The Columbus Dispatch (Ohio) - by Bill Bush

Nineteen Columbus City Schools employees gave incorrect information on federal applications for free or reduced-price lunches for their children, saying they made less money than they really do, an audit by the district has found.

In at least one case, the employee saved $520 over the last school year.

An additional 74 applications were deemed suspect — containing “potential questionable income,” according to the audit — but the district’s review of those was stopped dead in its tracks because the form was filled out by someone other than the district employee.

Because of that, district investigators were concerned that they could face fines or jail time if the application revealed a student’s eligibility for a free lunch to someone who wasn’t entitled to the information, the audit said.

The district didn’t release the names of the 19. Superintendent Gene Harris said today that she doesn’t know what positions they hold or whether any is a high-paid employee.

“ I can’t say exactly,” Harris said after the report was released to the district's audit committee tonight. Harris went on to say that the federal lunch program has privacy rules that might prohibit her from saying anything more.

“ I don’t know all the circumstances at this point, but I never want anybody to do something that is fraudulent or inappropriate,” Harris said. “Anyone who has acted inappropriately, we will deal with effectively.”

Internal auditor Carolyn Smith also wouldn’t say what types of jobs the 19 hold.

The investigation began after a former principal, Kimberly N. Jones, who led Stewart Elementary in German Village, was found in the spring to have improperly signed up her children for the federal subsidy. Jones made $90,000 a year, officials said. The maximum annual income for a family of four to qualify for subsidized lunches is $40,793.

Jones was charged in September with one count of theft in office and two counts of tampering with records in connection with the situation.

A few weeks after Jones was charged, a second Columbus principal was accused of getting subsidized lunches. An investigation cleared him, and he returned to work.

The 19 applications — the Jones case and that of the other principal were not among them — could be investigated because they were signed by a district employee.

But the other 74 were dropped from investigation because they were signed by another person at the same address as the employee.

Board member Stephanie Groce, the chairwoman of the audit committee, said the decision to not investigate the 74 tells employees how to game the system: by having a person other than the employee sign the form for an employee’s children.

Those 74 employees were asked to verify the application information, and 22 didn't respond to that request, said Food Service Director Joe Brown.

“ That’s troubling to me,” Groce said. “That’s a troubling number” of employees who felt they didn’t need to respond to a request from their employer.

The 22 were dropped from the free-lunch program, Brown said.

Of those 19 applications listing incorrect incomes, eight incorrectly received subsidized lunches, averaging $221 in savings for the past school year.

Another applicant was approved but didn’t participate in the lunch program. The other 10 employees listed wrong incomes but still were eligible for the benefits they received, the audit found.

The names of all 19 who listed incorrect incomes have been turned over to the district’s labor-relations office for potential administrative punishment, officials said.