By Antonio D. French
Filed Thursday, July 13 at 5:00 AM
In light of the Post-Dispatch's reaction to the elimination of Floyd Irons' position in SLPS, school board member Bill Purdy reminded The Watch about this December 8, 2005 editorial:
The St. Louis School Board and Superintendent Creg Williams didn't even give Floyd Irons a slap on the wrist for the financial irregularities at Vashon High School. Instead, they cleared Mr. Irons, apologized to him for the bad publicity and gave the erroneous impression that prosecutors had exonerated him.
It was a stunning example of the lack of public accountability.
Mr. Williams, who said last month that he could probably find similar irregularities at almost any city high school, announced on Tuesday that the Irons matter was closed. Instead of disciplining Mr. Irons, a popular basketball coach, the superintendent announced a 15-step plan to tighten controls on the handling of money in the schools.
The action followed two audits that had pointed the finger of guilt at Mr. Irons. The audits found that major purchases at Vashon had not been properly requested or approved, including a $50,000 gym scoreboard, a $5,900 gym floor and about $100,000 in uniforms. Financial records had not been turned in for the 2003-4 school year, during which time Mr. Irons was acting principal. Ticket sales for some basketball games couldn't be accounted for. Mr. Irons had a contract with Nike to provide uniforms and equipment to the boys' basketball team, even though school funds were used to make similar purchases.
Post-Dispatch stories on the Vashon irregularities were based on copies of draft audits. If the final audit has more complete information that exonerates Mr. Irons, then the board should make it public. Meanwhile, the School Board has left a mistaken impression that Mr. Irons has been exonerated by St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce. Jeannette Graviss, Ms. Joyce's chief warrant officer, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that "the bookkeeping was so sloppy that there would be no way to determine if there was criminal behavior.... It is an exaggeration to say that the review exonerated anyone," she added. "That is completely false."
Ms. Graviss said she had reviewed an audit, but hadn't looked at any documents, such as checking accounts, balance sheets or receipts. Nor had she talked to Mr. Irons or to retired Athletic Director James Ford, who could not be found to answer questions about the district audits. She acknowledged that a fuller investigation that touched these bases might have found criminal wrongdoing, but still thought that the records mess would make prosecution difficult.
Mr. Irons is a great basketball coach with political clout. Getting to the bottom of the financial irregularities at Vashon would have taken a lot of gumption and willingness to take the heat from angry Irons supporters. This board and this superintendent have demonstrated they don't have it.
5 Comments:
The fact remains - Irons is a bully and educators are perplexed over how to eliminate bullying in students, so we need to not model it, not reward it, and certainly not laud it in adults. Vashon students deserve a real education, not false hopes of hoop dreams.
Thursday, July 13, 2006 7:16:00 AM
Watch out School Board here comes Iron Floyd. This guy can get himself out of more situations than anyone else I know. But do not back down make him put his money where his mouth is. Make him file the lawsuit just be sure you have the accounting books from Vashon when he was Principal there. Also get the MAP test results and ask if he is so concerned about education then why didn’t the test scores up instead of the stats of his basketball team. You have more than enough to defend your actions. End his association with the SLPS now!
Thursday, July 13, 2006 7:01:00 PM
Anon #2 is right. This is a destructive force which must end now if the students are ever to have a chance of succeeding in life after sports. Are we that blinded by our sports fever that we cannot see past it even for our children?
Thursday, July 13, 2006 9:10:00 PM
to all of the above: You are right on track! You can also throw into the mix the private use of the school gym on nights and weekends without the benefit of a use "building use permit" that is required by everybody else except for the Almighty Floyd. How much $ was spent for heating and cooling a building that should have been on "night set-back" to conply with the terms of the multi-million dollar EMS contract that we are now in violation of due to not tracking systems overrides?
Friday, July 14, 2006 6:26:00 AM
I could not believe what I was seeing on Fox 2 News tonight. Rob Desir first dug the tape out from when Irons was first accused of embezzling ticket and soda money where Irons repeatedly saying I am innocent. Next resurrecting tapes from students from two days ago when Irons was let go. There were new segments added but the best Irons statement is, “I like to talk and point out when people are not doing their jobs.” I cannot believe this, actually yes I can. Irons is using the media in particular his friends at Fox 2 News to the conduct his side of the court battle instead of spending his money to file a lawsuit. Irons is conducting a media blitz (only Fox 2 is continuing the story) to show how he is a victim with the current school board. Another statement Irons made truly showed that he is desperate and will try everything to make him look like the victim is playing the race card. Excuse me under the new “majority” I count three black and one white so how can race be a part of it. Face the facts Irons MAP scores did not improve while you were principal, there is money unaccounted for, discipline was out of control, you just did not play by the rules. One last thing during this past school year Vashon got new uniforms and equipment for their sports teams. Our coach had to go to another school district to get equipment that they were either going to throw out or take apart to use for spare parts. I thought his job was to supervise all of the Athletic Directors in all of the school not just Vashon (excuse me he still thinks he is the athletic director there as well). Noooooooo there isn't any conflict of interest here.
Friday, July 14, 2006 11:03:00 PM
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