MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Two former Alabama superintendents and others conspired to create fake report cards and falsify documents in order to fraudulently inflate enrollment data at northern Alabama online schools and then steal reimbursements from state education funds, according to federal prosecutors.
Former Athens City Schools and Limestone County Schools educators were among six people indicted on dozens of conspiracy, identity theft and fraud charges, officials announced during a news conference Tuesday.
William L. Holladay III, 56, former superintendent of the Athens City Schools district; Deborah Irby Holladay, 57, former Athens City Schools district employee; William Richard Carter Jr, 45, executive director of planning for Athens City Schools; Thomas Michael Sisk, 55, former superintendent of the Limestone County Schools; David Webb Tutt, 61; and Earl Corkren, 56, were named as defendants in the case.
The indictment alleges that the public school systems wrongly counted private school students as being enrolled in online classes to boost their attendance and gain more state funding, news outlets reported.
The districts received state funds set aside for public education and some defendants withdrew funds for personal use, prosecutors said. Others were paid for their involvement in the scheme, officials said. Nearly $7 million in state funds were improperly allocated to the districts during the yearslong conspiracy, according to prosecutors.
The private school students who were fraudulently enrolled were not aware their identities and data were being used, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama.
It was not immediately clear whether any of the defendants had attorneys who could comment on the charges.
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