(The Center Square) – A former Cincinnati area charter school superintendent received a finding of recovery for more than $500,000 after pleading guilty to paying a janitorial service he owned to clean the school.
State Auditor Keith Faber announced a finding of recovery for $543,478 against Roger T. Conners, the ex-superintendent of Cincinnati Technology Academy.
A finding of recovery authorizes legal action to be taken to collect the money.
Conners pleaded guilty in March to a felony count of having an unlawful interest in a public contract and was sentenced to five years of community control, fined $1,000, and barred from holding any fiduciary position or having a government contract for five years.
The Auditor of State’s Special Investigations Unit launched an investigation in May 2018 after being contacted by the Hamilton Sheriff’s Office about Conner’s involvement with MC Services, a vendor used by the school.
According to Faber, the investigation revealed the school issued 147 checks totaling $543,478 to MC Services to provide janitorial, housekeeping and maintenance services.
The investigation also showed though bank accounts for MC Services were set up in other people’s names, Conners controlled the business and personally benefited from the payments.
Conners served as superintendent of the school from April 2014 until his firing in March 2022. The payments were made from April 2014 through July 2021.
