What’s happening with the FBI’s investigation into Moss, Beaufort Co. schools?
After Frank Rodriguez takes over as Beaufort County School District superintendent Monday, one of the challenges ahead will be rallying voter support for a $345 million bond referendum amid unanswered questions about an ongoing FBI investigation into the construction of two Bluffton schools, as well as into the district’s former superintendent, who oversaw the projects.
Since it was revealed to the public 16 months ago, very little is known about the investigation, including when it began, what potential crimes are being examined, who it is targeting and where it stands today.
This scarcity of information, as well as the lack of resolution, has prompted at least one school board member to seek answers.
“I don’t know a thing as a board member,” JoAnn Orischak said June 18, four days after she sent an email to board officers requesting an update on the investigation.
Orischak said Interim Superintendent Herb Berg responded to her inquiry and told her he would contact the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
As of Thursday, Berg had not heard from anyone at that office, according to district spokesman Jim Foster.
Multiple calls this week from The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette to U.S. Attorney’s Office District of South Carolina spokesman Lance Crick and assistant U.S. Attorney Rhett DeHart have not been returned.
During an FBI investigation, it is typical for involved parties to not be informed of the investigation’s progress until charges are filed, if charges are filed, according to previous reporting by The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette.
In a phone call Friday with the newspapers, school board chairperson Christina Gwozdz expressed confidence that the public knows there’s not much the board can do in terms of getting the FBI to release information.
“I think people that are knowledgeable and reasonable will understand that we don’t have updates,” she said about the investigation’s potential effect on the bond referendum, which is scheduled for this November.
Board member and former chair Earl Campbell agreed with the sentiment.
“Whether it affects the referendum or not is up to the voters,” he said Friday. “I don’t think it should.”
Latest information
Since the district was made aware of an FBI investigation into the construction of May River High School and River Ridge Academy in December 2017, district employees have been subpoenaed at least four times, the latest of which was served last August, immediately after former superintendent Jeff Moss’ last day.
The fourth subpoena focused on Moss and asked for documents related to his five-year tenure with the district and his association with Education Research and Development Institute, an organization that charges vendors to meet with superintendents across the country.
In September 2018, Moss asked the school board for $35,000 to retain former U.S. Attorney Bart Daniel in the matter.
Daniel has represented high-profile defendants accused of white-collar crimes, including former state treasurer and later “Southern Charm” star Thomas Ravenel, as well as former state Rep. Bobby Harrell.
In his request for the money, Moss maintained that the district was required to cover legal fees related to his time as superintendent and warned the board that any delay in financing might result in higher legal costs to the district down the road.
The board denied Moss’ request.
When contacted in June, Daniel said he is not representing Moss.
How the investigation and referendum intersect
In April 2018, two months after the public learned about the FBI investigation and was told by the board and district that the district was not the target of the investigation, a county-wide vote on a $76 million school bond issue was held.
That bond referendum failed with a historically low 27 percent “yes” vote, marking the 10th year that Beaufort County had gone without a successful bond referendum and again delaying funding that would have been used to alleviate overcrowding in schools south of the Broad River.
While it is still not known what aspects of the construction of River Ridge Academy and May River High School are being investigated, two of the four subpoenas served on the district in December 2017 were for documents related to the schools’ costs and the procurement process.
Construction of River Ridge Academy was originally estimated at $25.5 million, but cost $32 million by the time the school was completed in 2015, according to previous reporting in the Packet and the Gazette. And May River High School, estimated to cost between $35 million and $43 million, cost a little more than $67 million.
Both schools, which are at 105 percent and 97 percent student capacity respectively, are marked for a combined $26 million expansion if the 2019 referendum passes.
But the largest expense on the referendum is the demolition and replacement of a school unrelated to the FBI investigation: Robert Smalls International Academy, which has an expected $72 million price tag, more than double what River Ridge Academy cost to build when it was completed in 2015.
District chief of operations Robert Oetting and interim superintendent Berg addressed the higher cost for Robert Smalls at the board of education’s June 18 meeting and made a point to say that River Ridge was considered inexpensive because of lower construction workforce costs after the recession.
“I think the cost on River Ridge was remarkably low, and the building was designed smaller than it should have been,” Berg said, noting the smaller-than-average classrooms and storage space at the school.
By the time of the November bond referendum, it is possible not much more will be known about the FBI investigation than it was during the April 2018 bond referendum, but the significant changes in leadership could convince voters that things are different now, according to at least one board member.
Richard Geier recently cited the election of six new school board members and Rodriguez’s arrival as positive influences on the school board’s and district’s reputations, which suffered in recent years.
“I assume the FBI is doing its work,” Geier said on June 18. “We may not know (about the state of the investigation) until grand jury or indictment. I don’t know why the school board would be informed about the state of the investigation before then. I don’t know that we can.”
“This is a whole new way of doing things,” he said. “We’ve done a great deal more due diligence than the last board on either failed referendum.”
This story was originally published June 28, 2019 at 6:39 PM.