Former CPS principal and network chief defrauded district of nearly $89K, watchdog finds

When a high-level Chicago Public Schools official left for a job running a charter school in Indiana, he took with him the phony billing scheme that he ran here.

The former CPS principal and mid-level manager defrauded nearly $89,000 from the district before leaving for the neighboring state where he obtained more money in a similar scheme, according to an annual report published Wednesday by CPS Inspector General Philip Wagenknecht’s office.

The CPS inspector general detailed this and several other cases in which staff bilked the district. In another major finding, the school district will have to pay back $1 million to the federal government after submitting grant applications with false student enrollment data.

Other findings highlighted in the report include a former CPS special education teacher who operated an OnlyFans page that featured explicit photos and videos, including two photos taken in her school’s bathroom. Another special education teacher lied to the OIG during investigations into misconduct and used his CPS email to register for an adult “sugar daddy” dating website.

Previous reports from the inspector general’s office outlined COVID relief fraud in the district. In November the inspector general’s office detailed waste and abuse in district spending on staff and student travel.

Although the dollar amounts in the latest findings aren’t as high as previous cases, Wagenknecht said every dollar needs to be accounted for.

“Some of these fraud cases don’t have huge price tags on them, but tens of thousands or a hundred thousand of public money is too much to be stolen or misused,” Wagenknecht said. “It is by no means small potatoes.”

One such case involves former CPS principal and network chief Brian Metcalf. From 2012 to 2017, Metcalf worked with former CPS vendor Kimberly Maddox to generate fake invoices for goods and services that were never provided, splitting the proceeds after receiving payment from the district.

Metcalf and Maddox admitted to the conspiracy as part of a plea agreement in a federal case against them involving a similar scheme to defraud a nonprofit organization and a charter school network in Indiana after Metcalf left CPS in 2018.

Last year Metcalf and Maddox admitted to federal prosecutors of employing their false invoice strategy at Tindley Accelerated Schools in Indiana, where Metcalf served as chief executive from 2019 to 2022, receiving nearly $1 million in the scheme.

They admitted to doing the same at CPS, netting $88,500.

During his CPS career, Metcalf oversaw a network of schools and was principal at Gage Park High School and Field Elementary. When he was in those posts he submitted invoices for services purportedly provided by Maddox, including grant-writing training and student financial aid counseling.

However, copies of Maddox’s resume found in Metcalf’s email showed “she appeared to lack any professional experience with these topics,” the report states. Maddox and Metcalf also appeared to have a personal relationship.

Metcalf is set to be sentenced in the federal case in April, and he and Maddox agreed to pay CPS restitution.

In another case, CPS must pay back $1 million to the federal government after obtaining grants based on inflated enrollment numbers of its Native American students.

The manager of CPS’ American Indian Education Program submitted applications that overstated the number of enrolled Native American students to increase the amount of funding the district received, according to the report.

CPS’ program receives funding from the Indian Education formula grant, which provides cultural and educational programming to students with Native American ancestry. Funds are allocated based on the number of students enrolled in the American Indian Education program.

The inspector general began investigating the case in 2021, finding that staff routinely inflated the number of students enrolled in the program. The OIG recommended discipline against the manager of the program and their supervisors after the investigation, also recommending more oversight.

“It should have been corrected then,” Wagenknecht said.

But the OIG opened a second investigation in 2023 after concerns that the district continued to submit inflated numbers in its applications. Between 2016 and 2023 the district received $1,194,935 in grant funding based on false student data, according to the report.

The program manager has been terminated and is on the district’s do-not-hire list.

In a statement, CPS said that at no point were students misidentified by race or ethnicity. It agreed to repay funds because it “could not fully verify” information identifying students as Native American.

“The repayment of funds should not be viewed as a fine, but rather as an agreement made in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education,” CPS said.

CPS did not apply for the grant in the current school year, but it plans to apply next year. The district said it was implementing “clear protocols for verifying tribal membership through federally recognized documentation from the student, parent, or grandparent.”