PARENTS GROUP ASKS A HOST OF FEDERAL AND STATE AGENCIES TO LAUNCH INVESTIGATIONS INTO BUFFALO PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

ALLEGATIONS INCLUDE MALFEASANCE, CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AND CRIMINAL FRAUD. The District Parents Coordinating Council (DPCC) has requested that 6 state and federal agencies launch investigations into the operations of the Buffalo Public Schools, alleging violations that include malfeasance, civil rights violations and criminal fraud. The DPCC seeks intervention by the U.S. Attorney General, the NYS Attorney General, the U.S. Department of Education/Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Department of Education/Office of Civil Rights, the NYS Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Justice Department/Civil Rights Division. The DPCC requested that state and federal oversight agencies initiate investigations into the procurement and use of $911 million in taxpayer money that have flowed from local, state and federal government agencies to the BPS in each of the past three school years. This latest call for outside investigations in the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars in state and federal funds comes on the heels of the removal of key high ranking school officials tasked with overseeing federal and state grants: Debbie Buckley, Richard D. Thompson and, now, Debbie Sykes. In early September 2013, the DPCC received copies of the 2013-14 School Comprehensive Education Plans (SCEPs) that the BPS submitted to NYS education officials in late August 2013. We also received a copy of the 2013-14 District Comprehensive Improvement Plan submitted to the NYS Education Department by the BPS. Upon review of the 2013-14 School Comprehensive Education Plans: of the 56 SCEPs submitted, 34 had no required signatures of those who developed the plan at all; of the 22 plans that had some type of stakeholder signature, only 11 had one or more parent signatures; of the 11 that contained at least one parent signature, 7 contained signatures that we know are fraudulent, including one that we have publicly disclosed was forged. The Buffalo Public Schools submitted the 2013-14 District Comprehensive Improvement Plan without any of the statutorily required parent signatures and the three parent signatures that were obtained were obtained by trick and deceit. On each of the 56 School Comprehensive Education Plans and the single District Comprehensive Improvement Plan, both the Superintendent of the BPS and the President of the

BPS Board of Education endorsed and approved these facially deficient documents before they were submitted to NYS education officials. Buffalo Public School Superintendent Pamela C. Brown, Ed.D. and Board of Education President Dr. Barbara Seals Nevergold knew, or should have known, that these educational plans were grossly inadequate and constituted a fraud upon the students and parents of the Buffalo Public Schools. The actions of the BPS officials, in the development and submission of the 2013-14 SCEPs and DCIP, raises serious questions as to whether or not their behavior moves beyond issues of competency or gross negligence into the realm of criminal culpability. importantly, since the development of the SCEPs and DCIP is highly suspect, to the extent that we cannot objectively verify who is actually responsible for their development, we are concerned about the integrity and veracity of the educational plans laid out for our kids. As a direct consequence of the DPCC to challenge the school district to move students in low performing schools who have requested transfers to schools in good standing, the DPCC has called on the Civil Rights divisions of the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Department of Education to investigate whether or not the BPS criteria based school admissions policies have a disparate impact on minority students in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Congressman Brian Higgins, NYS Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes, NYS Assemblyman Timothy Kennedy, and NYS Senator Mark Grisanti support DPCCs requests for state and federal intervention into the operations of the BPS. For additional information, please contact Samuel L. Radford, III, President of the DPCC at (716) 578-3571. -EndMore