Checks under scrutiny in School District 159

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Updated: March 21, 2012 8:00AM

A former payroll clerk in Matteson-based School District 159 was receiving multiple checks on payday and was issued a check for more than $15,000 just weeks before she was fired, according to payroll records obtained by the SouthtownStar.

Her son also received more money than his job as a substitute teacher called for, records show.

All told, about $32,000 was paid to Patricia Brewer, of Matteson, and her son Michael Brewer for work the district cannot account for before, records show. Neither has been charged with a crime. The school board fired them in June 2010, records show.

District 159 Board President Elliot Johnson criticized how District 159 Supt. Barbara Mason and business manager Melody Ellington handled the matter. Johnson said he felt they did not take swift enough action.

“What I am is very disappointed that our superintendent and business manager didn’t address it with a sense of urgency, considering the fact that it was obvious that it transpired,” Johnson said. “They think $30,000 isn’t a big deal. They act like it’s three dollars.”

Johnson, who also is a Rich Township trustee, said he met Feb. 10 with Cook County state’s attorney’s office investigators in response to a SouthtownStar inquiry.

The school board agreed at a special meeting on Monday to give the information to the state’s attorney’s office.

“What took a year-plus to not be able to get, they will get in a week,” Johnson said.

Mason said the state’s attorney’s office and Illinois attorney general’s office already were investigating before Johnson met with them on Feb. 10. She declined to comment on Johnson’s assertion that investigators were upset about the delay in providing paperwork. Ellington did not respond to multiple messages.

Patricia Brewer received two checks every payday from October 2009 through December 2009 totaling about $7,200, according to payroll and check records obtained by the SouthtownStar. She also was cut a check for $15,500 from the district weeks before she was fired.

Reached at her house in Matteson, Patricia Brewer couldn’t explain the expenses.

“There’s a lot of animosity in the district and I don’t know what’s going on,” Brewer said. “Every penny I’ve got, they gave me.”

Patricia’s son, Michael, worked as a substitute teacher at the district, working two days in November 2009 and May 2010, according to substitute payroll records.

The pay schedule called for him to earn $190 for those days, but the district’s report on checks issued shows he was paid about $9,500.

“I don’t even remember that,” Michael Brewer said. “I’m a full-time employee at Ford now and I don’t remember back then. I don’t know what they’re talking about.”

The Brewers have had money issues in the past, with each declaring bankruptcy in 1998, court records show. Michael filed for his second bankruptcy in 2005, claiming that he owed creditors nearly $194,000 while he had about $300 in his checking account.

The district tapped Patricia Brewer to be a temporary payroll clerk in February 2009, records show. She became a full-time payroll clerk in July 2009 and later was promoted to be former Supt. Ronald Wynn’s secretary. District 159 human resources director Sonya Norwood, who also is a Rich Township High School District 227 board member, said Michael Brewer had no other district job that would warrant the amount he was paid.

“That’s amazing, but people do crazy stuff,” Norwood said. “I don’t understand why they do it, but they do, and they get caught.”

Contributing: Lauren Fitzpatrick