This article, originally published at 8:55 p.m. on April 4, 2024, was updated at 9:43 a.m. April 5, 2024, to add a statement from MCPS spokesperson Chris Cram.
The former PTA of Sargent Shriver Elementary School in Silver Spring violated Montgomery County Public Schools policy after allegedly mismanaging nearly $5,000 in school grant money, according to a report released Thursday by the Montgomery County Office of the Inspector General.
In addition, the current PTA has refused requests by the grant project manager and school principal to return the money to MCPS and the inspector general office has shared its report with the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office for “consideration of allegations of improper financial mismanagement by the PTA,” according to the report.
MCPS spokesman Chris Cram said Friday the district “appreciates the thorough investigation” by the inspector general’s office and will examine the findings to “safeguard against” such future errors.
“It is regrettable that the grantor’s intended purpose of improving the staff lounge has not been fulfilled to date,” Cram said. “The district, just as the principal, would expect the current holder of those funds, the Free State PTA, to turn over those monies immediately.”
Gerrod Tyler, the Free State PTA president, did not immediately respond to MoCo360’s request for comment Thursday evening.
In May 2019 Sargent Shriver Elementary was awarded a grant of $4,998 by the Kaiser Permanente Thriving Schools Initiative to be used for updating the staff lounge, according to the report. The grant funds remained unused in a Sargent Shriver Independent Activity Fund [IAF] bank account.
In the spring of 2023 the school’s principal consulted with an MCPS internal auditor and was authorized to transfer the grant money to the school’s PTA so the organization could complete the project, the report states.
The report did not name the school’s principal. According to MCPS, Zoraida Brown has been the school’s principal since 2015.
According to the report, when consulting with the internal auditor to move the funds to the PTA, the principal argued that the move “afforded [Sargent Shriver Elementary] more flexibility with purchases from outside MCPS vendors.”
However, transferring the grant funds to the PTA violates MCPS policy, which “prohibits using IAF accounts as a pass-through to PTAs,” the report states.
According to MCPS policy, when it comes to small grants, principals are responsible for “all aspects of project management, including financial management,” according to the report. The policy allows principals to appoint a grant manager and requires that grant funds are “spent strictly by the rules established by the Grantor” within the term of the grant. In this case, the term of the grant was from August 2019 to May 2020, but the school was allowed an indefinite extension due to “pandemic-related challenges,” the report states.
The inspector general’s office says that while no work has been done on the lounge project and the funds have not been spent, it is encouraging MCPS to take action to retrieve the grant funds from the PTA for the school to spend on the project or return to the grantor.
“We further found and are concerned that the funds have not been spent and that the current PTA is preventing them from being returned to MCPS,” the report states.
The Sargent Shriver Elementary School PTA did not immediately respond to MoCo360’s email requests for comment Thursday evening.
In October 2023, the inspector general’s office received a complaint that detailed “numerous examples of disfunction with management” of the Sargent Shriver PTA, the report states. The complaint alleged that the PTA lost non-profit status “years ago” and has not updated or reapproved bylaws since 2013 or filed taxes since 2018. The complaint also alleged that the PTA maintained minimal records of meetings and expenditures were not approved by a PTA membership vote. The report did not share details on who sent the complaint.
As the grant funds sat in the PTA’s bank account last summer, a new PTA board was elected and new members “raised red flags” about the organization’s financial management, according to the report.
In July, after the new board assumed financial control of the PTA, the board also told the Montgomery County Council of PTAs (MCCPTA), the school’s principal and assistant principal that the PTA had less than $1,000 in the current bank account. However, the inspector general’s investigation later found that the account contained more than $6,000 at that time.
Then on Sept. 4, 2023, the school’s grant project manager requested that the PTA release the grant funds to complete the lounge project. However, the new PTA treasurer reviewed the accounting transactions and suggested an independent audit be conducted before releasing the funds, denying the project manager access to the Kaiser grant funds, the report states. On the same day the PTA withdrew all funds from the PTA bank account and transferred them to the Free State PTA “presumably for safekeeping,” the report states.
The Free State PTA is a Maryland branch of the National PTA and engages in educational advocacy and connecting local PTAs, according to the organization’s website.
By moving the funds to the Free State PTA, the grant funds became inaccessible to the school because the funds can only be returned by request of the PTA, according to the report. When the grant project manager asked to recover the grant funds, the PTA’s secretary allegedly informed the grant manager that “you will never see that money,” according to the report.
In October 2023, pending the investigation by the inspector general’s office, the PTA ceased operations, the report said.
The report also states that the principal has been unsuccessful in attempting to recover the funds from the Free State PTA and as of April 1, the grant funds remained with the Free State against the wishes of Sargent Shriver leadership.
In addition to the mismanagement of grant funds, the inspector general’s office found that MCPS does not have a mandatory training requirement for employees in charge of administering or managing grant funds, and policy and process changes regarding grants were “not always readily implemented by staff responsible for MCPS’ financial grants management.”
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.