DETROIT (WXYZ) — Failure to properly manage school funds; promoting a culture of misspending; $64,000 in donations received, but only a fraction was reported to the district.
Watch Randy Wimbley's video report:
Those are a few of the findings identified by the Detroit Public Schools Community District’s Office of Inspector General in a report investigating financial mismanagement and other improper conduct involving King High School principal Damian Perry and others.
“If they find that it’s true, they gotta discipline him just like they would the kids,” King HS Parent Gordon Beard said.
The OIG was tipped off to the allegations in October of last year, in the form of an anonymous letter. The report found the school overspent more than $31,000 for prom activities since the 2023 fiscal year, and that Perry redirected funds students raised for the robotics program toward expenditures for honor roll students.
“To see somebody come along and say, ‘Okay, you guys raised this, but we're going to take it and use it for something else,’ that's kinda like, that starts fights,” one King HS parent said. "It hurts because it should be all about the students. I just hope it, I just hope it's not true.”
The report found that King had an unauthorized wrestling program at the school since 2023; that Perry allowed a church, which held services there, to use a classroom designated as the school's science lab—hindering classroom instruction there for two years; and that a person unaffiliated with the school and district managed concession sales at the high school for more than a decade, with a small amount of proceeds going back to the school.
“So where did they go? If it was supposed to be at the school and for the school, where did it go?” one parent asked.
The OIG interviewed more than a dozen current and former staffers, teachers, and administrators in support of its investigation. Now that its probe has closed, another is opening.
We reached out to Principal Perry for comment, but did not receive a response.
DPSCD provided this statement:
The district has received the OIG’s report, and we are now conducting our own investigation of the matter, including a due process opportunity for the employee. Once the investigation is completed, we will determine disciplinary action, if any.
