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Hooking in the 303
Sorry I can't just post a link, but all I got on email was the text.
DPS truant officers play hooky
By News 4 Reporter Brian Maass, Special to the News
October 31, 2003
Denver Public Schools truant officers, who were supposed to be helping keep kids in school, were instead spending their days exercising, eating, visiting family and friends, running errands and going home, according to a three-month News 4 investigation.
The investigation found that some truant officers not only squandered their work days but also filled out daily log sheets with bogus information about where they had been and what they were doing.
"It looked to me like some of these truancy officers were treating their jobs as a publicly paid holiday," said state Rep. Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, after viewing the News 4 report. Romanoff has sponsored anti-truancy legislation.
"Obviously, it's a painful irony that people whose job it is to keep kids in school can't keep themselves at work," he said.
The News 4 investigation covered 17 week days during June, July, August and September. For much of the summer, schools were not in session, but Denver's "Truancy Reduction Team" of six officers works year-round and should have plenty to do during the summer, according to Jerry Wartgow, the DPS superintendent.
"These officers are supposed to be working with individual students on referral from social workers," he said. "They should have a full plate or we shouldn't have them employed during the summer."
DPS truant officers earn annual salaries in the mid-$30,000 range. The annual budget for the truancy reduction team is $227,029, coming from the DPS general fund.
News 4 cameras videotaped truant officers starting their workday picking up their DPS vehicles between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m., then driving to Sloans Lake and exercising for one to two hours. DPS administrators say the officers are allowed to substitute their lunch and break time and use it for an hour of exercise instead.
But News 4 routinely found the truant officers exercising, then stopping for an hour break at a nearby restaurant. In many cases, log sheets filled out by the officers omitted the time spent in restaurants or contained no details of what they did all day long.
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