The Mount Vernon Board of Education voted Monday to reassign Jamaica-born superintendent Dr. Waveline Bennett-Conroy amid a federal probe into the awarding of federal grants amounting to eight-point five million dollars.
In a press release the school board said at a special meeting of the board Monday night it voted to administratively reassign Dr. Waveline Bennett-Conroy, superintendent of schools, until further notice and/or action by the board. Her duties, while reassigned, have not been stated.
Dr Bennett-Conroy will receive her full pay and benefits during the period of reassignment.
The board also appointed Veronica (Kim) Smith as acting superintendent. She has been assistant superintendent for pupil personnel services since 2021 and has worked in the school district since 2001, the same year Bennett-Conroy joined the district as a Spanish teacher.
The school district is currently facing a federal investigation over its handling of federal grant money.
The school board said the US Attorney’s office for the northern district of New York was seeking records from the district and Bennett-Conroy associated with the awarding of contracts totaling over eight million dollars in federal grants since 2016 made to a single agency, the West Nyack-based Just Inspire.
According to reports Marlon Stephenson the son of Bennett-Conroy’s son, Marlon Stephenson worked at the same company with Susan Maher shortly before she started Just Inspire in 2016.
In November, the school board hired a Long Island-based accounting firm to conduct an “independent comprehensive audit” of the district’s grant program. That audit has not yet been completed according to the board.
The Jamaica-born Dr. Bennett-Conroy was appointed school superintendent on July 1, last year but previously served the school district as assistant superintendent for school improvements, overseeing grant-related programs.
Dr Waveline Bennett-Conroy was born in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, and taught for ten years in Jamaica before migrating to the United States in 1989.
As superintendent of the Mount Vernon school system, she oversees a staff complement of 1,500 people, including 693 teachers, three high schools and several other schools from Pre-K to Grade 8.
She also manages a school budget of US$266 million and supervises the welfare of 8,000 children in the school system.
