Whitney Young HS gave up big money in rent to insiders: IG report

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Whitney Young Magnet High School in 2010. File photo by Jean Lachat/Sun-Times

An internal Chicago Public Schools investigation has shown that the broke district gave up hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual rent by failing to charge a market rate for youth sports clubs using its facilities — clubs with financial ties to school employees.

Inspector General Nicholas Schuler wrote in a report that for years the for-profit clubs were charging participants for swimming, basketball and volleyball camps but paying minimal rent — if any at all — for use of school facilities.

While the report doesn’t name the school, calling it only “School One,” principal Joyce Kenner acknowledged that it is Whitney Young Magnet High School, one of the city’s top-rated high schools that requires impeccable test scores for admission and levies $500 in school fees per student this year.

Kenner confirmed that she has been given a written reprimand as a result of the investigation but denied doing anything wrong, saying that schools weren’t given any pricing guidelines.

Schuler’s report estimated that the swimming club alone forfeited an estimated $96,301 to $582,504 in possible rent revenue from August 2014 through September 2016. The club run by the school’s head aquatics coach was charged just $1.20 an hour to use the pool for his club that he had incorporated using the school’s address.

The volleyball club enjoyed up to $12,000 of free gym time to host a month-long series of volleyball camps at several CPS schools, including Young. Its owner — whose business reported $1.2 million in annual revenue according to Schuler — employed Whitney Young’s varsity volleyball coach. He admitted free usage dating back to 2011, Schuler wrote, thanks to the volleyball coach’s job at Young. She remains on staff, according to the school’s website.

And in a bizarre arrangement, the basketball club ended up owing $25,800 in back rent, agreeing to pay only $250 a week. But instead of paying out cash, the owner and principal agreed that he’d “donate” two basketball shooting machines worth about $12,000 that the school actually already owned.

Schuler accused the principal and assistant principals, both current and former, of “an unsettling willingness to allow school employees to use board resources to make money through their privately owned sports clubs,” costing the school and taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“Based on these conclusions, the OIG informed the board that School One’s principal’s and assistant principals’ actions should be a sobering wake-up call that a check is needed on school administrators’ discretion as to how much to charge when renting school facilities — particularly the discretion that currently is afforded to school principals.”

Nicholas J. Schuler, Inspector general for the Chicago Public Schools

Nicholas J. Schuler, Inspector general for the Chicago Public Schools

Brian Jackson/For the Sun-Times

But Kenner took issue with those figures, saying that the IG’s estimate “assumes there is a renter that exists who can afford and is willing to pay this rate. No other group has reached out to us to rent our pool.”

“I also did not enter into any ‘sweetheart’ deals with any rental contracts,” Kenner continued. “We generate approximately $200,000 each year from our rental agreements to support our educational initiatives, student needs, facilities, club and athletic programs. All of our rental contracts/permits have been accepted without objection from the CPS real estate department. We will continue to follow CPS policies and procedures throughout our organization.”

She also stood by the swimming coach, calling him a “respected staff member.”

Sparked by a CBS 2 Chicago story in March, the inspector general’s office began investigating and presented recommendations to the Board of Education in May.

Typically, his findings are publicized in an annual report each January. But Schuler said in an interview that since that frequently results in long delays of when the public receives updates, he recently decided the office will occasionally publish reports on major cases.

Disciplinary recommendations included firing the volleyball coach and disciplining the school’s current and former leaders, a principal and facilities manager at another CPS school, and the volleyball coach. He also told the board it should sue the volleyball club for back rent up to $12,130.

CPS spokeswoman Emily Bittner said that the district has disciplined several involved employees and stopped doing business with the sports clubs. CPS also is revising its real estate guidelines to clarify principals’ discretion around rentals.

“CPS takes the misconduct detailed in the report seriously and does not tolerate the exploitation of school resources for personal profit,” she wrote.

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