EducationNews.org

The district is a target of the corruption scandal and the scandal is explocive.Everyone in Cleveland is following the corruption scandal in Cuyahoga County, which appears to be focused on three government officials, Dimora, Russo, and Kelley, who appear to have been involved in some sort of kickback schemes and quid pro quo shenanigans in which they abused the public trust.  The FBI raided their offices and homes and executed search warrants, including Kevin Kelley's office at the Parma City School District where he was the Board of E ducation President.  As recently reported in Education News (www.ednews.org) this corruption has been linked to the Parma City School District. Everyone needs to read it.

Parma City Schools are in rough budgetary shape.  They currently are trying to pass a levy that will increase taxes significantly. The Board is rightly concerned that the levy will not pass because of the public being outraged by the Parma Board's and Administration's link to the corruption.  Board Vice President Rosemary Gulik and other board members are campaigning for the levy, trying to divert attention from their culpability in the corruption scandal.  Yes, we said "theirs culpability." It did happen under their watch, and this board did allow Kelley unusual control of decision-making, which by the way he continues to wield. Why?

One of the dynamics of the Parma Board is that Kelley is the only male member.  The other members are older women, who Kelley has taken to bullying.  Even in recent executive session, when some of these women attempted to suggest Kelley resign for the good of the District, Kelley became verbally aggressive, which stifled the women.  At that point, Kelley quickly changed the subject to forcing an internal audit, as he believes this a move that will help cover his tracks.  He knows that an internal audit is not going to show that he and his fellow conspirators were give n anything directly by the District.  Once this internal audit is complete, he intends to waive it around in attempts defend himself.  But as was laid out in the Education News piece, the corruption involved benefits that do not show up in the books of the entities being ripped off.

Parma School Board Vice President Rosemary Gulik recently was a guest on WTAM 1100 campaigning for the levy.  She explained in the interview that Parma's special education budget is $700,000 under what it needs. How does this happen, when a great percentage of special education money comes directly from the State and the Federal governments?  Well, it's simple.  Litigation co sts.  Parma has been in continuing litigation with one family and has spent nearly $3,000,000 on that litigation, equating to about $700,000 each year.  Yet the program that they are litigating over for this child only has a value of about $60,000 per year.  Why would any entity pay ten times the amount of a program to lawyers instead of providing the special education services to the child?  There is a great deal of talk that Kelley was getting kickbacks from the firm.  (Squires Sanders and Dempsey is the firm representing the district.)  And as is pointed out in the Ed News piece, Vincent Carbone (convicted of bribery recently and now alleged to be in the protection of the FBI due to affidavits provided to them as part of his plea deal in which he ratted out Kelley, Dimora and Russo) was a board member in the Orange City School District and special education litigati on costs there shot through the roof, also with Squires Sanders and Dempsey being the firm involved.  And all of Cleveland has observed that this firm seems to be linked to the "players" in nearly every scandal that breaks into the news, whether it is a construction related, a bond issue, or something else. The interview of Ms. Gulik can be heard on the following link:

http://www.wtam.com/cc-common/mainheadlines3.html?feed=122520&article=4107388

What makes these legal costs particularly suspicious is that the Parma Schools, throughout most of the litigation, has had insurance.  The insurance company Ohio Casualty (formerly Indiana Insurance) has provided the school district an attorney to defend against the parents claim, and the insurance company has paid Britton, Smith, Kahail and Peters to provide one of their partners, Scott Peters as the attorney.  Yet still, Christina Peer of the Squires firm sits at every day of hearing billing, and the Squires firm has had over 20 attorneys working on the case duplicating the work of the Britton firm.  This is highly unusual.  One of the primary purposes of this type of insurance is to protect a district from the cost of having to pay an attorney to defend it.  What financial protection has this arrangement provided the Parma District?&nbs p; None. They are paying for the high cost insurance AND the attorney fees.  And why has the Parma Board made this arrangement?  Because it was instigated by Kelley!  Does anyone really think that the scandal is only related to construction contracts?

Take a look at the double-dipping of the Parma superintendent.  This superintendent is an empty chair.  Kelley and the Board had complete control over administrative decision-making, including contracts, hiring, legal issue, etc.   Sarah Zatik has no authority in the District, as supers do in other Districts.  All she has done is agreed to sit quiet while these shenanigans go on.  Her payoff?  Well, when her contract expires they allow her to retire to collect her pension and then rehire her on a salary.   She brings in nearly half a million dollars a year with this double dipping arrangement at taxpayer expense.  A payoff for her keeping quiet about the corruption?  That what we are hearing.

Kelley made very clear that he is not resigning from the Board, despite attempts to discuss it in executive session by other Board members.  Why?  Because Kelley knows that he needs to stay close to Parma so he can anticipate where the investigation is going and be in a position to cover his tracks—just at Russo and Dimora have no intention of going anywhere.  They have their networks of others who are involved in the corruption, and should they lose their holds on these networks, they will fall apart, and new individuals will come in and be able to expose more of the scandal.

                Kelley is deathly afraid of the special education scandal coming to light, which involved the Squires firm.  One of the key players in that scandal is the Director of Special Education Michelle Nolan.  Nolan was brought into the District by the Board when Kelley was president.  She came from Lakewood School District where she was an ill thought of low level special education administrator.  Sources there indicate she had been relegated to a back room and menial tasks because of her general inabilities. Out of nowhere, and without the legally required posting for the position, she gets hired as the Special Education Director in Parma.  Since then, she has been integral in driving up the District's legal costs.  < /span>Well, what might the payoff have been to Nolan?  The Lakewood health insurance plan would not cover her gastric by-pass surgery. (Reportedly she tipped the scales at over 400 lbs. at one time) But she gets brought into Parma and special arrangements had been made to cover this surgery and she takes medical leave for the surgery almost immediately after she is hired.  Then she returns to work and engages in a pattern of conduct that appears intended to drive up legal fees.  Kelley must stay on the Board to try to protect the others who are integral players in the shenanigans. Kelley will not be stepping down from the Board. 

On Kelley's old radio show and in interviews he has had with the press in the past, he was known to often quip, "It's for the children."  We should no w be asking Mr. Kelley what part of this scandal was for the children.  It really seems as if these schemes were well orchestrated by and for Mr. Kelley and the connections he has with organized crime.  If Kelley really wanted to do something for the children, he'd step down from the Board of Ed, disclose all of this corruption to the FBI so that all those responsible can be held accountable. 

Parma taxpayers, do you really want to funnel more of your hard earned money into the hands of organized crime?