MCPS American Express Bill Up $1.4 Million from 2010

Superintendent Jerry Weast
FY 2010 American Express $ 5,257,632

FY 2011 American Express $ 5,571,127

Superintendent Joshua Starr

FY 2012 American Express $ 6,634,939

In Superintendent Jerry Weast's first year in MCPS the Board of Education (BOE) approved a contract with American Express to supply MCPS staff and BOE members with their own personal American Express cards, billable to you the taxpayer.  

The list of 1,400 MCPS American Express card holders was made public for the first, and only, time in 2008 by an MCPS parent.  

The Parents' Coalition investigated some of the uses of these credit cards and discovered some disturbing trends in the accounting practices for these cards.  

In 2009, the Maryland State Office of Legislative Audits confirmed what the Parents' Coalition investigation had shown.

The Board of Education does not monitor the use of these personal credit cards, and does not monitor the number of credit cards that are in circulation in MCPS.  It is unknown how many MCPS American Express credit cards are issued to individual MCPS staff and BOE members as of today.  What is known is that the total, annual American Express bill has been steadily increasing since 2010.  

Why has this bill increased?  What are these undocumented funds being spent on?