Thursday, February 25, 2021

Police investigating alleged embezzlement at Warren Easton Charter High School | The Lens

Police investigating alleged embezzlement at Warren Easton Charter High School | The Lens
Police investigating alleged embezzlement at Warren Easton Charter High School




Warren Easton Charter High School’s annual financial audit has revealed a $70,000 discrepancy in the school’s student activity funds, and the New Orleans Police Department is investigating the matter as a theft by a former employee.

The incident, reported to police in December, occurred between March 2019 and July 2020, according to the school’s annual financial audit released Monday. The audit does not reveal the name of the employee accused of stealing the money but says that the person is no longer employed by the school.

“The Business Manager of the School fraudulently absconded with $70,842 of Student Activity Funds,” the audit states.

Asked whether any arrests had been made, an NOPD spokesman wrote, “We have not been made aware of any arrests at this time in this investigation.” CONTINUE READING: Police investigating alleged embezzlement at Warren Easton Charter High School | The Lens

Rooted School, a charter high school located at Touro Synagogue on St. Charles Avenue, found itself in hot water with the NOLA Public Schools district earlier this month over a grading scale it has used for the last four years and that its founder and CEO says the district was well aware of.

But earlier this month, a top district official issued a warning letter to the school, saying the way it grades is a violation of NOLA Public Schools policy. 

Since opening in 2017, Rooted founder and CEO Jonathan Johnson said the school has used an “ABCF” grading scale — notably absent is the just-passing D. At Rooted, anything that would have fallen into the district’s D on the grading scale is an F. 

“Essentially our philosophy was — and still is — that D does not constitute passing,” Johnson said in an interview on Friday, explaining that grades are a strong indicator of how students perform in college. 

Johnson said the district has known about the grading scale for several years CONTINUE READING: NOLA Public Schools warns Rooted School over grading scale