Federal agents
collected documents from the Indiana Math and Science Academy on Wednesday
afternoon under a court-ordered search warrant.
The search
warrant was issued by a federal court in Ohio as part of a
"white-collar" investigation being conducted by the Cleveland office
of the FBI, the U.S. Department of Education and the Federal Communications
Commission, according to FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson. She could not divulge
any other details about the investigation.
Indiana Math and
Science Academy is managed by Concept Schools Inc., an Illinois-based
organization that manages 30 charter schools. Nine of those schools are in the
Cleveland-Dayton area of Ohio.
Concept Schools
operates three charter schools in Indianapolis, with combined enrollment of
nearly 1,400. The school that was searched in Indianapolis is located at 7435
N. Keystone Ave. It enrolled 591 students in the most recent school year, which
concluded last month.
Katherine
Beckwith, a spokeswoman for the school, said in a prepared statement that the
documents were part of an audit the U.S. Department of Education was conducting
of the federal “e-rate” grant program.
The e-rate
program provides money to help K-12 schools pay between 20 percent and 90
percent of the cost of phone and Internet service. Participating schools must
conduct a competitive bidding process to select the most cost-effective
providers of phone and Internet services, according to the U.S. Department of
Education, which administers the grant program.
"Earlier this week we were asked to provide information to U.S. Department of Education officials as part of a larger federal audit of e-rate technology grants,” Beckwith said in a statement. “Those officials indicated they are auditing the funds dispersed to various schools to verify that work paid for with e-rate grants was completed as reported. We were happy to provide them with records and supporting materials detailing how e-rate grants were spent at our IMSA North school, so that they can successfully complete their audit."
"Earlier this week we were asked to provide information to U.S. Department of Education officials as part of a larger federal audit of e-rate technology grants,” Beckwith said in a statement. “Those officials indicated they are auditing the funds dispersed to various schools to verify that work paid for with e-rate grants was completed as reported. We were happy to provide them with records and supporting materials detailing how e-rate grants were spent at our IMSA North school, so that they can successfully complete their audit."
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