Worcester County, MD – September 4, 2024
When there’s an Educational Foundation in your county, the message sounds great: pro-education, supplemental funding for the school, and local community support. A foundation is an independent non-profit organization, and its entity is not legally part of a school district. When it comes to Worcester County, the local educational foundation tells a much different story.
The mission of the non-profit is to raise supplemental funds for the county school system, but their operation is suspicious. Their contributions to the local school system appear to be much less than they claim. So much less, that the existence of the organization seems to be costing the taxpayers instead of supplementing them, accomplishing opposite of what the non-profit claims in their IRS reported mission statement:
The private foundation has a full-time director that’s an employee on the payroll of the Worcester County Board of Education (Worcester County Public Schools). The director was given the title of Manager of Operations and Community Relations by the foundation back in 2020, but her role to run the private non-profit dates back to 2016 as documented in employment records. The position was officially filed to the government under Worcester County Public Schools and listed as “Education Foundation Assistant.”
Source: govsalaries.com
You can see in 2023, the Education Foundation Assistant’s job title changes, because what the foundation was doing had been discovered (but hidden from the public).
Pictured below, you can see that the Educational Foundation Assistant is reported to the IRS as a Director that received no salary paid by the foundation. That’s because her salary and benefits were paid by the Worcester County BOE for her position with the private foundation.
The foundation’s complete tax Form 990 can be downloaded here.
The foundation’s 2023 Annual Meeting report can be downloaded here.
As indicated in the foundation’s bylaws, no assistant, officer, or director is to receive any compensation:
The reported salary of the Educational Foundation Assistant over the past nine years does not include pension, health insurance, retirement, social security, vacation, sick leave, etc. Conservative calculations were made to include employment benefits added to the reported salary during this time: $395,298.
The Educational Foundation Assistant has worked as a single dedicated staff member of the foundation that raised over one million dollars to date, which $256,199 of its endowment fund has been donated directly back to the school system over the past nine years.
The total cost of the director’s Educational Foundation Assistant position with benefits from FY 2016-2024 was approximately $395,298 minus the $256,199 (raised by the foundation to give to the school). That’s a taxpayer loss of $139,099.
This amount only scratches the surface. It does not include the time of other salaried employees of the Worcester County Board of Education attending meetings or any other involvement during the salaried day. It also does not take into consideration the use of office space, supplies, and other benefits that tap the BOE resources for operation of the non-profit.
The foundation’s bylaws establishes that the external private foundation is to “take possession” of the Worcester County Board of Education’s resources, including office space and salaried staff, which is funded by the taxpayers. Isn’t this organized waste, fraud, and abuse?
Does the foundation pay rent to the Worcester BOE for use of its facilities?
The Worcester County Board of Education has a schedule of fees for public use of its buildings. Is the foundation paying any rent to the BOE, or are they receiving special privileges not offered to others? To this day, the foundation is using taxpayer buildings, electricity, heating, cooling, water, Internet, custodial services, communication systems, computers, and office consumables.
Are local businesses being exploited or are they knowingly Involved?
The non-profit is soliciting local businesses that are contributing to the foundation. In return, businesses receive a tax deduction by donating a charitable contribution to the non profit, while also receiving local publicity for doing so. With most business owners having good intentions, their businesses have either been unknowingly entangled or knowingly part of a potential scheme, while profiting at the expense of the taxpaying citizens.
Does the foundation conduct financial audits?
As required by law, a non-profit must undergo periodic financial audits. These audits look for pennies to match and not for compliance, legal, or ethical practices. Therefore, the foundation having a financial audit will not clear up any questionable activity of their operation.
Is the foundation’s operational model a scheme?
It appears that:
- Only 25 cents of every dollar raised actually went to the local school system. The foundation has raised over one million dollars from its contributors, retaining 75% of the proceeds in a rainy day fund.
- Staff and administrators are on the payroll of the Worcester County BOE and simultaneously running the foundation out of the BOE, which impacts and alters the timeclock, job duties, responsibility, day-to-day operations, and liability between the private entity and school system.
- Two elected BOE members are on the board of the foundation (Todd Ferrante & William Gordy) and Jon Andes is on their committee. Their role is a conflict of interest. Playing both sides, the seated officials vote to approve budgets, positions, funding, and salaries tied to both the BOE and the foundation. Personal business is also involved in the mix.
- The position name of the foundation’s director was changed to elude public record.
- Local businesses profit more from the foundation than the recipients (students).
- The foundation has unreported expenditures that are absorbed by the Worcester County BOE.
- Taxpayers are being exploited out of hundreds of thousands of dollars that could otherwise have gone towards education.
- An organized practice of waste, fraud, and abuse, which is a state and federal offense.
Who’s ultimately responsible for allowing this?
For years, taxpayer funded resources have being consumed by the non-profit without public transparency and approved by the following elected members of the Worcester County Board of Education who took a sworn oath to represent the people and to uphold state law and the Constitution:
William Buchanan (District 1)
Donald C. Smack, Sr. (District 2)
Jon M. Andes, Ed.D. (District 3)
Elena J. McComas (District 5)
William L. Gordy (District 4)
Todd Ferrante (District 7)
Katie Addis (District 6) is the only elected official that questioned and did not approve of the budget of hidden expenditures. Watch here how dismissive the BOE members are, including their willful negligence with the budget.
What happens now?
The foundation and the Worcester County BOE must be investigated.
The foundation must return every single penny to the county, estimated to be well over $500,000.
The BOE must remove the foundation from having use of its premises and county resources.
You can vote to replace the corruption in the BOE as three seats are up for election in November.
