When it comes to the St Joseph School District, we’re still learning.

We’re learning some disturbing things about the financial activities of the district. Based on interviews with multiple sources, on and off the record, a pattern of inappropriate, unethical, possibly illegal behavior emerges that goes back more than twenty years. This behavior goes far beyond the stipends that we know about.

We’re learning it dates back decades. It taxes the imagination how officials have pillaged our tax dollars. It hyper-extends our vocabulary to come up with synonyms that do justice to the term “stipend.” We’ll give it a shot.

We’re learning of all manner of payments and other perks given to district administrators. These include a free masters degree, an MBA no less. That’s right: a top administrator was repaid the cost of tuition at a private college when he graduated. He was repaid in the form of a direct payroll check for approximately $20,000.

We’re learning of double dipping, the payment of travel expenses to a top administrator who also drove a district vehicle, powered by fuel intended for school buses or charged on a district credit card. There might even be some pilot lessons involved. The list is now as varied as it is outrageous. All of this was on the public dime, and most of it was never clearly reported to elected officials.

We’re learning about just HOW they did it. Top brass in the district have, for decades, taken advantage of the accounting system to quietly hand out millions of dollars to themselves and their top lieutenants, outside the normal scrutiny focused on public spending.

We’re learning that school boards, past and present, have largely ignored their oversight role. Board members have a pretty good excuse for the oversight oversight. We’re also learning that district officials have gone to great lengths to keep the actual numbers away from board members.

We’re learning that those boards of education approved the so-called salary schedules without actually comparing the dollar-total with the total dollars actually spent. The bottom lines in the so-called salary schedules have rarely, if ever, matched the amount of money actually paid to the employees on that schedule. Personnel contracts, and the salary schedule, such as it is, are both managed by the Human Resources Department, and ultimately by the superintendent. The extra perks, bonuses, job benefits…okay “stipends”…are not routinely reported to the Board of Education. They haven’t been for decades.

We’re learning that until recently almost no one within the St Joe School District was willing to actually perform this simple act of arithmetic. We’re learning that some of them have actually taught math. At least one has an MBA.

We’re learning that the Human Resources Director or the Superintendent needed only to notify the business office, in writing, via a so-called “transmittal,” how much money should be paid and to whom, and the business office would then cut the checks.

We’re learning, long after the fact, because of the very private nature of personnel matters. Negotiations, contracts, administrative leave, and firings, are generally considered private by the law, and are considered privately by elected officials. They are generally considered in executive session. The first of the jaw-dropping stipend revelations were considered, and approved, months after the fact, in executive session.

We’re learning the lengths to which district officials have been willing to go to keep their secret cash-stash a secret. We’ll soon learn if their efforts to hide their the double-dealing, and to hush it up, rises to the level of obstruction of justice. That’s in addition to questions of whether any public money was misused, any false documents filed, or any money laundered.

Stay tuned. We hope to learn much more this week, when the spit REALLY hits the spam. At the St Joseph School District, we’re still learning.