KUSA – The AmeriCorps program at Denver Public Schools will be terminated immediately in wake of an investigation that found the district did not comply with their grant requirements and must now pay back $200,000 to the federal Corporation for National and Community Service.
This announcement was made Wednesday afternoon at the conclusion of an investigation by Serve Colorado, the state agency that administers the federal AmeriCorps program. DPS said in a news release it is now reviewing its policies when it comes to grant management.
AmeriCorps is a network of national service programs where members are eligible for an education award by committing their time to community service. DPS said its AmeriCorps program allows members to “serve qualifying hours in exchange for education credits."
According to a news release from DPS, the Serve Colorado review revealed that the district violated the rules of AmeriCorps grants by enrolling existing employees like paraprofessionals, math fellows and teacher residents in the program.
Now that AmeriCorps has been terminated at DPS, the district said it is using money from the general fund to reimburse employees who were getting paid by grants.
DPS said in a news release there are 475 AmeriCorps members in the program and the district expects to pay $1 million to $1.8 million to reimburse them over the next seven years.
The district’s teacher residents will also continue to receive the living stipend from DPS, according to the news release.
DPS put the AmeriCorps program on hold in May when they announced the start of the investigation.
In that news release, DPS said it has administered the AmeriCorps program for eight years with the goal being bolstering attendance.
Recently, DPS started recruiting math fellows, teacher residents and paraprofessionals into the program – which is where Serve Colorado found the violations of the grants occurred.
DPS admitted to 9NEWS this whole thing was their fault.
"There was a process flaw in our system," said Mark Ferrandino, the district's Chief Financial Officer. "These are usually lower-wage individuals working in our schools. Through this program, we’re able to give them education reimbursements."
On the high-end, some members were expecting just under $6,000 to help with tuition if they go back to school at any point in the next seven years. They could also use that money to help pay off student loans.
The Corporation for National and Community Service was tipped off in March that something was off during the 2017-18 school year.
Ferrandino said members were supposed to work their hours for DPS and then serve additional hours for the AmeriCorps grant. Because of an error on the district's part, some of those hours overlapped.
Antonio Mendez, the executive director of Serve Colorado, said that was the biggest problem; AmeriCorps can't displace existing staff.
Ferrandino said the district agreed with Serve Colorado's findings and conclusions.
The $1.8 million the district will have to pay those staffers over the next several years is out of a $1 billion annual operating budget.
While this $1.8 million is taxpayer money, the original grant money from AmeriCorps was funded through federal tax dollars, Ferrandino said.
