Chicago Public Schools spent MILLIONS in Covid cash on 'resort spas, luxury hotels, and overseas destinations': IG report

Chicago Public Schools (CPS), between 2021 and 2024, increased the spending of taxpayer funds to the tune of millions of dollars on things such as so-called "professional development” at “resort spas, luxury hotels and overseas destinations," going from $0.3 million spent in fiscal year 2021 on travel, to $7.7 million in 2024's fiscal year.

According to a report from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) over the Chicago Board of Education, taxpayer funds spent on travel increase by millions of dollars each year between 2021 and 2024, with $0.3 million being spent in FY 2021, $3.4 million in FY 2022, $6.9 million in FY 2023, and $7.7 million in FY 2024. Much of the funding had also come from pandemic relief funds.

"Fueled in part by federal pandemic relief money, CPS travel expenditures that included such items as airfare and lodging more than doubled between Fiscal Year 2019 (the last full pre-Covid school year) and Fiscal Year 2024," the report stated. Over $14 million was spent in 2023 and 2024 alone for "mostly for out-of-town employee professional development seminars or overnight student outings" for CPS staff. 

The report stated that eight different schools paid a vendor $142,000 with CPS funding in order to take "15 staff trips to Finland, Estonia, Egypt and South Africa." The trips for "professional development" also "featured numerous scheduled as well as optional tourist activities of debatable value, including a visit to a South African game park, a hot air balloon ride, camel rides and a visit to a bazaar."

Thirteen of those 15 trips were also never approved, per the OIG report. In one complaint sent to the OIG, a "CPS principal had traveled to Las Vegas multiple times to attend a professional development conference without CPS approval." The principal "booked an unapproved suite at a Las Vegas hotel for himself and his wife that cost CPS more than $400 a night, even though the conference was at a different hotel, started two days after their arrival date, and ended after their six-day visit concluded."

Other instances of abuse of the funding, the report stated, included "multi-day education retreats at spa resorts or large hotel complexes that were less than 50 miles from work sites," "higher than necessary airfares or hotel rates," "private sedans via a limo service to carry employees to and from Chicago airports," "an elementary school retreat at a suburban spa resort devoted solely to dinner, bowling and 'game night' — expenses the principal described as allowable 'team building,'" and "hidden travel agency fees of up to 20% tacked onto CPS travel billed through travel agencies."

Additionally, "large contingents of CPS employees from single schools" were "allowed to attend out-of-state conferences in such popular tourist destinations as Las Vegas and Disney World when similar conferences were offered within drivable distances in the Chicago area."

The CPS Superintendent during the years between 2021 and 2024 was Pedro Martinez, who was fired from the position at the end of 2024 without an official reason, per WTTW. Macquline King is currently serving as the interim superintendent.