Gary public schools emergency manager Dr. Peggy Hinckley

Hiccups, scrapes, and blows at Gary school board meeting

Contributed By:The 411 News

It’s a reversal of roles for Gary’s school board. Usually the provider of guidance on school policies and suggesting solutions to complaints from parents and the public, the Gary Board of School Trustees had the most complaints at its board meeting Tuesday night.

Their target was the district’s emergency manager Dr. Peggy Hinckley. With both Rosie Washington, school board president and school Superintendent Cheryl Pruitt absent, the school board faction most critical of the state takeover dominated much of the meeting.

Dissatisfaction with the state takeover of the Gary public school district can be framed in board member Norm Bailey’s question: “How would the governor and all the elected officials up under him feel if the president came in and would not allow them to represent all the state of Indiana citizens that voted for them?”

Robert Buggs criticized Dr. Hinckley’s decision to stop paying for the videotaping of school board meetings, so he paid for Tuesday night’s taping. Buggs asked, “What does that say for the community engagement that SB567 called for?” SB567 is the legislation that lays out the implementation of Indiana’s state takeover of Gary and Muncie school districts.

“The board takes no actions to communicate with the public,” Hinckley replied.

“I didn’t eliminate field trips; I just limited them. There is no money in the transportation fund,” the emergency manager responded to the complaint that school children couldn’t go on field trips. Field trips are still available to those who want to pay for the buses. She is also limiting field trips to prepare for statewide testing

Maybe outside contractors were used because local contractors wouldn’t do the work since they haven’t been paid, Hinckley said about not using Gary workers. Hinckley said she didn’t choose the contractors who did the plumbing and school cleanings to prepare the buildings for the start of school. “They were already vetted by the DUAB (Distressed Unit Appeal Board), the district’s financial advisor Jack Martin, and Supt. Pruitt,” she said.

Buggs questioned the legality of the emergency manager entering into contracts and agreements for Gary’s school district when “the state has not finalized its contract with Dr. Hinckley and her team from the MGT Consulting Group.” The school district’s Atty. Robert Lewis replied, “Those contracts are between the state and Dr. Hinckley, not with the school district. Quite often people operate without signed contracts in anticipation that one will be forthcoming. There is no issue.”

Dr. Hinckley responded to board member James Piggee’s complaint that “… the management team hasn’t involved the school board in decision making and nobody has asked our input on nothing, nothing and I want to know why.”

SB567 requires a meeting and report to the entire board once a month, the emergency manager said, and she can meet individually with a board member once a month for questions and advice. “The law gives the authority of the board to the emergency manager,” Hinckley said, repeating that the Gary school board takes no actions.

Hinckley reported satisfaction with the completed plumbing repairs, ongoing roof repairs, and steps to address fire code violations in the schools. But in the recently closed schools, her team found thefts of computer equipment. Dunbar-Pulaski and Watson Boys Academy didn’t reopen for the 2017-18 school year. The next steps, she said, are to move equipment and items that can be used to other schools, auction off the rest, and secure the buildings.

Sodexho Magic’s Charles Diggs (l-r) and Gwenette Bush presented awards to Future Chef participant DéEric Mister and winner Caleb Lacefield at Tuesday’s school board meeting.

She pointed to Lew Wallace High School, closed years ago, as another serious challenge. Transcript records were found, sitting in an area with water. “I had heard records were not secured, although I was consistently told by Supt. Pruitt that was not true,” Hinckley said. Also found were brand new books, still in boxes. “We found those books just after we had spent $1.5 million of our Title I money to purchase new books.”

Atty. Clorius Lay, the school district’s appointee to the 4-member Fiscal Management Board directed his comments to the trustees. According to SB567, the board serves as an advisory group for the emergency manager and works with the DUAB, Gary’s mayor, and the Indiana Dept. of Education to address issues on the transfer of powers to the emergency manager and the potential impact of the transition on Gary and the school district.

“I see a COO and chief of staff here,” Lay said about the emergency manager’s team. “Two people are missing, the chief financial officer and chief academic officer. The bill says they shall confer with the [school] board; that’s not discretionary. They cannot violate this statue.”

Dr. Hinckley has named Dr. Lucille Washington, the former principal at Bailly Middle School as an interim chief academic officer. “We are looking for a chief financial officer and hope to have that position filled before the new year,” Hinckley said later.

Regarding Hinckley’s chief operating officer Atty. Paul Pastorek, Lay said, “I don’t doubt he’s an attorney, the problem is he’s an attorney in Louisiana.” Lay said there is “no reciprocity” with the state of Indiana, meaning Pastorek can’t practice law here.

About the school district’s $100 million-plus debt and inability to pay its bills that forced it into the state takeover, Atty. Lay labeled it “…almost predatory lending. There is no way the Dept. of Local Government Finance should have allowed the district to issue $50 million in bonds and borrow $30 million in common school fund loans they cannot pay back.”

School district officials will travel to Indianapolis for a meeting on October 4th with the Indiana Dept. of Education to discuss school improvement plans for Beveridge and Marquette elementary schools. Beveridge has been an “F” school for 6 years and Marquette for 5 years.

The next scheduled school board meeting is 6 p.m., October 10 at Bethune Childhood Development Center.

Story Posted:09/30/2017