<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3FCBJ7_1GpsHpuN00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3FCBJ7_1GpsHpuN00" width="1200" height="797" ><figcaption>Western Albemarle High School. Photo: Lisa Martin.</figcaption></figure>Albemarle County financial records suggest that the county school division used at least $32,700 in state education grant funding to pay for racial awareness training for staff, but reported to state officials that the entire grant was spent on tutoring, literacy, and chronic absenteeism programs for students.The Virginia Department of Education’s (VDOE) 2023 “ALL In Virginia” initiative was intended to combat pandemic-related learning loss and declining academic performance statewide. The $418 million state-funded program required school divisions to strictly limit their grant spending to three areas: high-intensity tutoring in grades 3 through 8 (70% of funds), literacy acceleration (20%), and chronic absenteeism reduction (10%). School divisions were required to account for spending in each category over a three-year period from 2024 to 26.Former superintendent Matt Haas requested $2,351,452 for Albemarle County Public Schools (ACPS) in a 2023 planning document detailing spending in each area for expenses such as hiring tutors, bus drivers, and reading specialists, purchasing reading and literacy intervention materials, and funding attendance officer positions in schools. An interim report filed with the VDOE in 2024 showed that ACPS had already spent or obligated all of its funds by then. ACPS’ final report in 2026 confirmed that it had used the full amount of its ALL In grant in the precise 70/20/10 split proposed by the state, and that it had spent the exact dollar amounts in each category that it had originally requested.However, Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by the Crozet Gazette revealed discrepancies between county financial records and ACPS’s final report to the state board. The records showed that ACPS charged $32,700 to the county’s ALL In grant account for invoices from the Counseling Alliance of Virginia (CAVA), a Charlottesville firm. The invoices were for “Racial Awareness and Sensitivity training,” “Race Matters consultation,” and staff engagement sessions to “dismantle white supremacy.” (Read more about CAVA’s work for ACPS.)These charges do not align with ACPS’s claim in its VDOE filings that the entire grant was spent on the fund’s required areas of tutoring, literacy, and absenteeism. Though the division seems to have paid for CAVA trainings with ALL In money, it did not list the trainings anywhere in its initial, interim, or final reports to the state.Former Governor Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Order 1, issued and updated in early 2022, explicitly blocked state-funding for “divisive” professional development such as anti-racism training for educators, and that order has not been reversed by the current administration. So, in addition to an apparent fiscal conflict in not complying with the specified uses of the ALL In grant funding, ACPS also may have a legal conflict as state funds are not allowed to be allocated towards these types of programs by law.VDOE confirmed for the Gazette that it had received no amended spending plan from ACPS during the funding period, which means the division did not seek approval for CAVA trainings in its ALL In budget. County general ledger documents also confirmed there were no subsequent reversals or reclassifications of the CAVA charges into other accounts.<h2>Division provides no clarity</h2>In light of these findings, the Gazette asked ACPS Acting Superintendent Chandra Hayes basic questions about the ALL In funding: Why was money that ACPS pledged to use to pay for tutoring, literacy, and attendance instead used to pay CAVA, and what did ACPS subsequently tell VDOE about those expenditures? Who authorized the charges to be paid for by the grant? What changes in procedure will prevent this from happening in the future?Email exchanges attached to CAVA invoices from late 2023 show staff from the Office of Community Engagement and the ACPS Family Council scrambling to find funds from sources such as Bama Works grants and school PTO budgets to pay for the CAVA trainings’ costs. Why were these expenditures not subject to the normal budget process, where the public could weigh in on the advisability of taxpayer funding?<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3a23G4_1GpsHpuN00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3a23G4_1GpsHpuN00" width="858" height="1200" ><figcaption>Jason Grant, Chief Communications Officer for ACPS</figcaption></figure>Multiple FOIA requests for data on the payments to CAVA were denied by ACPS Chief Communications Officer Jason Grant. Grant argued that because “all financial information is maintained by the County Government, we do not have any invoices in our possession … because we are not owners of that system.” This position is contradicted by statements from the Virginia FOIA Advisory Council, which clarifies that if school division employees have access to an information system to conduct their day-to-day operations, they have functional custody and must pull the records to satisfy a FOIA request.Four days after receiving our questions about the matter, Acting Superintendent Chandra Hayes replied but did not respond to specific questions, saying only that she’d been “catching up on [her] emails.” “I will need to look into this further to get a better idea of how funds were spent. I will investigate this and get back to you when I can,” said Hayes. School Board Chair Rebecca Berlin and Grant were also copied on the Gazette’s email but neither replied.The division’s actions could result in meaningful state grant compliance problems for ACPS. If the VDOE demands financial records that confirm ACPS’ spending was outside its approved plan, the department could require the division to return the money it spent on CAVA to the Commonwealth.If ACPS lumped the CAVA payments into its final spending report but mischaracterized what they were used for, that may mean a state fiscal report was falsified. In response, the VDOE could delay or freeze disbursements to ACPS, or it could require that the school division only be reimbursed for verified expenditures, rather than receiving a lump sum up front. The VDOE could also implement monitoring and oversight actions on future state and federal grant allocations.The Gazette will update this story when we receive a response to our questions from ACPS.</div></body>

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Albemarle County financial records suggest that the county school division used at least $32,700 in state education grant funding to pay for racial awareness training for staff, but reported to state officials that the entire grant was spent on tutoring, literacy, and chronic absenteeism programs for students. The Virginia Department...

Albemarle School Division Grant Reporting Shows Discrepancies

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Albemarle County financial records suggest that the county school division used at least $32,700 in state education grant funding to pay for racial awarene

Albemarle School Division Grant Reporting Shows Discrepancies

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