change” in “elevating the sense of accountability that each one CPS staff must report suspected misconduct.”
Fletcher stated there stays what he calls a “stubbornly resilient” subset of adults affiliated with CPS who proceed to be the topic of allegations — extra usually involving inappropriate interactions with college students than main crimes. “That’s going to take loads of work,” Fletcher stated, expressing confidence in Nesbitt’s management and the district’s respect for the independence of the OIG.
“Even when the investigations that we current to the board symbolize systemic difficulties, challenges, issues, I’ve all the time believed that they understood the place we’re coming from, and that it is smart why we’re elevating the problems that we’re elevating,” Fletcher stated.
