Fiscal Intelligence

SEGS has relatives on the Board and employed in administrative and staff positions in the school. Including
o Randolph Keaton – Board Chair as of August 2014 and CEO of Men and Women United. Brother of Devoria K Berry, Executive Director of SEGS
o Andrea Simmons, Current contracted Finance Officer and Board member. Previous Board Treasurer until August 2014. Niece of Devoria K Berry.
o Leslie McLaurin, several contracts with the school. Niece of Devoria K Berry
 SEGS violated its own policy for employment of relatives for the following:
o Current Executive Director Devoria K. Berry
o Current Finance Officer Andrea Simmons, also a Board Member
o Former Director Norwood Keaton and
o Janitorial and Transportation services provider Leslie McLaurin

For example, the average large government/military organization (defined as 10,000 employees or more) spent a little more than $2 million on staff training in 2013. By comparison, a school district we studied, with a similar number of teaching staff, spent more than $90 million on teacher training and support in the same time period,excluding the costs of teachers’ salaries for the time they spent in training, additional investments like salary bumps for improved performance and school leader time beyond meeting directly with teachers for support.