Donations for MCPS "backpacks" puts $133,500 salary in director's pocket.

From the MCPS Educational Foundation 990 form shown on Guidestar:

The MCPS Educational Foundation runs the MCPS backpacks campaign. http://mcpsgivebackpacks.org

BEWARE of Donations to MCPS "Foundation". Foundation has $7.7M in assets. State Audit Finding shows MCPS did not have a memorandum of agreement with its affiliated foundation to address each entity’s roles and responsibilities.

Maryland Office of Legislative Audits finding related to the MCPS Educational Foundation that is currently requesting donations for student school supplies. What do they really do with your donations? 

Finding 13 

MCPS did not have a memorandum of agreement with its affiliated 

foundation to address each entity’s roles and responsibilities. 

Analysis 

MCPS did not have a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with its affiliated 

foundation (Montgomery County Public Schools Educational Foundation) to 

address each entity’s roles and responsibilities. The Foundation is a tax exempt 

charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Service 

(IRS) code that was created in 1988. According to filings with the IRS and its 

website, the Foundation’s purpose is to support and enhance the educational goals 

established by the Board of Education of Montgomery County, which it 

accomplishes through fundraising and providing grants to teachers and 

scholarships to students. 

According to the Foundation's fiscal year 2020 audited financial statements, 

revenues and expenditures totaled $1.8 million and $1.2 million, respectively. 

Additionally, as of June 30, 2020, the Foundation’s assets totaled $7.7 million, 

which primarily consisted of cash of $1.2 million and investments of $6.5 million. 

The Foundation’s unrestricted funds totaled approximately $2.3 million. 

Under the circumstances, given the Foundation’s public purpose and its 

relationship to MCPS, it would be appropriate to enter into a formal MOA that 

specifies the roles and responsibilities of each entity, which could include the 

following: 

 The Foundation’s solicitation, collection, and administration of funds. 

Although the Foundation had an investment policy, the policy did not address 

controls over collected funds including proper collateralization of funds, the 

use of interest bearing accounts, and procedures for the accounting and 

reporting of fund balances. The policy also did not address the need for a 

long-term plan that maximizes the use of unrestricted funds. 

 The Foundation’s conflict of interest policy for board members and 

Foundation employees. Although the Foundation had an ethics policy, the 

policy was not as comprehensive as those provided for under the State Ethics 

law, which addresses standards of conduct, ethics training, and completing 

annual financial disclosures by board members and officers. Such a policy 

would provide additional assurance regarding the integrity of the Foundation’s 

board and its processes, and should include a requirement to advise MCPS of 

conflict of interest issues. 

 The Foundation’s procurement policies for purchases donated to MCPS. 

 The Foundation’s submission of an annual audit report to MCPS’ Board of 

Education. 

 MCPS’ sharing of priorities, projects and resource requirements; including the 

sharing of any non-private data to assist the Foundation’s effort. 

 MCPS’ providing of any in-kind support functions and the use of its facilities 

to the Foundation. 

Recommendation 13 

We recommend that MCPS enter into an MOA with its affiliated Foundation 

detailing the roles and responsibilities for each entity in critical areas such as 

conflicts of interest, collection and safeguarding funds, and procurement 

policies.

MCPS22 MD Office of Legisla... by Parents' Coalition of Montg...

MCPS Did Not Get $30,000 to Pay Down School Lunch Debt. A Private Foundation with a Paid Director & Expenses Got $$.

Multiple media outlets have reported that "Montgomery County Schools just got $30,000 of school lunch debt paid off" but that is not what just happened.

Money was donated to a private foundation that has a director that is paid $103,002 for 32 hours of work per week.  

The MCPS Foundation has a Director and expenses. That means that any donation to this private foundation will not go directly to student lunch accounts.  The Foundation will take a cut and how the funds will be used will never actually be known.

The MCPS Foundation does not provide any transparency or accountability for the expenditure of funds beyond what is shown on the 990 filed with the IRS.  The MCPS Foundation is not subject to any public audit or public accountability.

From the most recent 990 filed with Guidestar we learn that the MCPS Foundation has about $5.9 Million in investments.  Apparently those funds will not be used to pay off any lunch debt.

We also learn that one of the major Foundation projects is to throw a big breakfast "confab" for administrators and elected officials with a few students included.  The Foundation is paying for food, but not just for children who need lunch.

$635,806 of Foundation dollars goes to the big "confab" breakfast and to grants to administrators.  That's over half a million dollars that doesn't appear to go to classrooms, lunchrooms, or children.  If the Foundation would like to provide details on these expenses, we would be happy to post their detailed financial information.

2018  - IRS 990

2017 - IRS 990

MCPS Foundation 990 by Parents' Coalition of Montg... on Scribd

MCPS Foundation 990 by Parents' Coalition of Montg... on Scribd

MD v. Dallas Dance: Statement in Support of Plea of Guilty

   Maryland v. Dallas Dance - Statement of Facts in Support of Guilty Plea by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland on Scribd

***Former Baltimore County schools leader Dallas Dance pleads guilty to perjury

Former Baltimore County school superintendent Dallas Dance pleaded guilty Thursday to four counts of perjury for failing to disclose nearly $147,000 he earned from consulting jobs — including payments from a company he helped win a no-bid contract with the school system.

Prosecutors recommended a sentence of five years and want Dance to serve 18 months in jail. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for April 20, Dance’s 38th birthday.

Maryland State Prosecutor Emmet C. Davitt read a lengthy list of facts that laid out in detail how Dance repeatedly deceived the school board and ethics officials and manipulated the purchasing process to award a contract to a company that was paying him for consulting.

The facts show that Dance began negotiating for private consulting work with executives of the Chicago company, SUPES Academy, shortly after he was hired as Baltimore County schools superintendent in July 2012.

Dance told the executives that he needed to make more money due to a divorce, Davitt said in Baltimore County Circuit Court.

“Keep me as busy as you can,” Dance reportedly told one of the SUPES executives, Davitt said.

Davitt also said Dance vowed to a SUPES official that he would fire a Baltimore County Public Schools employee in order to get a no-bid contract for SUPES, which the school board approved in December 2012.

After his private consulting work with the school contractor became public in media reports, Dance lied to ethics officials about payments from his SUPES job and begged SUPES executives not to provide information to the ethics panel, Davitt said.

He also provided false documents to the school system’s ethics panel that showed any income he had earned was going to the school system’s education foundation. It was not, Davitt said.

Dance told SUPES executives not to worry because the ethics panel has no subpoena power. He also said that if they turned over any documents “he might as well kill himself.”...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/bs-md-dallas-dance-trial-20180305-story.html

How many backpacks do MCPS students need?

The MCPS side foundation has already purchased 40,000 backpacks for students for August, yet here is a charity also collecting backpacks.

Are this many backpacks needed, or is this just a way to fund raise?

Gazette:  Backpack donations needed for schoolchildren

Interfaith Works is collecting backpacks this summer to help children as they start the next school year...

Pasternak is on MCPS Foundation too

MCPS EF Form 990 for 2010

Q.  What do the Crossway Montessori School (that wants the former Pleasant View Elementary School building for a charter school), MSI Soccer (that wants the 20 acre Brickyard Middle School site for a private soccer club) and the MCPS Educational Foundation (that just took in $11,000 from the United States Golf Association) have in common?

A.  Jerry Pasternak.

But you wouldn't know that by looking at the MCPS Educational Foundations website. The website doesn't disclose the complete list of foundation directors. The website only shows 11 Directors. 

For the complete list of the 16 Directors for the MCPS Foundation one has to go to IRS Form 990 shown below. On that list Jerry Pasternak's name is disclosed along with the names of directors Jerry Weast, Pat Baptiste, Barry Meyer, and Mitchell Paul.  According to the IRS Form 990 each Director spends an average of 2 hours per week on Foundation business. 


2 hours a week average? What's going on at the MCPS Foundation? 

MCPSEF 990 2010