With all the talk of a forensic audit of the Cherokee County School District, I decided to do a little snooping myself.

What I discovered leads me to believe that there might be a lot of skeletons rattling around in records of the past several years.

I made a request on July 16 for the following information under the S.C Freedom of Information Act:

1. Copies of all bills, checks and change orders related to the construction of the GHS stadium;

2. List of payments made relative to the scoreboard at the new stadium and revenue received from the football booster club used to pay for said scoreboard;

3. Amount paid annually for maintenance and operation of said scoreboard;

4. Number of football team meetings and any other school-related meetings held in booster club building at stadium, cost to construct the building and annual maintenance cost, including utilities;

5. Records of any relatives of district administrators hired by the district in the past two years who did not have certification or degrees and were placed in teaching positions;

6. Any records of purchases made in the past 5 years to upgrade facilities from ‘sole source’ vendors;

7. Records pertaining to the district’s purchase of ‘white boards,’ including all bids and/or pricing from competing providers. Please name any employees of provider who are related to top district administrators;

8. Qualifications/degrees, educational background, etc. of former superintendent Bill James and assistant superintendent Andy Jones;

9. Records of salary payments made to former football coach Phil Strickland, including any stipends. Please include minutes that show board approval of said payments.

10. Copy of the report on the alleged sexual harassment by Andy Jones and Tracy Schultz.

A little more than a week ago I received a 8x11x17 box full of most of the information I requested.

While much of it will take weeks to go through and decipher, some of it makes it very clear to me that a fullfledged audit of the school district spending over the past several years should be approved by trustees.

Interim superintendent Kim Bagwell provided the requested information without hesitation, with only one exception and that is being handled by the district’s attorneys.

Some of the things I discovered are as follows:

1 & 2 & 3. After all change orders, the total cost of construction for the GHS stadium came to $10,078,748.

Add construction management fees of $334,732 and the total goes to $10,413,480. Add about $500,00 for the overflow parking and another $600,000 or so for the scoreboards and we’re at $11,500,000. I know the scoreboard was a Booster Club project, but I found out who the anonymous donor was that enabled the project to proceed: The Bobby Dickens Endowment Fund. But even with that $70,000 contribution (maybe more — it’s difficult to sort through all of the paperwork), there wasn’t enough raised to cover the entire cost, so the district (and most times when I use the term ‘district’ I am referring to former superintendent Bill James) negotiated a 5-year maintenance contract with the provider to cover the remaining cost.

But back to the stadium itself. How or why were so many items necessary to the stadium’s construction left out of the initial contract? Lighting? Sprinkler for fire protection? Turf? And more. I suspect that those pushing the stadium — James and others — knew the true total cost with everything included would jeopardize voter and board approval of a new stadium. With an initial estimate of $5.5 million going to eventually $11.5 million what do you think?

4. The “team meeting room” cost $560,000 and has been used sparingly at best for that stated purpose. I maintained, and continue to do so, that it was built for the booster club and again pressed for by ‘the administration.’

5. This is very interesting. Only one person was found in searching for this information. It so happens the daughter of then-assistant superintendent Andy Jones was hired as a full-time teacher at Goucher in March, 2008, despite the fact that she did not have a certificate. Not only that, but she did not have a college degree. She was practice teaching in another district when the position came open. She received teacher benefits like all other teachers. Interesting to note that on the ‘Request of Personnel Action’ date 3/23/09 there is a note at the bottom: No Agenda Per AJ.

Under comments was a note: “Per Andy Jones and Dr. James Will graduate in May.”

6. Still working on the ‘sole source’ stuff. It’s a thick stack of paper.

7. Still working on this one, too.

8. Jones is certified in three areas: Driver Training, Health & Physical Education and Secondary Principal. He was an ISS teacher from 91- 98, administrative assistant at GHS from 98-99 and assistant principal at GHS from 99-03. Then he was named assistant superintendent by Bill James, whose records were not available.

Anyone see what I see?

9. Phil Strickland received a stipend of $5,000 for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years, boosting his compensation to more than $92,000. Current School Board Chairmen Billy Blackwell said Tuesday trustees told James they could not approve a raise for Strickland. “We told him if Phil wanted to leave, let him leave, but we could not give him a raise,” Blackwell said. “I don’t know where the $5,000 stipend came from, but we sure didn’t approve it.” The only additional money for coaches that trustees approved was for playoff stipends for all varsity coaches, he said.

No minutes were provided indicating board approval of the stipend for Strickland, but records on the district website show trustees, at the Jan. 14, 2008 meeting, did give James authority to negotiate with an unnamed employee — presumably Strickland — what had been discussed in executive session. Strickland received a $1,500 playoff stipend for each of the past two years, making his total compensation $92,569.

10. Request was referred to attorneys.

A lot of unanswered questions remain. Shouldn’t we dig until we get the answers?

Cody Sossamon (cody@gaffneyledger.com) is publisher of The Gaffney Ledger.