Two Gary School Board members are vigorously defending the award of a $30,000 bonus to Superintendent Cheryl Pruitt.
During Wednesday’s meeting at the Wirt-Emerson Center for Visual and Performing Arts, board president Rosie Washington held up documents she said affirmed the board’s actions in establishing Pruitt’s bonus, awarded in March 2016.
The State Board of Accounts flagged the bonus in a special audit released last month and ordered Pruitt to repay the $30,000. The audit was referred to the state attorney general’s office and to the Lake County prosecutor.
Neither Pruitt nor emergency manager Peggy Hinckley attended Wednesday’s meeting. Pruitt resigned Dec. 1 and Feb. 2 will be her last day.
Washington cited language in Pruitt’s 2012 contract stating Pruitt would receive a one-time bonus based on goals and achievements. After three years of inaction, the board voted last year to provide a bonus of $10,000 per year, or $30,000, she said.
Washington said the award was completed with advice from labor attorney Dan Friel and with the approval of former fiscal manager Jack Martin.
Washington said there are documents and a videotape of the meeting when the bonus was approved. “Maybe we can finally put this to rest,” she said.
A representative from the State Board of Accounts said Thursday, however, it hasn’t changed its audit outcome.
“The report still stands,” said Tammy White, deputy state examiner. She said her department was working with the attorney general’s office to seek repayment.
Earlier this month, White said Pruitt’s 2012 contract referenced a “growth incentive plan and bonus,” but no plan was outlined and no dollar amount for a bonus was listed in the contract.
“If there were a plan, I would expect it would contain some criteria for what they would want to do,” said White. “I don’t know what the expectations were,” she said on Nov. 30.
Board member Robert Buggs said the state is ignoring information it has been provided. “We gave information to the auditor, they chose to omit it.” He called the audit finding “a lie.”
Buggs also said Pruitt used part of her $30,000 bonus “to help students go to college.”
Carole Carlson is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
