Investigation wanted into Chicago schools athletics after official pay issues

A state lawmaker is calling for an audit of state tax dollars being sent to Chicago Public Schools for athletics after officials, coaches and some staff went without pay for multiple weeks last month.About 70 school sports officials went 3-4 weeks without pay due to what was initially described as a “software glitch” from a third-party vendor, Arbiter, the company that the district switched its payment system to recently.
But local officials, including state Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, blamed the payment issues, which led to a work stoppage and the cancellation of some student games, on the district’s Sports Executive Director Devon Morales.
Buckner introduced a resolution in the House calling on the Illinois Auditor General’s office to conduct an audit of state funds that go to the district for athletics.
“We found out that not just the referees weren’t getting paid, there were coaches that weren’t getting paid, there were athletic directors not getting their stipend,” Buckner said. “I wanted to take a step back. I wanted to look at the program and the system to see what they were doing with the dollars because there seems to be some real questions about where spending is happening where it’s not happening.”
He said it was important that the problem be identified, as some students missed out on crucial games and the public employees not being paid could’ve been a violation of state law.
“We have a prompt payments act with the state government that if there are public dollars involved, and somebody is doing work and not getting paid, that’s a violation of the law,” Buckner said. “These students were not just missing out on education, on their athletic experience, but many of them who are juniors and seniors are in the running for scholarships. This is affecting their recruiting process.”
The employees who didn’t initially receive paychecks mostly had backpay settled after CPS released expedited funds to resolve the issue.
The payment of sports officials isn’t the only funding concern on the mind of lawmakers and top CPS officials, as the district’s recently passed budget for the current school year counts on $150 million that hasn’t been allocated by the General Assembly.
Some Chicago-area lawmakers hope to approve the additional funding for the district during the coming fall veto session in November and December.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has multiple times been skeptical about the state approving the additional funds, including in the WTTW gubernatorial candidate forum Tuesday night.
“We raised funding for schools across the state in this last budget, the one that we’re in now, $300 million. Now, that’s important to remember because we’re doing that every year because we need to catch up in school funding,” Pritzker said. “But we can’t just magically come up with $150 million when one school district or another asks for it.”

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