In a letter dated Oct. 15, board member Larry Gauvreau cites an audit of the F&R lunch program that found over half of applicants ineligible to participate. He asks the inspector general?s office to investigate the situation.
Gauvreau writes:
Presently, the superintendent is in lockstep with a notorious board of education who refuses to perform a much needed comprehensive audit of our FRL program. Serious questions about internal mismanagement and potential fraud are being ignored. Worse yet, it?s possible that some of the 63,000 FRL students are intentionally being misreported so that the district can maintain a ?witches brew? of irregular education policy, wrongly tied to the USDA?s free and reduced-lunch status for children. The superintendent has also blocked my access to internal application data that I have asked to be delivered to your office for your review.
Regrettably, it?s clear that the board and superintendent have bunkered themselves on this matter. As you may know, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has a long history of such institutional misbehavior; we routinely cover-up and stonewall the public over matters that our board majority and superintendent deem too controversial, or that is in opposition to the status quo. When challenged, CMS?s response has generally been to entangle any unwanted scrutiny within its powerful, well-financed bureaucracy, hoping to wear down any dissent.
Ironically, the brouhaha in Charlotte is taking place in part during National School Lunch Week 2008.
