Dallas Schools to Repay HIV Education Money in Whistle-Blower Settlement

The Dallas Independent School District has settled an employee’s whistle-blower lawsuit by agreeing to repay the federal government about $336,000 in grant money it received for HIV education programs.

The money, paid over three years, was to provide two full-time employees for the program. The district, however, assigned those employees other duties and charged the costs to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant, according to the original lawsuit.

The whistle-blower, Becky Beck, complained to supervisors and filed a formal grievance with the district over the extra assignments. The district did nothing.

Instead of working on the CDC grant, which was to focus on HIV education and teen behavior surveys, Ms. Beck’s bosses had her doing employee CPR training, health seminars and curriculum writing, according to her attorney.

Ms. Beck’s attorney, Rob Wiley, said DISD took the money from the CDC grant and "pretty much did whatever they wanted to with it."

The district admits no wrongdoing in settling the case, spokesman Jon Dahlander said. The district says it settled the lawsuit to "avoid delay, uncertainty, inconvenience and expense of protracted litigation."

The lawsuit has been under seal since it was filed in October 2006. The settlement was made public by a judge after all parties signed off on it this week.

As a victorious whistle-blower, Ms. Beck earns a $47,400 reward from the government for exposing the deception.

The district has run afoul of grant-spending rules recently. Preliminary results from two independent audits under way indicate that the district may have misspent as much as $17.5 million in grant funds from the federal government’s Title I and 21st Century after-school program.

—–

To see more of The Dallas Morning News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dallasnews.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Dallas Morning News

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.