Bridgeton's school board chief had maintenance crews work on her own home, and all the state wants is a "Corrective Action Plan"?
Taxpayers across New Jersey should be concerned about how authorities have bounced around an official finding that Bridgeton's Board of Education president used school district labor and equipment to do projects at her own home.
Doesn't this fall into the category of "theft of services"? Shouldn't Angelia Edwards be charged criminally?
Not necessarily, if Edwards paid the workers and used them outside of school hours. But, wouldn't it be some kind of ethical lapse, since Edwards and the whole board oversee these workers?
The findings state that interviews by the state Division of Criminal Justice's Corruption Bureau "corroborate the fact that on numerous occasions, several board employees, by performing maintenance work at Ms. Edward's residence, engaged in work outside the scope of their duties, during the course of business hours, and with district-owned machinery and/or equipment ... ."
That seems pretty cut-and-dried to us, except for this: A letter advising the Bridgeton district of the findings came not from Criminal Justice, but from the state Department of Education's Office of Fiscal Accountability and Compliance.
Criminal Justice conducted an investigation between January and May 2015, turning its evidence over to the Department of Education, which can impose only civil remedies. The DOE apparently referred the information to the School Ethics Commission, which took no action, then tossed the data to the DOE fiscal accountability unit. Based on their March 21 letter, the hungry tigers at this office directed the school board -- the board that Edwards now chairs -- to "complete a Corrective Action Plan to address these findings."
That's it? We hope not.
If the evidence against her is really flimsy, sending such an accusatory letter to the school board is a disservice to Edwards. If the evidence is as solid as it sounds, authorities have done a disservice to employees who told the truth -- probably at some personal risk -- in requiring no remedy stronger than an essay on how the school board can prevent future misuse of public resources. Maybe the board can have the staff write it on the blackboard 100 times.
Edwards, reached after our initial article was published, states that the Attorney General's Office found no wrongdoing, despite what it has "corroborated."
If she indeed used the personnel and equipment on district time, and hasn't at least made restitution, every New Jersey taxpayer is being played for a sucker. Bridgeton's impoverished district collects $79 million in state aid for its $107 million annual budget. What's the name of that DOE office? Isn't the word "accountability" in there?
Maybe things are moving ahead under the radar. All we can say is, if Edwards is still a member in good standing -- let alone the president -- of the Bridgeton Board of Education when it next meets on May 3, citizens should demand a probe into the people who probed this incident.
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