MCPS and BOE Continue to Stonewall Rock Terrace Families: 4 Months, and Counting!

Below I have forwarded a copy of an email sent to Christopher Barclay, the president of the Montgomery County Board of Education on September 9. Over a month ago.
In the meantime, not a single member of the Board of Education has lifted a finger, or made a motion, to address the issues concerning Rock Terrace.
Even the Board Members on the Special Populations Committee, who hold themselves out as concerned for special needs students, have remained silent.

Make no mistake: the scheme at Rock Terrace was nothing less than FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES.

Larry Bowers, the Chief Operating Officer who is ultimately responsible for financial oversight of the school system, should immediately be removed from any involvement in coming up with a resolution for the affected families. The State's Attorney overseeing the investigation of the case has stressed that they will NOT be sharing evidence with MCPS, contrary to what Mr. Bowers implied to the Finance committee.

Chris Garran, the associate superintendent, admitted last night at the Rock Terrace PTG meeting that he knows nothing about any plan to calculate losses to families.

The only way to calculate losses to families is to hire an outside, independent forensic auditor to fairly and properly calculate how much money was stolen from each student.

The Rock Terrace mess has been known to MCPS since the end of May. Four months have gone by, and MCPS still has not developed a plan to "make it right" for the affected families.

The State's Attorney has made it crystal clear that families do not need to wait for the conclusion of the criminal investigation to initiate their civil remedies. It was my hope, fading fast, that such action could be avoided since there is NO QUESTION of the impropriety of (1) opening bank accounts for intellectually disabled students without their parents' knowledge, (2) failing to provide parents with copies of the bank statements and/or W-2 forms generated for them, (3) withdrawing various sums of cash from student accounts (4) transferring sums of money between student accounts, and (5) failing to account for where the money went.

We may never know where the money, withdrawn in cash, went. MCPS is responsible for that loss. But with effort, parents and an independent auditor can figure out how much money went INTO their students' accounts.

I would appreciate an answer by October 23rd as to whether MCPS intends to develop a plan to compensate students and families for their losses.

Lyda Astrove
Rockville, MD 20850

"Ad astra per aspera"



-----Original Message-----
From: Lyda Astrove
To: Christopher_Barclay
Sent: Mon, Sep 9, 2013 8:54 pm
Subject: Rock Terrace, Committee Meeting

Although I could not attend the committee meeting today where Rock Terrace was discussed, I have watched portions of the video.

http://www.parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2013/09/rock-terrace-school-audit-no-credit.html

I am EXTREMELY distressed by Larry Bowers' failure to be forthright with the Board of Education about the extent of the theft of money from Rock Terrace students.

Bowers kept saying over and over that they need to "piece together" where the money went when it was withdrawn, and that maybe it went for "programmatic purposes", as if that were somehow an acceptable use of the stolen money.

The bottom line is that MCPS has a way to calculate how much money was deposited over the years into different student accounts. And with the subpoena power of the State's attorney, eventually families will be able to ascertain how much money went into these accounts.

Whether the money was used for Rock Terrace School programmatic purposes, to pay the American Express Purchasing Card Bills (for which, by the way, there are no transaction logs apparently), to subsidize staff and staff's children's trip to London, England...it just doesn't matter. The money belonged to the student and should not have been withdrawn from their accounts.

I do not have confidence that the Chief Operating Officer, who let this situation go on for almost 10 years, is the person who should have ANY say-so whatsoever in determining whether and how much to reimburse these students. I renew my call for an outside, independent forensic accountant who will fairly determine what the students are owed.

While the state's attorney is investigating any criminal elements of this whole sorry scheme, you must realize that MCPS continues to face substantial civil liability as well. As a taxpayer, and as an advocate for children with disabilities, I had hoped that MCPS would see the immediate benefit in acknowledging fault, working promptly to ascertain damages, and take steps to make the students whole. Instead, what I saw on the video was evasiveness, obfuscation, and flat-out untruths.

For example: we know for a fact, and I have provided copies of documents to Roger Pisha, that before one student graduated from Rock Terrace, $340 dollars in cash was withdrawn from his bank account. Then, after he graduated, the rest of the money dribbled away in "inactivity fees" over several years. So not only was this student's money stolen from him, the rest of it was wasted specifically because MCPS let it be wasted.

Hire an accountant. Make it right.

Lyda Astrove
"Ad astra per aspera"