Florida Keys News
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
School records tell curious story
Superintendent's wife charged clothes, furniture and groceries

Well over 1,000 pages of documents released Monday by the Monroe County School District show what appears to be a pattern of personal shopping with a district credit card by former Adult Education Coordinator Monique Acevedo, wife of Superintendent Randy Acevedo.

For instance, in one month -- April 2008 -- Monique Acevedo used her district credit card at Amazon.com to pur...

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Ability not heritage

Maybe now we can clean house in the district office and start to hire competant people based on their ability and not on their last name.

Where is the Union?

Everyone always said the union leader was in Randy's pocket, and I think his silence on all this proves it.

At what point does the Governor step in

Enough already, Governor Crist please do what we all want. Remove Randy Acevedo and his corrupt administration. Do it NOW.

Oh, and let's not forget this:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=980786&id=21071622964 Randy's facebook page. Family on the take.

So what do we do now?

We elected this idiot because we believed the hype and lies. If no charges are filed then we may be stuck with his ignorant mismanagement of our tax dollars and the piss poor education of our children. What do we do??????

I NEVER voted for him.

I am wondering if the 'We' who voted for him will vote for him again? Same 'We' who votes for McPherson and who voted for Lydia Estenoz (against Pribramski). Just imagine what a mess we'd have if we didn't have Steve Pribramski holding their feet to the fire!

The tax payers editorial

Randy and his supporters are building their defense strategy which includes manipulation by saying that the issues are not criminal and are being overblown. They accuse this newspaper, and board members John Dick and Steve Pribramsky of being politically misguided and anti Acevedo. They accuse them for criticizing what (they call) miniscule financial issues such as the (so called)accidental use of school district credit cards when they should be blindly defending everything that King Randy does. Since when was it the job of the school board to approve without question any and all requests of the superintendent. They add that these actions are hurting the education of our children. This equates to social bullying and using the children as a tool to further the mismanagement of the very thing that gives the school district life: TAX PAYER DOLLARS. Well a note to the supporters of the school district administration: the tax payers are not happy nor are they willing to allow this administration to continue to waste tax dollars. Such waste has been on programs such as Challenge day, Band Camp, and Dancing in the Classroom. The common chord in these programs is that they are good for the children. How they are good has always been the question in the back of my mind. They all claim that the students will benefit by being magically infused with high self esteem and “undefined” abilities to learn. Any disagreement with these once “free” programs when they were being proposed to be picked up by the school district reverted to "you just don’t care about the children". Well when the tax payers are broke then who will pay! I know I know randy said during the campaign that the budget was fine he just did not think about the economic health of the tax payer that’s all.

Citizen Conch

Dear Governor Crist, Thank you for sending the citizens of Monroe county our own home grown economic stimulus package. Please give Randy Acevedo our superintendant of schools a proper political reward and give Monique Acevedo a community service bonus with lifetime reemployment rights to her old job. Please do these things on the steps of the Tallahassee Statehouse or some other public forum like the school board "Rally to Tally" so that our children can see this as a fine example of civic nobility and largess worthy of being emulated by future conch leaders and public servants. Let the whiners and conch wan-a-be’s grovel in shame as Randy and Monique are showered with your grace, tolerance, and respect for a job-well-done by bolstering the dwindling Monroe County School budget. Spare them from 3 hot meals a day, 2 cots, and 1 life term in the Monroe County Jail, another office headed-up by a conch deserving of our respect for bubba system cover-ups and investigative intervention. Long live the bubba’s and sista’s of Monroe County and God Bless Florida politics. The rest of you can go back to where you came from and don't forget to take your tax dollars with you. I wanna hang with my fella bubbas that can honestly claim the same level of ignorance as I do.

I wanna run for Mayor

My daddy owns the Navy and hangs with bubba Spottswood. Yeah that's it. What the Keys needs is educated, unbiased, UNRELATED administration. No more conch politics!

Audit other school affiliated funds including fundraisers

A few years ago the Acevedo family took their entire family (more than 5) on the band trip to England, at a cost of $2,500.00 pp. At the time many students did not get a fair credit from the many band fund raisers. It seems the funds may have mainly gone to a few select families. The use of this money should also be audited, along with credit card spending while there.

Indeed!

I'd start an audit of everything they've done, including his son's pat little 'no bid contract', the junkets - all the things this . . .family has done on the County's dime.

Its State Law

Three Quotes are required before purchase!!!! when spending public funds.... were is the paper work for that? I doubt they did. funny how no one has brought this up its not the first time check back to when they gave a contract for some filming for adult ed that also was a family afair....

School Credit Cards

Why is no one asking the question "Why did the Finance Director let this go on for so long?" The Superintendent depends on his Director's to do their job, he does not see every pcard charge that goes through. Why did Finance stop this a long time ago? Why?

I agree!!

The Finance Director is in charge of this type of things. Besides, she has a assistant finance director and many assistant finance specialists within the department. Now that the [deleted] has hit the fan, she is claiming to have requested [the] receipts to reconcile long time ago. She is at the top and should have notified the [superintendent] then. Don't be decieved, employees within the finance dept make good money too. I believe the lowest paycheck coming out of there is the $40K contract and that is being paid to someone who does not live Key West.

Special Prosecutor

If anyone is concerned that this won't be handled appropriately as a criminal matter by the local state attorney, you can write to the governor to request that they appoint a special prosecutor. Also, you can get a federal prosecutor involved too because of the public corruption element and because the fraud took place in interstate commerce.

You gotta see this

Take a look at this blog site below from the online furniture store that Monique is supposedly buying $4,000 worth of items for the MARC House! When you get to the site make sure you scroll all the way down. http://brocadedesignetc.blogspot.com/

response to your all just jealous

First of all it should be "YOU'RE just jealous." Or even better it should read 'all of you are just jealous.' I guess your teacher didn't have enough paper or textbooks in the classroom so that you had enough practice. I work for the school district and I don't get to use a credit card for my personal purchases so that I can avoid paying taxes on high ticket items and then have the opportunity to pay back when and if I can. I ask you, how is this right? So if this is right, then I want a credit card so I can buy the supplies myself for my classroom and not have to go through the procedures and red tape that I must go through to get what my students need on a daily basis. I am tired of jumping through hoops only to be told there is no money and now I know why. I am not sure how a power saw is going to help my students learn to read but I guess the Acevedos will find a way so they can justify all this criminal activity.

This makes for great reading..........

luckily I am about 1,500 miles away from you and hopefully NOT paying for all of the charges on these credit cards.

Hey you must be a yankee who is jealous of us Bubbas!

You must be a lousy teacher too. I'm gonna tell Randy about you! You should be ashamed. Randy gave you a job. No credit card for you! Randy forever!

And Who Will Ultimately Pay for This?

We will... Did you know the Board will be hiring a forensic auditing firm as well as outside legal counsel? Hmmmmm. Are Monroe County citizens now paying the debts of some of our "well intentioned" school board members who innocently grabbed the wrong credit card? So you think this is silly and undeserving of front page news coverage? This is a question of the ethical conduct of public officials, not one of dollars and "sense". IF YOU ARE NOT OUTRAGED YOU REALLY ARE NOT PAYING ATTENTION AND MISSING THE POINT!!! Stay tuned Monroe County taxpayers, this rabbit hole will prove deeper than some think... hence the need for outside legal counsel and forensic auditors soon to be hired by the Board and paid for by you and me.

We Can Say One Good Thing About Monique...

...at least she was doing her part to stimulate the economy by shopping!

Were there kickbacks too?

She spent $2,999 on a 1 Terrabyte external drive. This product should cost no more than $300-400 and you would probably put one together for $250. If she really paid that she is a total . . .for not shopping around, going online, etc. and getting a better price, like one that isn't inflated ten times over. I wonder where that drive is now and who sold it? Of course, it was the school's money and I am sure she had no intention of paying it back.

Did they get 3 Quotes?

I think its state law that you need to get 3 quotes before you make a purchase no matter the amount. I doubt this was followed also!!!!!!

Posting Comments Not Effective Enough

Massive e-mails to state attorney and Governor's office are required to elevate this above school board level. Picketing schools can also be effective.

Picketing Schools

That will disrupt the school day. Keep it away from the kids and focus on the adults.

Here's an idea...

...let's re-name the new airport terminal building after her!

STICK TO THE FACTS

The rule says you can only use the card for school related purchases. NO PERSONEL PURCHASES. If you do make purchases and pay it back with taxes then you are still violating the school district rule. If you dont pay the taxes then it is fraud and tax theft/evasion. If you dont pay anything back then you can add a charge of theft. Randy has already admitted to having full knowledge of everyone violating the rule. He also admitted that he gave everyone permission to use y the card so as long as they pay it back. Now according to the rules he is to get school board approval before he can allow this to happen. The board has to vote. SO HE IS GUILTY OF VIOLATING SEVERAL SCHOOL BOARD RULES. The amount of purchases are extreme and expensive. It may come out that some were never paid back. Also writing down that this was purchase for the school and it was really for personal use then add the charge of fraud. The constant defense of the Acevedo's by his supporters is sickening. Its like some sort of wierd hero worship. The onion is getting peeled every day. The center will prove to be rotten. This shows me that corruption in the keys is accepted as the status quo by many. SAAAD!

Administrator Gone Wild

Can this be made into a movie and maybe the royalties would give us enough money to buy papers and pencils for the teachers. As I look at all the trips these people are taking and the high end hotels they stay at its easy to see where our tax dollars have been really going. I hope the Governor fixes this situation this week. Stop this corruption right now.

Beware of a wolf in sheep's clothing

After reading this article there is no way that Randy can claim he had no idea. The entire finance department is either in on it or grossly negligent. According to the documents handed over this has been going on since at least 2007 and we are just now hearing about it. It also looks like nothing was paid back and from my quick estimation based on just what has been posted on the school district website (which totals approximatly $40,000 just for this school year) it looks like the total amount could go well over $100,000. All of this money wasted on furniture, clothing, videos, and God knows what else. This money was supposed to be used for educating our kids. Randy should resign along with anyone else in that department who stood idly by and allowed this abuse to go on.

There is no crime here.

Randy has done so much for our community. This is a slight problem that your all blowing out. Look what Randy has accomplished. A+ schools, sunny Booker and challenge day, Tina Bilotti and band camp, teacher raises, the schools are running smoothly, teachers are happy, the cullinary school in Marathon is delicious...all this because of our hero Randy Acevedo! Just think if we had elected the other guy Fred Colvard! Randy Is a good conch and he's my BUBBA!

No Crime. Yeah Right!!

Slight problem, you call spending tens of thousands of our tax paying money a slight problem. IT'S ILLEGAL!! A+ school, yeah only because grades have been inflated and teachers are being forced to pass students to make it appear that they are doing well. Sunny Booker and challenge day! Please, I've seen them, biggest joke and worthless event in Monroe County! Tina Bilotti, wow you hit the jack-pot here! Arrested for fraud, embezzlement. Running a summer program to profit off of our kids!! Teacher raises...HA! Teachers are being fired because we cannot afford them(gee, I wonder why!) Who cares about a raise when you're getting a pink skip. Schools running smoothly....do you live in the Keys?? Teachers are happy, simply a lie! Culinary in Marathon, well your half, it's a great program THANKS TO CHEF GREEN AND HIS STUDENTS NOT ACEVEDO!!! Please give us Fred Colvard...someone with over 30 years of experience in education, an education degree, time in the classroom...what does Acevedo have again? (Besides the fact that he is in your stupid Bubba system!!) Its people like you and Acevedo the are the reason for this school system being in the trouble it's in. SHAME ON YOU!!

Write govener Christ and demand Acevedo be removed

Demand he put Doctor Fred Colvard in his place!

you are definitely not educated to the facts

Go back to school and see exactly what is happening. You are misinformed and need to be redirected in your thinking. I am still not sure how Randy has helped the schools. I think it is the teachers teaching that has helped the schools. AND Tina Belotti and Sunny Booker have done nothing to help our schools educate these needy students each and every day of the school year and then some. Get your facts straight before you make comments.

Leave Ms Booker alone

At least she supported Randy and worked hard to get him re-elected. She brought us challenge day which I will have you know has saved our children. She deserved her $9000.00 raise! Randy awards those who work hard and support his achievements in the school! Tina Bilotti with the help of Ms Booker and Dunkin Mathewson have brought us Band camp. She deserves the $60k that she is getting to run such a successful program. This is a bargain! Such gifted people educating our children. You all need to calm down and worry about real tragedy. Like the starving people in Africa or turning this planet around and stopping global warming!

I feel absolutley terrible

I feel absolutley terrible for Randy. I totally believe that he had no idea ALL that was being purcashed on this card. They both had great income coming in and still had financial problems, he probably thought she was purchasing all of these items (the ones that he found out about) with her own money/credit cards, never guessing that she was shopping away on her School Board card! Monique has already lost her job and will have to deal with repercussions from this for many years to come, and most importantly I will not judge Randy for standing up for his wife the best that he can at this point and understanding that he more than likely does not agree with what she did either. This is the kind of situation where the nepotism policy should be reviewed for sure just think about this poor Finance department!

Waaa....somebody call the Waaaa-ambulance

This is just the most pathetic post because here we have someone MAKING EXCUSES for Acevedo. HUH? He never wondered where all the high-end 'stuff' was coming from? But then again, if Acevedo had extended my contract for many thousands of dollars (something that the AV squad could've done) I guess I'd owe him a sympathetic letter too. Y'know, I almost bought a house behind his that was for sale and something told me that it would be bad ju-ju across that fence. Guess my instincts were right.

Feeling sorry for Randy

boo hoo hoo

Feeling Terrible

You should, as you are about as far out of touch with reality as any post I have seen about what Randy knew about his wifes buying habits. One example, when a Power Saw showed up in his house, he didn't ask, "how did you pay for this", good god, get a grip on it.

...yet.

The problem is that all of the Monique Acevedo charges listed on the school system’s website were billed to various school functions – MARC, Family Literacy, Cosmetology, culinary, etc. (see http://www.keysschools.com/departments/finance.asp). There is no indication that anything was paid back. If indeed some of these things were for personal use, then there is a big problem. The issue has nothing to do with Conchs vs. Non-Conchs – it is about right vs. wrong. As it stands now, something doesn’t look very good, and it needs to be examined much more closely.

We should picket!

We should picket the school admin building in key west. Heck we should picket the schools! The Public should demand Justice! Acevedo must resign now. Monique should be indicted. This is a Key west tea party! This is outrageous, dispicable, and plain dishonest.

picketing

i was picketing friday 6 mar morning and afternoon at marathon high...half the people who drove by gave me the thumbs up or honked....one out of ten gave me the finger or shouted obscenities...teachers are too afraid for their jobs to help out....its up to the citizens

Kudos to you

Try and get at least ten people with bright signs. If you can, make copies of these articles and hand them out. We are trying to get people motivated up the keys and key west. Be careful the conchs will try to get revenge through different county offices to harrass you. They could send an inspector to your house to look for real or fictitious violations. You better believe the teachers are scared. Acevedo and his henchpeople will get any one who criticizes him. The teachers union is suspected of being in his pocket too!

Picket

I'm against picketing, I just don't know how to show it.

Get the brooms ready

Well taxpayers you now have before you the opportunity to clean house of a corrupt system. Shame on you if you don't do it. Remember Debbie went to our SAC meeting and said that teachers don't have money for paper and we should help donate it. Think of all the things she said to us, and then look at what the Acevedos were doing at the same time. Most likely Debbie will try to protect Randy at all costs. Hopefully the cost to her will be her position on the school board.

Spending problem my ...!!

Spending problem my ...!! This is plain ol' fashioned THEFT ! BIG position taken advantage of HUGELY, PERIOD !! And with theft comes consequences.

Red Leather Thong........shoes $51.09

I wonder if they match her CAVIAR sun glasses. Will the $279 shredder shred sunglasses???? 4X shirt and 48X32 pants what was Monique dressing a gorilla? I thought it was illegal to own an wild APE?

Incredible simply incredible

An attorney buddy of mine told me if she paid it all back there is no crime. Since the superintendant allowed her and others to use the card what is the crime? All she did according to the super is use the card for her personal use. She violated a school rule. She could get her job back. Her husband is the boss. He has shown that he has the power to do what he wants any way. The school board always votes three to two any way. It sucks I know but this is CAYO JUESO! BONE CAY

Was the tax paid back?

Even if the bill was paid back, were the taxes paid back also? If so, who determined what was taxable and what was not? Where was the tax money put? How do you balance the books if the tax was never charged to begin with?

Not true.

There are ethics laws governing the use of public funds. Co-Mingling can be a crime. Paying things back is not always sufficient. Just think -- if an attorney spends money out of a client trust fund, it is still a crime even if the attorney pays it back later. There is the time value of money, which can never be paid back. Plus, 99.99999% of the time, these types of things are not in fact repaid.
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