A federal grand jury has indicted 11 more people in the widening corruption probe of the New Orleans public schools.
Those implicated in the indictments, announced on Dec. 16, include teachers, school secretaries, employees of the district’s credit union, and two representatives of insurance companies that did business with the school system. The alleged thefts involved kickbacks, forged paychecks, and other schemes.
At one district middle school, teachers allegedly conspired with other employees to alter records of the amount of time that they had filled in as substitutes for their colleagues, thus increasing their pay, according to Jim Letten, the U.S. attorney in New Orleans. In all, 24 individuals have been charged so far as a result of the investigation in the 70,000-student district. (“Schools Probe in City Yields Theft Charges,” July 14, 2004.)
