Gilbert Police last week arrested a former Higley High School social studies teacher accused of inappropriate relationships with two underage students.
Ex-Gilbert school superintendent faces 18 counts of fraud
Charlie Neibergall/AP
Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley s gavel sits on the speakers desk, Monday, March 16, 2020, at the Statehouse in Des Moines, Iowa. Iowa leaders are suspending the current legislative session for at least 30 days in efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
and last updated 2021-07-23 17:50:16-04
PHOENIX â A former suburban Phoenix school district superintendent accepted money in exchange for awarding building contracts to certain vendors, according to an Arizona Auditor General report.
The report, which was released Thursday, led to Dr. Angela Denise Birdwell, former Higley School District superintendent in Gilbert, being indicted earlier this month on felony charges involving fraud.
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Authorities say while Denise Birdwell was running the Higley Unified School District, she was lining her own pockets with money she got in a kickback scheme involving school construction.
The Attorney General s Office said the four were involved in a fraud scheme tied to rigged contracts that cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Prosecutors accused Birdwell of taking payments for helping a company win a bid for building two middle schools in 2012.
Birdwell also misspent $6 million of public money that she diverted from a restricted fund to help cover construction costs related to the contracts, prosecutors said.
The indictments punctuate years of allegations that followed Birdwell from Higley to Scottsdale unified school districts from 2011 until 2018 when she was forced out of her job.