For six weeks this summer, a giant Marty Pollio has loomed over I-65 south in downtown Louisville. Even bigger than the photo of the outgoing school superintendent was the message on the billboard: “Thank you, Dr. Pollio.”
Records obtained by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting reveal the 14x48 foot thank-you note to the former Jefferson County Public Schools official was paid for with funds from a $20 million gift — a gift leaders previously said they would spend on low-income students in west Louisville.
The billboard expense of $6,950 is a tiny fraction of the donation from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. But it prompted a review by the district’s internal auditor after KyCIR started asking questions. It’s also drawn criticism from the board chair about how a top district cabinet member decided to use a once-in-a-generation gift at a time when the board is facing $100 million in cuts over the next fiscal year, as millions in federal pandemic relief funding expire.
“I don’t think it’s acceptable,” Jefferson County Board of Education Chair Corrie Shull told KyCIR. “That money had been earmarked specifically to serve children, particularly in the Choice Zone area and other areas that needed more resources.”
The Choice Zone is an area encompassing west and downtown Louisville that’s home to many Black families affected by a legacy of racism and disinvestment.
When district leaders announced Scott’s donation in October 2022, the largest in JCPS’ history, Pollio promised the funding would be spent on improving playgrounds, athletic fields, orchestra rooms, and providing sports gear and musical instruments for west Louisville students. Those are items that parent-driven booster-clubs often pay for at schools in more affluent parts of town.
“This will truly make our funding model based completely on equity,” Pollio said in a press release.
The gift is held by the nonprofit Jefferson County Education Foundation. Under a March 2023 agreement with the Jefferson County Board of Education, the funding is supposed to support the “E3 Equity Program,” which the agreement describes as “equity driven with its primary purpose being to provide support to thirteen schools located in the ‘Choice Zone.’”
Jefferson County Education Foundation Chair Franklin Jelsma did not respond to a request for comment.
There is some flexibility in the agreement to spend outside Choice Zone schools. One clause states that “as mutually agreed by JCPS and the Foundation, the E3 Equity Program may encompass other initiatives designed to support JCPS schools, students, teachers and staff.”
Documents show JCPS Chief Communications Officer Carolyn Callahan used $6,950 of the Scott gift on the billboard. Callahan said the billboard was her idea, and that the foundation provides top staff “a certain amount that we can use at our discretion.” She spent another $800 for design costs using her regular board-approved budget.
“My job is to market and promote the district, so we wanted to highlight some of the great achievements that we’ve had over the last eight years. And so I thought it was a good way to also just work in saying thank you to Dr. Pollio for his nearly 30 years of service to JCPS,” Callahan told KyCIR.
Pollio retired at the end of June after decades as a teacher, coach, administrator and eventually superintendent.
A project summary in the design invoice obtained by KyCIR says the billboard will “serve as a public ‘thank you’ and highlight key accomplishments from [Pollio’s] time in office.”
In smaller text, the billboard touts the creation of the Academies of Louisville, which provides vocational training at most high schools, a record high graduation rate, and “school choice for ALL,” which Callahan said referred to a new student assignment plan that was supposed to give middle and high school students in Louisville’s West End more close-to-home options.
Asked why Callahan didn’t pay for the billboard out of her existing board-approved marketing budget, Callhan said she thought the MacKenzie Scott funding made more sense.
“We just determined that it was a good thing that we could use MacKenzie Scott money for and not use taxpayer money for it,” she said.
KyCIR request prompts board inquiry
Emails show that after KyCIR asked for financial documentation relating to the billboard, District 3 board member James Craig asked JCPS Internal Auditor May Porter to review the expenditure and provide a report to the board.
Craig also asked Porter to look into any other similar expenditures.
Responding to an inquiry from Porter, Callahan wrote that aside from the billboard there were no other “public-facing recognitions for Dr. Pollio that we have been part of and none that I know of from other departments.”
Craig told KyCIR he decided to look into the billboard because “it was a noteworthy expenditure…not something that I’ve seen before.”
“I’ve conducted an inquiry on one expenditure — I’m satisfied enough to move forward,” Craig said.
Shull, the board chair, said he was surprised to find out through the inquiry that the superintendent and cabinet-level employees, including Callahan, could access a pot of MacKenzie Scott funds without getting approval from the board of the Jefferson County Education Foundation.
“Clearly the process was implemented and initiated on the part of the foundation out of confidence that the superintendent and the superintendent’s cabinet would use their allotment of funds to support programming for children and for initiatives that would benefit some of the most neglected and vulnerable children,” Shull said.
He called the billboard purchase, “unfortunate.” However, Shull said he hasn’t heard of any other “questionable” uses of the MacKenzie Scott funding.
According to a 2023 report from the Courier Journal, JCPS has already spent hundreds of thousands of MacKenzie Scott dollars on equity-driven initiatives in schools, including a new drama production at the Academy @ Shawnee, along with football helmets and scrubs for students in the school’s health care pathway.
District 1 school board member Gail Logan Strange, whose district encompasses much of the Choice Zone, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
‘Totally a miss’
In the course of KyCIR’s inquiry into the billboard, JCPS initially failed to produce financial records, claiming they did not exist.
Kentucky’s Open Records Act requires public agencies to produce many kinds of records upon request. However, when KyCIR asked in mid-June for all “contracts, invoices, and receipts” relating to the billboard, JCPS initially produced just one document — an $800 invoice for design costs.
When KyCIR followed up to note that there should be documentation relating to the installation and renting of the billboard itself, a JCPS attorney wrote back: “We do not have any additional documentation or invoices at this time.”
After several additional follow-ups, Callahan told KyCIR the billboard cost was $6,950, but would not provide documentation, saying the invoice would be available after the run of the billboard.
Another records request for Callahan’s emails revealed she received the $6,950 contract with OutFront Media by email in April, and had failed to produce it in response to KyCIR’s first request.
Callahan said she didn’t see the document when she combed through her records.
“I think that was just totally a miss — didn’t see it,” Callahan told KyCIR. “Nothing on purpose.”
Asked if he believes Callahan broke open records laws, Craig, the district 3 board member, said it would be “inappropriate to discuss that issue on the record” due to ongoing litigation between LPM and JCPS.
LPM, KyCIR’s parent company, is suing the district over its failure to turn over texts between top staff on the bungled opening day of the 2023-2024 school year.
The records sought include Callahan’s texts. Nearly two years later, they still haven’t been produced.
