Part 3 of the 21 News Watchdog Investigation: 'Following the Money' looks at more spending of taxpayers’ money by former CEO and current superintendent Justin Jennings on another school project that didn’t work out.

In this months-long 21 News Watchdog investigation, we looked at how the district spent millions on several projects that Jennings single-handedly approved, including more than $5 million on the failed city-wide internet plan and nearly $4 million for COVID tests even though the state wound up providing the tests to the district for free.

PAPERLESS PAYROLL PLAN

Another plan that Jennings rolled the dice on with taxpayers’ money and lost started in December of 2020. Youngstown School District announced it was working with PP&A Corporation of Atlanta to begin processing the district’s payroll, creating a paperless office system.

Jennings told 21 News he hired the Georgia company to fix the district’s payroll issues, which Jennings said included employees not receiving paychecks or being paid on time.

Over the course of 23 months, the district paid more than $385,000 to the payroll company but ultimately stopped using the out-of-state company due to issues of properly interfacing its software with the state of Ohio teacher’s time tracking software and with the school district’s system.

An internal email circulated to district employees from Jeremy Batchelor, the deputy superintendent of teaching, learning, and leadership to district employees in July of 2022 explained, “Due to multiple factors that made it difficult for our fiscal/human capital systems, processes and procedures to align with the PP and A systems effectively, we have ceased the use of MPO [My Paperless Office] and all of its platforms.”

The email instructed YCSD employees to continue to use paper-format timesheets.

21 News asked Jennings if he felt he had adequately reviewed all aspects before entering the deal with the company.

 “We were trying to work to get our payroll better than it was because it was so messed up at the time… We had people who weren’t getting paid and people not getting paid on time. So, we tried to do something to go paperless… It didn’t work out,” Jennings told 21 News at the March 14 Board of Education meeting.

Because Jennings was CEO of the district when the decision was made to hire PP&A, no board approval was required to hire the company.

 “…We just decided to pull the plug because we got a new treasurer, and it was time to transition. It wasn’t my choice anymore; it was the treasurer, [I was] not the CEO anymore,” Jennings said. The district switched back to board control on July 1, 2022, and Jennings from CEO to superintendent.

When asked if he felt if he had properly vetted the payroll service, Jennings said, “It wasn’t wasted, when you are trying to do things the right way, it doesn’t always work out. So, you have to do alternative things … I hired them because I wanted to get the work done … it didn’t happen.”   

Jennings said the district would continue to look for better payroll options for timesheets in the future. 

No federal funds were used to attempt to improve the district’s payroll issues, but federal funds were used in for the internet plan and for the COVID tests.

During the pandemic, Youngstown City School District received more than $77 million in federal funds from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER and Cares Act. The emergency funds were handed out to help school districts safely reopen and to help address significant learning loss from the COVID-19 pandemic on the students and their families.

In a statement to 21 News, the U.S. Department of Education said:

‘Under the ESSER program, school districts have broad discretion in how the funds are used…  Each state educational agency (SEA) is responsible for monitoring all school districts to include determining if a school district’s use of ESSER funds is allowable, and if the use of funds is necessary and reasonable.  The SEA is also responsible for ensuring that applicable procurement requirements are followed when a school district purchases items with ESSER funds.  Finally, the SEA has the authority to recover Federal funds if it determines that the funds were used for unallowable purposes or were not necessary and reasonable.  …we are looking into this with the Ohio Department of Education.’