Former Wayland schools official fired by Kalamazoo

A former Wayland Union Schools administrator was fired Wednesday by Kalamazoo Public Schools for what school board members called making inappropriate decisions without proper oversight.

James English, 55, who served as assistant superintendent for finance and operations under Supt. Evior Swan until 2010, had been assistant superintendent for financial operations at Kalamazoo since June 2021.

His dismissal occurred two weeks after KPS Superintendent Rita Raichoudhuri resigned with little explanation. The investigative report on English did not mention Raichoudhuri’s departure.

A story in today’s Kalamazoo Gazette reported that acting interim Supt. Cindy Green said she launched the investigation of English after taking over as interim superintendent Dec. 13, saying she did so after “more than one board member shared concerns” about the district’s business operations.

The Gazette said among the issues cited in the report:

• English helped create a Kalamazoo Public Schools Foundation without board approval and spent more than $91,000 in district funds on its operations, most of it for consulting fees.
• He hired an outside contract worker to serve as the district’s finance director, without board approval. Moreover, that contractor, Michael MacDonald, holds another job, as executive director of business services for Grand Haven Public Schools.
• Also without board approval, English hired an outside contractor to do accounting work for the district, and he failed to obtain a written contact and did not establish an hourly rate for the work to be performed.
• English engaged in practices “not appropriate” for the district’s chief financial officer. Those practices included routinely working from home on Fridays while his staff were expected to be in the office; directing some staff members not to share budget information; failing to provide Human Resources with requested information about contractors; telling his assistant not to enter his paid time off into the system, and seeking reimbursement for meals and car expenses without specifying the district purpose for such expenses.

He and Swan in 2011 were ordered to pay back more than $70,000 in combined erroneous payments made to them for accumulated unused sick days after leaving the district the previous year. English was ordered to pay back $40,693 he received for unused sick days and overpayment of employee step increases. His independent contract with the district to serve as construction oversight manager through September 2011 was terminated. He was to be be paid an additional $23,925 for what he was due on that contract.

English earned his master’s degree from Grand Valley State University and a bachelor or arts in elementary education from Hope College.

English prior was chief financial officer of Calvin University in Grand Rapids. Before assuming that position, he served for eight years as associate superintendent of business services in West Ottawa Public Schools in West Ottawa; was director of finance and bond management at Holland Public Schools in Holland; assistant superintendent of finance and operations in Wayland Union School, and business manager of Summerville Schools.