Chicago Public Schools’ inspector general exits district for new job

Chicago Public School’s inspector general is leaving the district for a new job after leading investigations into the spending of COVID relief money and high profile individuals who took pandemic paychecks, while working for the district.

William Fletcher’s last day was Aug. 23. The mayor already appointed his deputy Amber Nesbitt to serve as acting inspector general. Nesbitt has been in the inspector general’s office for six years, leading the unit that investigates sexual misconduct by adults in schools. The mayor’s office says it will do a search for a permanent replacement.

Fletcher was appointed in June 2020 after his predecessor abruptly resigned amid controversy. Fletcher said he was leaving voluntarily to be the inspector general for a $16 billion project that will improve the rail connection between New York City, Newark and New Jersey.

Fletcher took over the inspector general’s office just as the federal government was sending an unprecedented amount of money to individuals, businesses and governments to help them weather the pandemic.

Fletcher said one of his biggest concerns as he exits is how the district will handle the drying up of federal COVID relief money. He notes the district used much of its $2.8 billion on operating expenses, such as staff.

“CPS is going to have to make some really tough decisions now that the federal pandemic relief that was allotted to the district is going away,” he said.

Already, Fletcher’s office is being impacted by budget deficits. With the increased responsibility of investigating sexual misconduct, the budget for the inspector general’s office doubled from fiscal year 2019 through 2024, which ended June 30. But its budget of $6.9 million for the upcoming fiscal year is $500,000 less than what was approved the year before.

Federal COVID relief money was one of the things that kept Fletcher’’ office busy. Fletcher’s office found some charter schools and CPS employees, including some high ranking ones, got PPP loans even as they continued to get paid by the district.

In one of those investigations, Fletcher’s office revealed that some bus companies got millions from the school district and PPP loans. They were supposed to use this money to keep bus drivers on the rolls, even though they were not needed to transport students who were at home taking online classes.

The inspector general found many of those companies laid off drivers anyway and pocketed the money. Nearly 600 drivers lost their jobs, some of whom never returned.

The consequences of that decision reverberate today as the district is still struggling to find enough bus drivers. But district officials said they couldn’t take any action against the companies because they had no written agreements specifying how the money should be spent.

Fletcher’s office also found that CPS failed to keep track of laptops, iPads and hotspots distributed during the pandemic. Some 77,505 of devices, costing $23 million, were lost or stolen, according to a report.

Just a few years before Fletcher took over, the inspector general’s purview expanded to include investigating adult sexual misconduct against students. The office has 30 investigators looking into a myriad of cases.

Fletcher said he thinks the school district is doing a much better job of making people aware that they need to report situations where sexual misconduct may be occuring. But he said the next frontier is figuring out how to handle the cases where creepy, sexualized behavior is taking place, but it doesn’t rise to the level of abuse.

Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ.