Wauwatosa School District
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Published – August 1, 2022
Jake Daggett, a first-grade teacher at Wauwatosa Schools, posted on social media about how he “had a great pronoun discussion” with his students.
In January 2022, the district’s Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, Kristin Bowers, resigned after an internal investigation found that she violated policy with her involvement in the district’s contract and payments to her husband’s employer. In 2019, the district received legal advice stating that Bowers should stay out of any decision-making with the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) contract, a college and career prep program, because her relationship could be a “potential conflict of interest and appearance of impropriety.” However, Bowers reviewed the contract, approved a $22,950 AVID expense, and worked behind the scenes to sell the school board and public on the program.
The conflict of interest was discovered when FOX6 filed open records requests and began an investigation including more than 500 pages of public record emails, invoices, contracts and voicemails, along with interviews of current and former district employees. FOX6 reports that the school board ignored their interview requests until they began asking questions at board meetings. The board then put Bowers on leave, launched an internal investigation, and called the police.
The police report states that there was not enough evidence to press charges. However, the report says the district violated its own policies, ignored conflict of interest issues, and “failed to act” until FOX6 investigated. Wauwatosa Police referred the case to the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Inspector General, who identified fraud, waste, abuse, and criminal activity with federal funds.
The Wauwatosa School District has 6,917 students enrolled across 17 schools.
