WHAT A HEEL: Director Of Special Needs Agency Funded His Own Special Needs
John B. Barranco, ex-director of the Merrimack Special Education Collaborative, is accused of embezzling $11.5 million from the agency that pooled the resources of 10 Merrimack Valley (MA) school districts to lower the cost of educating students with severe physical and mental disabilities, The Boston Globe reports:
In letters mailed Monday, Gregory W. Sullivan, [MA] inspector general, said that [Barranco] also racked up more than $50,000 in personal expenses on a credit card issued by a related nonprofit organization, including tickets to the Kentucky Derby, improvements to vacation homes in New Hampshire and Florida, Christmas gifts for a daughter, luxury clothes, and nearly $16,000 in gasoline, purchased from 2003 through 2010. …
In addition, Sullivan said Barranco used deception to increase his teacher’s pension to $157,000 while collecting an inflated salary and bonuses from the nonprofit. Barranco’s total compensation from the nonprofit exceeded $500,000 in 2009. …
[I]nflated salaries and bonuses paid to Barranco’s former girlfriend, Mary Clisbee, began shortly after she started working for the collaborative, in 1997, Sullivan said. …
Annual salary increases and bonuses continued until 2006, when her total compensation topped $300,000 … In 2007, after Clisbee and Barranco ended their relationship, Clisbee left the organization and Barranco replaced her with two individuals whose combined salaries were less than half what Clisbee had been paid, Sullivan said.
Based on Sullivan’s findings, the Teachers Retirement System cut down Barranco’s pension, but he has appealed the reduction.
Comments