Members of a local advocacy group are demanding that D.C. school leadership get rid of a special education bus terminal manager who pleaded guilty to insurance fraud, as well as her boss for failing to oust her.

The group Citizens for Children objects to the fact that Michelle Smith still is employed within the 50,000-student school system’s special education transportation department.

Two years ago Smith entered a guilty plea of second-degree insurance fraud for falsifying government time records, and was sentenced to 120 days of incarceration, two years of supervised probation and $6,500 in fines.

Their complaints also extend to David Gilmore, DCPS transportation administrator, for keeping Smith on his payroll even after an inspector general’s report came out about Smith’s charges.

This story continues below
Advertisement

“Our children deserve better,” the advocacy group wrote in an e-mail. “If David Gilmore allowed Smith to reign as manager, then, what hidden convictions do the bus drivers and attendants possess? ... Citizens for the Children supports and applauds Chancellor [Michelle] Rhee and Mayor [Adrian] Fenty ... but we demand Gilmore’s immediate removal until a thorough investigation and audit has been completed.”

Messages left for Smith were not returned late last week.

Mafara Hobson, spokeswoman for Rhee, said the chancellor’s office was not aware of Smith’s crime and did not know Smith’s exact duties with the department.

Citizens for Children has targeted Gilmore before in blogs and letters about her criminal conviction. It’s unclear exactly who the organization’s members are. But in the e-mail and on various Web sites, the group represents itself as “an aggregate of individuals whom espouse equity and exemplary service for special needs children served by the District of Columbia Public School Division of Transportation.”

The inspector general’s report from November 2005 about Smith states that the transportation division manager fraudulently received $6,500 for lost wages from State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. by falsifying District government time and attendance records in December 2002. The insurance claim reportedly came after a motor vehicle crash in which Smith was involved.

Gilmore was tapped to be an independent transportation administrator for D.C. schools in June 2003. The decision came after a lengthy class-action lawsuit against the District over the transportation of students with disabilities.

dlevitz@dcexaminer.com