Week 5 Assignment, Part 1

1.) Ethics violation of the Educator’s Code of Ethics

*Standard 1.3; Administrator submitting eight food receipts for a trip lasting several days that had consecutive numbers. (fraudulent request for reimbursement)

 *Standard 1.2; Superintendent in El Paso directed a $450,000 contract to a company run by a person with whom he had a personal relationship. (misappropriation of district (tax payer) monies for personal gain or advantage)

 Standard 1.10; District administrators allegedly moved certain students from one high school and placed them at another in the district in an attempt to improve student achievement and prevent public negativity.

 *Standard 2.2; District employees telling other employees that they were going to be non-renewed under the reduction in force(RIF) that the school board was only discussing. These comments caused great stress and were not true. (False statements about colleagues and school business)

Standard 2.3; In small districts administrative spouses are hired and supervised by their spouse. (hiring and evaluation of personnel)

2.) Consequences:

The short term consequence for the administrator that submitted the meal receipts with consecutive numbers was non-renewal of her contract. The long term consequences in the district thereafter included more stringent guidelines for submitting meal receipts to include writing your name, meal and date of the meal on the back of the receipt. Additionally, the business office has included this in the beginning of the year training and the point is crystal clear, in order to be reimbursed for meals you must turn in one receipt, itemized, write your name on the back and include the date.

The short term consequences for the superintendent that directed the large contract towards a person with whom he had a personal relationship includes a jail cell and pending federal charges as well as negative publicity, nationwide. The long term consequences are yet to be determined but I would imagine that contract in excess of a specific dollar amount will be scrutinized and researched more thoroughly with a transparent lens. Policy and procedures may be adopted and practiced to ensure that future fraudulent or misappropriations of school district funds are prevented.

 The short term consequences for the employee that was sharing false statements about the district and district personal to potentially impacted district employees included a written disciplinary directive and removal from the work place with pay for the day while the situation was investigated. The long term consequence for this employee is a difficult situation to work in considering the nature of the incident. As an at-will employee this incident could impact future employment.

3.) Preventive Actions

To prevent future fraudulent requests for meal reimbursement training could have been provided that specifically detailed how the receipts were to be turned in to the business office. The details would make it clear that someone is paying attention and potentially deterred anyone from trying to submit a false claim. This type of preventive action would clearly promote the highest standard of conduct, ethical practices, and integrity in decision making, actions and behaviors (SBEC Superintendent Competency1).

To prevent gross misappropriation of district funds such as in the case with the El Paso Superintendent the district could have a multi-pronged test in policy or in procedures that is transparent and includes a statement that refers to existing relationships with a business or company. This type of preventive action would address, specifically, the strand from the SBEC Superintendent Competency 1 that states applying laws, policies, and procedures in a fair and reasonable manner.

 
To prevent false statements from being made by employees especially during programmatic change (reduction in force) the district could make public the minutes of all board meeting and discussions that pertain to the status of these types of potential situations. An example of this publication could be a link on the district website that is shared with all employees through email. This preventive action would represent an interaction with district staff, students, school board, and community in a professional and ethical manner (SBEC Superintendent Competency1). Employment is a serious matter and transparency is essential during these times that include tough and difficult decisions.