Ex-North Chicago School Officials Indicted In $800,000 Kickback Scheme

Two former North Chicago Unit School District officials were indicted by a grand jury Thursday for allegedly receiving kickbacks totaling over $800,000 from school bus companies.

Three principals of bus companies were also indicted for reportedly receiving more than $21 million in student busing contracts between 2001 and 2010. District 187, the affected school district, serves 4,000 students, The Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Gloria Harper, 59, formerly a school board member, and 59-year-old Alice Sherrod, formerly the transportation director, are accused of using their positions to ask for and accept cash and gifts from the three bus company officials indicted, according to the Sun-Times.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Harper and Sherrod first received between $4,000 and $5,000 monthly, but were pocketing $20,000 on a monthly basis by 2003.

The indictment also seeks forfeiture of $9.67 million in addition to 48 buses and vans and seven vehicles that were used in several bus companies set up to help operate their scheme.

From the Sun-Times:

"The district is struggling right now," [Lake County Regional Superintendent of Schools Roycaealee Wood] said. "They have a new superintendent and a new board president," referring to a December decision by the school board to agree to an intergovernmental agreement for a state-appointed liaison to help oversee the decisions and operations of the district.

Comments

[rrickarr]

06:31 PM on 08/02/2011

And I thought that teachers were the problem!

[Smithn]

09:40 PM on 07/16/2011

Hang 'em high!

[frobi6852]

06:25 PM on 07/16/2011

It's GWB's fault

[rda1911a1]

04:09 PM on 07/16/2011

it's the chicago way

[WeMissBush]

01:24 PM on 07/16/2011

What else is new with Chicago politics and kickbacks??

This is the land of Obama.

[1differentdrummer]

05:13 AM on 07/17/2011

You are irrational.

[knott wrench]

02:45 AM on 07/16/2011

So, "Blago", won't be alone when he goes "Up the River"?

[Bilingual teacher]

01:24 AM on 07/16/2011

I worked there and just resigned. God how many letters I wrote and never sent to the state superintendent. Teachers try to correct what's going on wrong there, but everyone is connected somehow. I might never teach again. How can you "be a team player" with people who care mainly for themselves and no one else in the world. I'd need counseling anyways to try it again. I spent about $4,000 every year on my classroom. No paper, no ink, no staplers, NO budget for the teachers at all. Either buy it yourself, or go without. Administrators going to jail happens all the time there. The superintendent that put out a hit on her husband, or the one that was caught shoplifting. The teacher that had a felony conviction for selling marijuana (put him in the high school!). The I.T. director convicted of mail order fraud (millions stolen from the government) I loved my students. I just can't teach with people that are that corrupt. My salary was $28,000... and we weren't allowed to use the copy machine, so you can pay for your own ink and paper if you need that. The poor children. The poor teachers.

[kylejahner]

03:54 PM on 07/20/2011

I'm working on a story about North Chicago Schools as part of a bigger project on education (called News 21, through the Northwestern graduate school of journalism). I've already seen the needs assessment and know how far things went under that leadership, but I'd like more context and have had trouble finding teachers. Please shoot me an email; I'd love to get in touch with you, on or off the record. [e-mail].

[Skate Free]

03:46 PM on 07/15/2011

No mention of party affiliation.... Hmmmmm Chicago politics, must be Dems.

[Roxanne Swanson]

11:10 PM on 07/15/2011

Politics has nothing to do with this. North Chicago is a far-north suburb of Chicago, roughly an hour away from the Chicago city-limits. Political affiliation is not a factor here....school board members run as unaffiliated candidates, and the transportation director is not an elected position and the employees of the bus company's political affiliations aren't part of the equation. They were just opportunists. Some people just like to throw mud and hope that some sticks.

[Skate Free]

11:51 AM on 07/18/2011

True raw unadulterated greed and power-whoring of the most blatant and perverse fashion. Using their positions to fleece the school-bus service (and ultimately taxpayers) asking for and receiving shakedown bribes to the tune of 21 million dollars...

"Gloria Harper, 59, formerly a school board member, and 59-year-old Alice Sherrod, formerly the transportation director, are accused of using their positions to ask for and accept cash and gifts from the three bus company officials indicted, according to the Sun-Times."

Show me a Chicagoland school board member or a transportation director whose party affiliation doesn't begin with a "D".

"The Chicago Tribune reports that Harper and Sherrod first received between $4,000 and $5,000 monthly, but were pocketing $20,000 on a monthly basis by 2003."

Shakedown racket, once you have your patsy hooked, you keep increasing the take as much as you can. Threats to expose, pressure to increase the scam can increase that monthly take, up to 5 times the original amount. That's good mob management!

"The district is struggling right now, They have a new superintendent and a new board president," referring to a December decision by the school board to agree to an intergovernmental agreement for a state-appointed liaison to help oversee the decisions and operations of the district.

Translation: We are sweeping this under the rug. Too many dirty hands in the pot, there's plenty of cash in the kitty for all the right people, if the problem goes away.

[WBLM]

02:39 PM on 07/15/2011

I wonder if these school officials will find the ride in the Illinois Department Of Corrections bus as rewarding?

[DbleStandard]

02:33 PM on 07/15/2011

OH NOOOO.......another kickback scandal in the obama adopted homeland???

How could this be I though these Chicago liberals were transparent in thier operations??

I just can't believe this could happen in the land of the roaming urban youth gangs out for black liberation justice after obama organized this community so well????

[Roxanne Swanson]

11:15 PM on 07/15/2011

North Chicago is located in the far-north suburbs of Chicago, in the republican stronghold of Lake County.

[greenie 61]

01:49 AM on 07/17/2011

Do some homework before throwing daggers.

[GlennWatson]

01:19 PM on 07/15/2011

And these are the sort of people who want to be in charge of which teachers get fired.

[Bilingual teacher]

07:48 AM on 07/22/2011

According to the media, the North Chicago School Board had all their rights to hire and fire "taken away" when they entered into a joint operating agreement with the State Board of Education last year.
Interestingly enough, the new high school principal was the boss of one of the school board members (Magee Middle School in Round Lake - assistant principal, North Chicago School Board member. New North Chicago High School principal, former principal at Magee). What a coincidence!

North Chicago recently had an assessment done of the problems in the district. One of the many mentioned issues was their evaluation system of teachers (go figure).

It's a political system. If you scrub my back, then I'll scrub yours. If you are a teacher that isn't "playing the game", then you might not be working there too long. I talked to one teacher that felt sorry for Alice Sherrod. She thought that Gloria Harper was the big problem!

There is some truth about being pressured to "play the game" there.... When the principals wonder why they have bully problems in their school, I think that perhaps they should look in the mirror.

[ChangeAgent007]

12:02 PM on 07/15/2011

How do these people sleep at night? Stealing from children? Is there any wonder why the public is so jaded about our politicians and government in general? I wonder what other schools are doing this. They can't be the only one.

[Bilingual teacher]

01:39 AM on 07/16/2011

I worked there. I resigned. I may not teach again. I worked for a non-livable salary and worked another job to survive. They fire all teachers with less than 5 years there each year.
I summer school teach They tell me (the teachers there), that they were taking money for a program that the school never implemented, but were caught.
I can't find a teaching job. I have tried to leave that district for years and always went back.
You have no idea what they do to their teachers.

Yes, I think that all districts are possibly corrupt in some way, shape, or form. There is millions of dollars in government money (free) involved.

We had a superintendent that tried to take out a contract on her husband, another that was caught shoplifting, 3 years ago the director of I.T. went to jail for mail order fraud (billions illegally scammed in a scam of gov. grants for schools that he never did a thing for). There is no one that is "policing" the schools. It is the perfect location for criminal activity. And I am sure that many more people know what is going on and just don't care.
How many times did I try to write to the state superintendent? Dozens. I could never send the letter because I was just too saddened by what I saw being done to the children there.
And it was too overwhelming...

[ChangeAgent007]

11:03 AM on 07/19/2011

Then more of us who believe in what is right need to stand up and take it back. It will be a long and hard battle, but it is one that is worth fighting don't you think? I hate bullies, I really do. I can't stand it when I see them hurting people. We are running bullying campaigns in schools well that needs to extend to places outside of schools as well.

[spoonbill1963]

10:39 AM on 07/15/2011

Chicago is the most corrupt city in the world.

[VOTER]

11:12 AM on 07/15/2011

North Chicago is a city, located in, Republican-controlled, Lake County, IL.

[Robert Schwartz]

09:53 AM on 07/15/2011

If this were a charter school, people would be commenting like crazy about the corruption from privatization of the public schools. There would be massive claims that charter management organization leaders are working the system to get rich off of our tax dollars. Where's the outcry from those same people when a traditional district is involved? This is far more common in traditional public school districts than in charter schools and this is just another example.

[Hlynn]

11:00 AM on 07/15/2011

It's not even 8 a.m. where I live yet. It could be many people haven't seen this story yet. Of course it's corrupt and wrong to take money as bribes, especially when that money should be going for the benefit of others. Also, many charter schools don't have buses; parents are responsible to take their children to school or the children walk, ride city buses, or the subways. It would be more likely to happen in traditional public schools because they have the buses.

[spoonbill1963]

11:05 AM on 07/15/2011

You've got to remember mainly progressives hang out here.