GoBigEd

Saturday, January 17, 2009


Music Teacher's Dedication Challenges Nebraskans
To Do Something Nice for Native American Kids

It is so encouraging to hear about the generosity that is being showered on John Mangan. He's a music teacher at the Omaha Nation School on the tribe's reservation in Macy, Neb.

After a World-Herald story appeared late last fall, he has received donations of money -- as much as $1,400 from an Elkhorn-area couple, and instruments -- a flute, a clarinet, an alto sax, even a tuba -- from Nebraskans who just wanted to help Mangan out as he continues to use music, the universal language, to help the disadvantaged students create the songs of their life.

Want in? Contact John Mangan at the school, (402) 837-5622, or jmangan@esu1.org

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Kudos for 83-Year-Old Mentor
For 3rd Graders at Elkhorn School

Wow! We love hearing about school volunteers like Margaret Andrews, 83, who has been coming in to tutor third graders at Manchester Elementary School, 174th and Blondo in Elkhorn, twice a week for the last two years.

She was named the mentor of the year by the Elkhorn Public Schools Foundation.

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Omaha Parent Group Embezzlement
Part of Disturbing National Trend

The alleged embezzlement of $4,700 from the Parent-Teacher Organization at Florence Elementary School, 7902 N. 36th St., seems like a ton of money for a low-income area. But it's actually small potatoes compared to the alleged embezzlement of more than $800,000 from a Kearney public-school foundation (see GoBigEd.com earlier this week), and the overall rate of school embezzlements nationwide.

For an eye-opening glance at this problem, just google "school" and "embezzlement," or "PTO" and "embezzlement."

Uff da! Hundreds of citations.

Why is this happening? It used to be that PTO groups were led by the most credible, reliable, admirable people in any given community. And that may still be true, most places. It also used to be that the gym or school library were packed with parents on PTO meeting night. Not any more, for the mo9st part.

In most schools today, the number of people who are willing to regularly volunteer and provide those necessary checks and balances for fiduciary oversight, such as PTO funds, has dwindled. It is very tough to recruit officers at most schools. The more capable people, mostly mothers, are for the most part, working, at least part-time, or engaged in other volunteer activities.

Consequently, you get more people "on the edge" -- who aren't quite as experienced and stable as in yesteryear -- who aren't working and thus may have more time than money -- and may manipulate other parents and the school staff into thinking that they are highly efficient when in reality, they're crooked.

In a situation like that, the temptation to steal and cheat is more powerful because it looks like you're more likely to get away with it . . . since nobody's looking.

Just another reason that each and every parent ought to be doing something to volunteer at school, if for no other reason than to keep each other honest.

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Kudos to Papillion-LaVista Principal
For Letting Her Hair Down

Portal Elementary School principal Kathy Szczepaniak (my longtime friend!) followed through on a promise that left her with her hair dyed pink and green.

She challenged her Papillion-LaVista area pupils to collect at least 4,300 pounds of canned food for the hungry, and if they made the goal -- they beat it by nearly 300 pounds -- she would let them dye her hair at an all-school assembly.

It's a good lesson in goal-setting and motivation . . . and how "hair-raising" it can be to be a principal these days!

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Gold Star Learning Idea:
Kid-Produced School Broadcast

Three cheers for the educators at Ashland Park-Robbins Elementary Schoool, 5050 S. 51st St., for putting together a daily closed-circuit TV broadcast produced by sixth-graders.

The production studio has been set up since 2003 in the school library. Students in teams of four take turns being "on air" talent, and working the controls, lights and teleprompter.

Content appears to be adult-created, rather than student-generated, to avoid slipping into nonproductive themes, no doubt. But that's OK; you can't have everything. Content includes a weather forecast, announcements, lunch menu, guest teachers, and the Pledge of Allegiance. There's a scrollover announcing birthdays of famous people and students at that school, and they're experimenting with more technology such as a "green screen" that will allow a student reporter to appear with different video backgrounds.

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Tuesday, January 13, 2009


Kearney School Foundation Embezzlement Scandal
Highlights Need for Fiscal Oversight

The financial credibility of Nebraska educators sure took a big kick in the pants this week as a school foundation chief in Kearney pleaded no contest to felony theft and faces up to 20 years in prison for embezzling over a half-million dollars within three years.

The case of Angela Regenos should alert board members of Nebraska's several public school foundations to immediately order an outside audit of their books. And if any financial corruption is found, the people responsible should immediately be prosecuted or made to resign, and the money replaced.

School foundations are supposed to collect tax-deductible donations to use for education-related benefits that there are no tax revenues to support. Usually, foundations provide scholarships for student leaders and help with special projects such as performing arts centers and extras for athletics. They typically subsidize before- and after-school programs for low-income students whose parents can’t pay the full freight.

In Kearney, Mrs. Regenos admitted to embezzling $577,277 from 2005 to 2008, the three years for which the Nebraska statute of limitations permits her to be prosecuted. Kearney officials claim nearly $300,000 more was filched dating back to 2001.

The 46-year-old has told authorities that she forged signatures, altered bank records, gave misleading financial statements and incorrect information to accountants, and used the ill-gotten lucre to buy jewelry and other goods.

The district is suing her and has cashed in an insurance policy to recover $250,000.

Read more on:

http://nebraska.statepaper.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2009/01/13/496c6fced134d

And if you suspect a foundation or other ed-related nonprofit might be experiencing financial corruption because of a huge disparity between revenues received and services delivered, you can get a good start on looking in to your concerns on this website, which provides a peek at IRS Form 990’s for nonprofits:

www.guidestar.org

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