In response to a request from alumni of the private Milton Hershey School in Hershey, Pa., the Pennsylvania attorney general has requested a review of the school’s finances.
The office of Attorney General Ernest D. Preate Jr., which has jurisdiction over the school because it is a charitable trust founded by the chocolate maker Milton Hershey, has also started a study of any potential conflicts of interest among the school’s board of managers.
That investigation also was prompted by alumni, but there is no indication of any wrongdoing, said Jack Lewis, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
The financial accounting will cover transactions since 1984 and is expected to take more than a year, Mr. Lewis said.
Since the firing of six top administrators this summer, the school has been rocked by turmoil, including public protests and marches by staff members, parents, and students. (See Education Week, Sept. 15, 1993.)
Relations between the school and its alumni have been strained, but both sides are cooperating in the investigations, Mr. Lewis said.
School officials agreed in August to continue to provide vocational instruction along with a college-preparatory program.
The residential school offers a tuition-free education to disadvantaged children in grades K-12. Its $2.9 billion endowment makes it one of the nation’s wealthiest schools.