The state's largest school district is coming under fire this afternoon by an education watch-dog group. In an attempt to get a closer look at the way IPS spends its money, the Education Action Group filed several open records requests but weren't prepared for what they'd actually find.
It claims IPS administrators are spending $25,000 a month for cell phone bills. According to billing records, IPS administrators racked up $24.812.29 in cell phone charges through two carriers in one month.
Simple math suggests the school system pays out about $225,000 over a school year or roughly $300,000 if they use the phones year-round.
The districts Sprint bill was $5,755.47 for a billing cycle that ran from Dec. 27, 2009 to Jan. 26,2010. The IPS AT&T bill which ran from Dec. 16, 2009 to Jan. 15, 2010 was a whopping $19,056.82.
Both billing cycles included at least part of the school districts three-week winter break which ran from Dec. 17 through Jan. 4.
IPS said there are 172 cell phone users and the vast majority of them are not administrators. They said the users are mostly school police, craftsman, and transportation directors.
Preliminary findings also indicate that the AT&T bill isn't just for cell phone charges. IPS said the majority of those charges are from GPS devices that are installed in 450-500 of the district's vehicles. Those include school buses, school police cruisers and food delivery vans.
