Will BISD employees on leave have to repay salary?

Several Beaumont school district employees could be forced to repay salary they received while on leave if found guilty of crimes, though board trustees would have to pursue repayment.

Once before, trustees were unwilling to go after money to which the district had a claim.

In 2012, BISD contract electrician Calvin Walker forfeited $3.2 million in connection with a guilty plea to a federal misdemeanor charge of failure to file his taxes in a timely manner.

Trustees could have sought up to $2 million in restitution, but doing so would have meant declaring the district the victim of fraud. A board majority was unwilling to make that statement.

Former district finance director Devin McCraney, who faces a federal indictment on one count of conspiracy and 18 counts of fraud in the alleged theft of $4 million, has been on paid leave since November. He submitted his resignation last week, but it must be accepted by the board.

Naomi Lawrence-Lee, the district's purchasing agent, was placed on paid leave a month ago. She has not been charged with any crime.

Jessie Haynes, special assistant to the superintendent, has been on paid leave for six months following an altercation with a reporter and a school trustee at an August board meeting.

In all three cases, the district could at some point seek to recoup back pay from any or all of the three, but "there's nothing automatic about it," said Kevin O'Hanlon, an Austin attorney who served as an assistant attorney general and as general counsel for the Texas Education Agency.

BISD would have to seek it through litigation.

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Will BISD employees on leave have to repay salary?