Private programs falsifying paperwork, district officials say

Columbus City Schools are stepping up oversight of independent tutors paid for by the federal No Child Left Behind program, terminating eight contracts this school year.

The problems have ranged from students’ signatures being falsified to employees who weren’t paid, according to district documents.

Last week, the district sent a letter to Horn of Africa, a tutoring program in Linden, stating that it was rescinding its contract based on evidence that employees “falsified dates, times of attendance and student signatures on attendance forms.”

The district conducted an inspection in January of Horn of Africa and said it had found students on computers not receiving instruction, including some playing online games, according to a district report.

“No instruction taking place,” the district representative commented on the form.

Mussa Farah, who owns the service that was paid almost $83,000 in federal money during the 2009-10 school year, said an illness in his family distracted him from running the center, which he voluntarily closed after being notified recently of the problems.

Farah said that the claim that a student’s signature had been falsified came because a student who had signed in left tutoring early because of an illness.

“I never did anything wrong,” said Farah, who is a spokesman for the central Ohio Somali community and on Mayor Michael B. Coleman’s Community Relations Commission. “The decision to stop came from me. I had to fire the teachers and everyone who was there.”

Farah still operates a tutoring center for South-Western City Schools that runs on federal money.

In December, the district also terminated its agreement with the Hands-On Math and Reading Education tutoring center because a tutor hadn’t undergone a required criminal background check.

In October, the district notified the Somali Women and Children’s Alliance that its tutoring center agreement was being terminated “based upon evidence that your organization and/or its agents or employees falsified parent signatures.”

And in September, the district ended its agreement with WAISS Network Technologies because the firm failed to pay its tutors, according to the notification letter. Firm representative Ashkir Ali declined to discuss the issue.

Four other firms were disqualified recently because of paperwork technicalities, said Larry Braverman, general counsel for Columbus schools.

Last school year, the district ended its contract with American Community Service Inc. because a district monitor concluded that student sign-in sheets were being completed in advance. Service owner Ahmed Y. Abdi said that he decided to stop doing business with the district.

“They just wanted to see paperwork,” Abdi said. “They didn’t trust us, they didn’t trust the parents, they didn’t trust anybody.”

Abdi continues to do tutoring for South-Western City Schools, serving about 80 students, he said.

American Community Service, WAISS, the Somali alliance, Hands-On and Horn of Africa all remained on the Ohio Department of Education’s approved providers list as of yesterday.

Under federal law, parents of students whose schools are low-performing can choose to get tutoring from any provider who signs up with the state. Columbus schools paid more than $3.7 million last school year to 53 providers, Braverman said.

[email protected]

___
Source: Columbus Dispatch

Comments

comments