We shared our findings with Kerrie Dallman, President of the Colorado Education Association. “Listening to this recording I think every educator, every parent and every student should be very insulted,” said Dallman. “It’s sounding more and more like the financial crisis has been made up on the part of the district. That it’s not real and that it has been parents, students and staff that are paying the price.”
Hours of secretly recorded conversations obtained exclusively by FOX31 Denver News indicate school officials in the Adams 12 Five Star School District may have been intentionally hiding tens of millions of dollars in retirement benefit payments from the public.
“We did not want the public at large to know that we have these big stipends that people get when they exit the system,” said Superintendent Chris Gdowski. “We did try to bury it,” replied Chief Human Resources Officer Mark Hinson. “The way it has been shown is…off the budget,” said financial consultant Vody Herrmann.
That exchange was caught on tape by the school district’s internal auditor Gina Holub back in September.
Holub was meeting with the Superintendent and executive level staff to discuss concerns she had with the school district’s 2012-2013 budget.
“I recorded the conversation because I was concerned that school officials were hiding millions of dollars while cutting jobs and eliminating educational programs,” said Holub.
“Many of the cuts were not necessary. The school district is hiding more than $17 million dollars.” She was concerned that schools officials “were going to sweep it under the rug.”
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