BY FRANK DELANO
The Virginia State Police are investigating allegations of financial and other irregularities in the Colonial Beach school system, school officials said this week.
"I welcome the state police investigation. It'll be a good thing in the end, but it's a shame it has to come to this," Tim Trivett said Wednesday night after he was elected the School Board's new chairman.
At the same meeting, School Superintendent Alice H. Howard told a reporter that the state police "didn't talk to me. They talked to Mrs. Worrell." Barbara M. Worrell is the school's finance director.
Trivett, a persistent and vocal critic of the school administration, won a School Board seat in May as a write-in candidate. He campaigned against overspending, poor management and secrecy.
Trivett said he spent hundreds of dollars to obtain school documents under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. He presented his findings to the Town Council and sent them to Gov. Tim Kaine. Trivett said Kaine's office apparently forwarded them to the state police.
Trivett's major concern was excessive spending by the School Board. According to audit figures for the past five years, the board spent $469,000 more than it received in revenues.
Trivett also focused on a 2005 school contract with a Richmond architectural firm for a middle school that was not built. A suit filed last year by the architects--and still pending in Westmoreland County Circuit Court--claims the School Board owes $153,702 on the contract.
Trivett said last month that he had talked with Belinda Glover of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation. According to the state police Web site, the bureau examines complaints from the governor, attorney general, commonwealth's attorneys, grand juries, and police and sheriff's departments.
In addition to Trivett and Worrell, Glover also interviewed Colonial Beach Chief Financial Officer Joan Grant and former Mayor G.W. "Pete" Bone Jr., Trivett said.
Grant declined comment when asked about her meeting with Glover. Bone said he talked once with Glover by telephone and sent her copies of correspondence with former School Board Chairman Robert B. Driskell concerning school finances.
Trivett said his two conversations with Glover lasted a total of five hours. He said he also discussed with the investigator a news release written on school stationery by Colonial Beach High School Guidance Counselor Greg Forbes.
The release, published in weekly newspapers in April, was critical of School Board candidate Bronwyn "Anne" Congdon. Congdon, Trivett and Michael Looney defeated three veteran School Board incumbents in town elections the next month.
As its new chairman, Trivett said the board "will ensure that our hard-earned money will be used wisely by our school system."
"This government belongs to the people. We want to be open to the public. This board is going to be as public as it possibly can so nobody will think we're trying to hide anything," he said.
Trivett also promised to eliminate charges for Freedom of Information requests. "I don't support charging for public information unless it takes months and months to compile," he said.
State police spokesman Tom Cunningham acknowledged the ongoing investigation, but said agency policies prevented him from providing details. Westmoreland Commonwealth's Attorney Dean J. Atkins also declined comment.
Frank Delano: 804/333-3834
Email: fpdelano@gmail.com