Kenyetta Wilbourn (Photo from Public TV video)
An FBI investigation could prove embarrassing to Gov. Rick Snyder’s K-12 reform district and Detroit Public Schools.
Robert Snell and Chad Livengood of the Detroit News write that the FBI is investigating multiple officials from DPS and the Snyder-created Education Achievement Authority to determine if contracts were awarded to vendors who paid kickbacks. The News cites unnamed sources.
The state authority was created to target failing schools. It oversees Detroit's most troubling schools.
The News reports:
According to a document obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, one target of the investigation is Kenyetta “K.C.” Wilbourn, ex-principal of the authority’s Mumford High School.
The investigation indicates federal agents are mining a new vein of alleged corruption in a city that has endured multiple federal prosecutions of former Detroit city officials, including ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, pension trustees and public school officials, in recent years.
Wilbourn, 40, of Harper Woods was seen as a rising star, a 4-foot-11-inch turnaround specialist at Denby High School with a “GUCCI1” personalized license plate and a 2007 Maserati. She abruptly resigned last fall after FBI agents searched her home.
The Grio wrote a flattering story in 2012 about Wilbourn and her effectiveness as a principal. The story said:
Wilbourn, who goes by the nickname “K.C.,” draws immediate comparisons to Joe Clark, the New Jersey principal who was immortalized by Morgan Freeman in the 1989 film Lean on Me.
The News goes on to report:
The corruption investigation surfaced one day after The News reported that former DPS official Barbara Byrd-Bennett, who pleaded guilty to defrauding the Chicago school system, is facing scrutiny over her tenure in Detroit.
