Tag Archives: Mary Davis

Peoria Public Schools

Court: McArdle termination legit

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District 150 did not violate Julie McArdle’s first-amendment rights when they terminated her contract. Evidence presented in court basically confirmed District 150’s statement to the press on April 29, 2009. Specifically, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois found that McArdle was terminated without cause, pursuant to her employment contract, and that the decision to terminate her employment was made before she reported alleged illegal activities of her supervisor, Mary Davis.

McArdle had argued that her termination was in retaliation for blowing the whistle on Davis. But the court found that the timeline of events simply didn’t comport with McArdle’s assertions:

Plaintiff’s own evidence shows that McArdle did not report Davis’ alleged illegal conduct until after learning that the District intended to terminate her contract. When Broderick, the vice-president of the Board of Education [sic], called McArdle on April 21, 2009, McArdle was given actual notice of her supervisor’s decision to exercise the buy-out provision of her contract. The record before the Court illustrates, therefore, that the decision to terminate McArdle had effectively already been made, and McArdle was notified of this decision before she engaged in allegedly constitutionally protected speech. While some of the Board members saw McArdle’s email regarding Davis’ alleged criminal conduct, the superintendent and vice president of the Board had already decided to terminate McArdle’s employment and had effectively and clearly communicated this decision to her before she ever publicized Davis’ alleged criminal activity. Thus, no reasonable factfinder could conclude that the District was motivated by McArdle’s future speech when deciding to exercise the early termination provision of her contract.

Incidentally, the court document erroneously identifies Broderick as the School Board vice president; he was actually the Human Resources administrator.

McArdle also argued that Davis orchestrated her termination by giving her unwarranted bad reviews and giving district administrators a bad report of her performance. However, the court found no evidence for this:

As illustrated in the record before this Court, the District had received numerous complaints from parents and coworkers about McArdle’s actions and statements while principal. McArdle was also informed of these complaints and given an opportunity to correct her actions and attitude before the District chose to terminate her employment. These complaints did not come solely from Davis, and there is no evidence before the Court to establish a genuine issue of material fact that Davis orchestrated these complaints, as argued by Plaintiff. […]

When making its initial determination, [Superintendent Ken] Hinton and [Human Resources Director Tom] Broderick considered numerous complaints made by parents, students, and teachers against McArdle in addition to the performance reviews and personality conflicts reported by Davis. The Board, when finalizing the decision to terminate McArdle, also considered evidence in addition to and not provided by Davis.

In short, McArdle failed to prove there was a conspiracy against her orchestrated by Davis. You can read the full 15-page opinion here:

Summary-Judgment-6-7-2011

Peoria Public Schools

Bench honors indicted principal

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A new bench has been installed outside Charles Lindbergh Middle School:

The plaque on the bench says “Simply the Best” and “Ms. Davis.” Former Lindbergh principal Mary Davis was charged in April of this year with 16 felony counts of official misconduct and theft. She has since been terminated by the District. Some are questioning why a bench is being installed on District 150 grounds to honor this former District 150 employee. I wonder if they will leave the plaque there if Davis is convicted?

Peoria Public Schools

Davis gets to keep her salary unless she’s convicted…and maybe even then

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Since Mary Davis was fired from District 150, I’ve been wondering if the taxpayers would be getting their money back from all those months she was on paid administrative leave. Today I got the answer from the district’s spokesperson Stacey Shangraw: Only if she’s convicted:

Mary [Davis] will be required to pay back the salary she received while she was on administrative leave if she is convicted of a crime. The pay back requirement does not come into play when a person is indicted or charged. Her trial for the criminal charges has been set to begin August 16.

So we will not know if she is required to pay back the salary she received while on leave until the criminal proceedings are finished. It is outlined in the Illinois State Statute, the state officials and employees ethics act, under 5 ILCS 430/5-60 that she will be required to pay the salary back, however it is not part of the criminal code.

If convicted, we will ask the State’s Attorney to include a request to include payments as part of her sentencing, but the Judge is not required to include that in the sentence or order. If the Judge does not include this payment requirement in the criminal sentencing order then the district would have to seek payment by first demanding it pursuant to the statute.

Here’s what 5 ILCS 430/5-60(b) says:

As a matter of law and without the necessity of the adoption of an ordinance or resolution under Section 70?5, if any officer or government employee of a governmental entity is placed on administrative leave, either voluntarily or involuntarily, pending the outcome of a criminal investigation or prosecution and that officer or government employee is removed from office or employment due to his or her resultant criminal conviction, then the officer or government employee is indebted to the governmental entity for all compensation and the value of all benefits received during the administrative leave and must forthwith pay the full amount to the governmental entity.

Sounds complicated. It also sounds like District 150 won’t be getting that money back. Read the wording of that statute again, especially the part that says, “and that officer or government employee is removed from office or employment due to his or her resultant criminal conviction, then the officer or government employee is indebted….” They fired her before she was convicted of anything, not because of a criminal conviction. So, I’ll bet the statute is moot and the district doesn’t get that money back, unless they can get it included as part of her sentencing.

Any lawyers out there, feel free to correct me if I’m reading the statute incorrectly. I’d really like to be wrong about this.

Crime, Peoria Public Schools

McArdle’s Revenge: Mary Davis busted

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Via the Journal Star:

Mary C. Davis, principal at Charles Lindbergh Middle School for five years before moving into central administration in 2008 to head up all the district’s principals, was charged Friday with 16 felony counts of official misconduct and theft. … If convicted, she faces up to seven years in prison. Davis was ordered to appear in court on May 19.

She’s not convicted yet, of course, but the State’s Attorney has certainly been taking his time building his case. The prosecutor’s office began investigating her last fall after Lindbergh principal Julie McArdle was fired. McArdle alleged that she was fired out of retaliation for blowing the whistle on Davis. She subsequently sued the district over it. That suit also makes allegations against other district officials; it will be interesting to see what effect the outcome of Davis’s case has on McArdle’s.

Peoria Public Schools

Another D150 administrator put on paid leave

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District 150 Director of Technology and Library Media Services Mary Ward has been put on paid administrative leave as the district performs an internal investigation. If past is prelude, taxpayers may be paying her to do nothing for a long time. The last administrator to be put on paid administrative leave, Mary Davis, has been getting paid for nothing since September 2009 — a full six months and counting. Granted, if she’s found guilty, she’ll have to pay it all back. I wonder if that will include interest.

Despite how slowly the process is going, I’m happy to see District 150 doing all these investigations. It’s about time.

Peoria Public Schools

Questions surround D150 handling of Davis leave

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Diane Vespa has a post up on her blog detailing what appears to be a clear violation of District 150 policy regarding paid administrative leave.

Board policy 5:240 states that a “professional employee” can be suspended with pay “during an investigation into allegations of disobedience or misconduct,” but, “no suspension with pay shall exceed 10 school or working days in length.” Mary Davis was put on paid administrative leave September 9 while police continue to investigate allegations of misappropriation/theft of funds. Diane was told by D150 spokesperson Stacey Shangraw that Mary Davis is still on paid administrative leave, obviously well past the 10-day limit outlined in the board policy, and “will remain on the payroll until the outcome of an investigation by the States Attorney’s office.”

According to section 2:10, “The Board’s powers and duties include the authority to adopt, enforce and monitor [emphasis added] all policies for the management and governance of the District’s schools.” So why aren’t they doing it? Are they unaware of their own policies (lack of monitoring)? Or are they just giving Mary Davis special treatment (lack of enforcement)?

They certainly follow the letter of the law when the public gets up to speak at board meetings. They have a little timer and don’t mind cutting you off mid-sentence to make sure you don’t go overtime. And they don’t show any favoritism — they made no exception to the policy for former third district councilman Bob Manning when he tried to extend his time. It would be nice if they’d show the same fastidiousness when it comes to spending taxpayer money.

Peoria Journal Star, Peoria Public Schools

New embarrassment for District 150

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The Journal Star has discovered more financial anomalies at District 150:

More than $24,000 was paid last year to several teachers at nearly a dozen District 150 schools for extracurricular activities that were approved but went beyond what those individual schools were allotted to spend.

The worst offender: Washington Middle School, where an estimated $8,370 was spent beyond what is allowed through contractual obligations at middle schools. That is one of the findings of a Journal Star analysis of a list received through the Freedom of Information Act containing the more than $1.32 million spent in the 2008-09 school year on extracurricular activities.

“It’s not a situation where teachers were getting paid for doing nothing,” Mary Davis, an academic officer for the district, said of the errors at many District 150 schools. Rather, there is “no checks and balance system,” Davis said.

And there you have it, right from the District 150 administration: There is no checks and balance system. Mary Davis should be familiar with that problem. She’s being sued by a former principal for misappropriation of school activity funds. Whether she is ultimately convicted of these charges or not, the fact remains that there is insufficient checks and balances of the student activity funds.

Unfortunately, this is a pervasive problem at District 150. Year after year, District 150’s annual audit has included this criticism, as reported earlier this year by the Journal Star:

The internal financial review controls at District 150 are at the very least inadequate, resulting in errors, unsubstantiated account balances and generally leaves the district without an accurate day-to-day report of its cash flow, according to a letter from the district’s auditors.

That audit report was rumored to have been the reason Guy Cahill was fired by the school district. And that made me wonder, why is there no quote from the district’s new controller/treasurer Pam Schau? Why is an academic officer answering questions about these improprieties? And why an academic officer who is under suspicion herself?

Crime, Peoria Public Schools

McArdle sues D150 (UPDATED)

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As promised, Lindbergh Middle School Principal Julie McArdle filed suit against District 150 (PDF Link click here to read it) after being fired Monday — and it covers a lot more than just misappropriation of funds. The suit is filed against District 150, Superintendent Ken Hinton, Human Resources Director Tom Broderick, and Academic Officer Mary Davis.

Six incidents are alleged:

  1. “Misappropriation of School Funds for Teacher’s Aide to Pay an Unpaid Student Teacher and Refusal to Spend Funds Authorized for Teacher’s Aid”
    The story here is that teacher’s aides get paid, but student teachers do not. In this case, there was a woman who had worked as a teacher’s aide at Lindbergh who was also taking classes at Eureka College to become a teacher. When it came time to do her student teaching, she wanted to do so at Lindbergh. Mary Davis allegedly instructed McArdle to continue paying her as if she were still a teacher’s aide, even though she was actually student teaching. There were two problems with this: (1) it was an unauthorized expenditure of funds on District 150’s part, and (2) it violated the student teacher’s contract with Eureka College.
  2. Falsification of Student Addresses to Deny Poorer Students Their Right to Opt Into Lindbergh Middle School Under the No Child Left Behind Act

    3. Three children who did not live within Lindbergh School’s boundaries were allowed to attend without getting the proper boundary waivers. Instead, McArdle was instructed by Davis to list a false address for these students. “The result of the falsification of the three out of boundary students addresses in the District 150 records denied three poorer children the right to opt out of their school to attend the non-failing Lindbergh Middle School – which had the wealthiest residence and was the best Middle school in District 150 under the No Child Left Behind Act.”

  3. Weekly Attendance at Lindbergh School by Private Counselor for Fees Paid by the Parents of the Students Contrary to District 150’s Obligation to Provide a Free Education
    Mary Davis was allowing a private counselor to provide services for a fee. Parents of students were expected to pay the counselor directly.
  4. Report to Superintendent and Peoria Police of Theft of District 150 Funds and Authority
    The claim is that Mary Davis got a credit card in the name of Lindbergh Middle School without the knowledge of or approval from the district. Purchases and cash advances were made, and a $4,000+ payment was made on the card from the student activity fund for “miscellaneous items.” The itemized activity fund report for those “miscellaneous items” is missing.
  5. McArdle’s Report of Mary Davis’ Misconduct and Theft of District Funds to Superintendent Hinton and Board Vice President Deb [Wolfmeyer]
    It was reported via e-mail and had specific names and amounts listed. Nevertheless, when Hinton reported the apparent theft to the police, he said the person responsible was “unknown” and that it was for less than $300.
  6. Policy Making Agents of District 150
    This section says that Davis, Hinton, Broderick, and the D150 Board interfered with McArdle’s employment, resulting in her wrongful termination.

The suit alleges violation of McArdle’s rights to free speech, violation of the Illinois Whistleblower Act, and breach of contract. She’s asking for $550,000 in damages, plus attorney’s fees, and reinstatement to her job.

UPDATE: Here are the exhibits that go with the complaint that was filed:

PDF Link Exhibits to Complaint court document
PDF Link Exhibit 1
PDF Link Exhibit 2
PDF Link Exhibit 3
PDF Link Exhibit 4