Page 62 of Honorable Sins

2:55 PM 06/17/2—

DELETE INCIDENT REPORT

DELETE INCIDENT REPORT

DELETE INCIDENT REPORT

His face drains.

"It doesn't prove—"

"It proves those files existed."

I zoom farther.

"It proves they were manually removed."

Another board member adjusts his glasses.

"When?"

"You can read the date and time stamp as well as I can," I shoot back, no patience for whatever is prompting him to ask the question whose answer is on the screen for everyone to see.

Which is about thirty minutes after we left Mark Bentley’s office the week before.

Bentley straightens.

"There are often duplicate reports."

I don’t even dignify that ridiculous attempt at an excuse for his behavior with a response.

Instead I tap on the next slide. It’s a map of the campus overlaid with colored dots denoting where the incidents occurred.

I look directly at Bentley. "You knew where the problems were."

"We have staffing shortages." He looks appealingly at the board. "You know I’ve asked for an increase in the staffing budget for the last two years."

"Don’t you dare try to make this about resources." I tap my tablet again. "This pie chart is an accurate breakdown of budget allocation by department after a trained accountant shifted several costs that had been assigned to the wrong budget umbrella."

I flash the next slide. "This is a list of items that were assigned the wrong budget designation, inflating the budget subsections for teaching staff, ongoing training, curriculum and classroom supplies."

Administrative office remodel.

Administrative conference attendance.

Administrative training.

Technology upgrades to administrative office computers and equipment.

Administrative clerical staff.

"As a parent who believed the teacher/aid-to-student ratio was significantly lower than it actually is, I would like to know why all but one of the office clerical assistants have been designated as teacher’s aids when they do not in fact work in the classroom."

I look around the room. "Tonight is not about the budget, but it’s clear we need to address these issues before the next fiscal year. My point with this is to show the issue is not financial resources, but their allocation. And that allocation does nothing to address the lack of adequate adult supervision in problematic areas on the campus."

I glare at Mark Bentley. "It does not account in any way for the dismissal of complaints by students and teachers of behavior that should have been addressed with disciplinary action."

"That is an administrative call," Mark says repressively.