Patrick Ervin
patrickervin@ddtonline.com
HOLLANDALE - The State Auditor’s office is conducting an investigation whereby agents were disbursed to the Hollandale School District on or a few days prior to June 14. The nature of the probe is unclear. School board attorney Kimberly Merchant said that district officials are cooperating with the State Auditor by providing all information requested.
School district records show that there was a special call board meeting on June 15 the nature of which no details are known.
Subsequent to the information provided by the school board attorney, the DDT made an attempt to reach superintendent Mario Willis by phone on Wednesday and Thursday (June 28 and June 29) but was redirected to “the next person in charge” whose voice mail was full.
Our pursuit of the story also included a brief conversation and follow up email questions on June 27 and 28 to State Auditor’s Office Communications Director Fletcher Freeman who said, “I can’t confirm or deny that there is an investigation taking place in the Hollandale School District. I typically don’t know about the details of any ongoing investigation until this office decides to provide information to the public. However, you wouldn’t be wrong in assuming that there is an investigation.” The probe is also believed to be part of a broader investigation into other school districts.
The Delta Democrat Times has followed events for the past two weeks and will update this story as details become available.
