LEE COUNTY, Fla. -- The Lee County School district is under a federal investigation, a letter alleges the school district was misusing public funds.
If this sounds familiar to you, it is, last May the school board received a letter accusing the district of misusing school maintenance trucks at Mount Hermon, a local ministry, located in Fort Myers.
The Florida Department of Education investigated the matter, but it was later determined no investigation was required. But now a federal investigation is taking place over the same issue.
It all started with a video on March 1st, 2018, someone claiming Lee County school District trucks were used on “private property,” which was said to be Mount Hermon ministries in Fort Myers.
Then two months later on May 4th 2018, the school district was notified of a complaint alleging the district was misusing taxpayer dollars.
The letter states the trucks were there to remove a tree due to hurricane damage. The letter also says the pastor at the church has an agreement with the LCSD.
The Florida Department of Education investigated the matter. The following month, it was later determined there was no further investigation needed.
Steve Tueber, who was on the school board at the time, says the superintendent did nothing wrong, during a school board meeting in June 2018. "It was reported to the Superintendent, he immediately assigned an investigator to investigate, did a full investigation. I stand by our internal investigation and our recommendation of the superintendent of no impropriety," Tueber said.
Now that brings us to April 3rd of 2019, when another letter was brought to the office of "Head Start" program. Lee County has a start program located on Michigan Avenue.
The letter states: “The alleged improvements are being made to other properties owned by Mount Hermon, where this is no Head Start program.”
The latest letter also goes on to say: “The superintendent gave false information to the school board. When the superintendent was questioned by the state's office of the inspector general, he withheld information and falsely stated that 'Head Start' allows them to provide services and make improvements because they have a partnership.”
Fox 4 did reach out to the school board for comment, but we were told they could not comment at this time.
