Months before a high-level embezzlement scheme at Tulsa Public Schools was uncovered, former superintendent Deborah Gist and her deputies were quietly arranging an exit plan for the official behind it — and using secret payments to a private consultant to manage the transition, according to internal district records obtained by The Frontier.
Tulsa Public Schools told The Frontier the official, former chief talent and equity officer Devin Fletcher, had applied to be the superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools around the same time. But still months before his eventual departure, Fletcher was not among three finalists for the job, according to news reports from the time.
An investigator for the Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector’s office wrote in an internal memo that the records raise questions about whether school leaders knew about Fletcher’s scheme to defraud the district of at least $800,000 long before it was reported to law enforcement…