SKPS Superintendent Castañeda and Others Took Bonuses Without Board Knowledge While Working for Tulsa Public Schools
Nonprofit foundation funds were used to pay bonuses for retention of "key talent in critical leadership positions"
A new report from Tulsa World details how “TPS administrators received $341,000 in donor funds without school board’s knowledge”. One of those administrators was Andrea Castañeda while working as their Chief of Innovation.
The Foundation for Tulsa Schools, a separate nonprofit agency that receives donations that are then funneled to the Tulsa Public School district, was solicited by Devin Fletcher, the then-Chief Talent Officer (who later pleaded guilty to wire fraud) to pay bonus payments to district officials ranging from $5,000 to $35,000, “[but] the elected Tulsa school board, charged with approving the hiring or firing and salaries of all public school employees in TPS, was apparently kept in the dark.”
“Email records requested by the Tulsa World show awareness about some bonus plans in 2020 and 2021 on the part of one philanthropic donor organization.
But school board leaders say it's not enough that donors were on board — because all of the employee recipients in question are public employees.
‘I don’t believe any board member had any knowledge of anyone receiving payments from the foundation. People are going to be blindsided,’ Tulsa School Board President Stacey Woolley said”.
Current Superintendent Ebony Johnson said, “As far as team members that have received those dollars, I am very aware there was no malicious intent — it was due to their work. However, in the future, even instances where we want to support our team members, it will be done in a more apparent, more structured way that the foundation, TPS and the board are on the same page.”
Moises Echeverria, the current President and CEO of the Foundation for Tulsa Schools, who was not in his position during the disbursement of the retention bonus funds, said “A critical update we have made is our processes in disbursement of philanthropic funds — in addition to working with TPS staff members who manage and approve expenses for initiatives funded by philanthropy, we now also solicit inspection and approval from TPS’s CFO and superintendent. This allows us to have the highest authoritative approval for all philanthropically funded initiatives executed by TPS staff and ensures all TPS policies are being followed before disbursement of philanthropic funds”.
So, what’s clear now is that the district and the foundation both say it shouldn’t have happened the way it did, and the school board is angry they weren’t in the loop.
Andrea Catañeda, one of three that had the largest amounts given, received a check, not from her employer, but directly from the Foundation for Tulsa Schools, in the amount of $35,000.
It’s one of those poor quality copier images, but you can make out the specifics, name and amount, pretty easily. What may not be as easy to see is the date (5/3/2021), that the check is from The Foundation for Tulsa Schools, and it has a memo line of “GKFF Talent”.
GKFF refers to the George Kaiser Family Foundation, which is a different nonprofit revolving around funding for Tulsa schools. In May of 2020, Fletcher and Paula Shannon, Deputy Superintendent (and one of the three retention bonus recipients) asked GKFF for the funds to give retention bonuses, which I assume were then given to the Foundation for Tulsa Schools since that was the organization that cut the checks.
Tulsa World noticed that the date on the check, 5/3/2021, happens to be the day before the email where Devin Fletcher asked the Foundation to “repurpose” some other employees’ salaries in order to make the payments, described at “retention efforts”.
“This public record obtained by the Tulsa World through request to Tulsa Public Schools shows Devin Fletcher sought approval for three top administrator bonus payments one day after the date the three checks were dated in 2021.”
The article details a “retention bonus agreement” for one of the other check recipients, Jill Hendricks. She received $25,000 at the same time as Castañeda received her $35,000. It’s interesting to see what the agreement was.
“The agreement is on TPS letterhead, and states ‘We are pleased to offer you a retention bonus of $25,000,’ then specifies the bonus will be paid by the foundation, and notes that she would be ‘personally responsible for all applicable taxes.’
The term of the agreement states that it ends two years after Hendricks cashed the check, but later says she would be responsible for paying back the bonus if she left TPS within 12 months, not two years.’
The article doesn’t say that Castañeda was subject to a “retention bonus agreement”, but does seem to indicate that the other of the three recipients, Shannon, who also received $35,000, did make a commitment to stay. “Contacted by the Tulsa World, Shannon confirmed she accepted the retention incentive bonus in July 2021 with a commitment to serve another two school years.”
Castañeda was hired by Salem-Keizer Public Schools in March 2023, but she didn’t leave her position at TPS until May 12, 2023, a little more than two years after her retention bonus check was cut.
There are other issues at play that go beyond the fact that Andrea Castañeda received a bonus check, but that’s not a story that pertains directly to Salem-Keizer Public Schools (as of yet). The original article touches on many of them. I’d encourage you to go read it if you’d like to know more.
Take this for whatever it’s worth. I just wanted to let people in Salem know that it happened.
And now I leave it to you. Do with it what you will.