OAN’s Abril Elfi
10:51 AM – Saturday, May 18, 2024
Investigators discovered that a mother-and-son team working for the city Department of Education (DOE) has scammed a public school for disabled children in Manhattan out of almost $8,500.
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Marlene Delgado, 62, works as a school secretary at PS M169, a K–12 institution with 305 special needs students.
According to a recently released March 23rd, 2023, report by the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools, she authorized payments to her 36-year-old substitute paraprofessional son on 55 days when he failed to sign in or show up.
Officials also said that Delgado, who was in charge of handling subcontractor payments, also gave her son an additional 50 minutes on five occasions when he did sign in.
“Koukaras knowingly received these improper payments—totaling $8,479.78—for dates and times when he did not work,” the report to Chancellor David Banks states.
The PS 169M principal gave Delgado’s son permission to cover as a substitute aide for two weeks in September 2019.
Officials discovered that Delgado then enrolled her son in the school for an additional six months without the principal’s consent and entered his time sheets into the DOE payroll system.
According to the SCI report, the mother and son “engaged in employee misconduct, falsifying documents, and theft of service.”
The mother and son have declined to speak with SCI investigators.
Koukaras was fired and put on the DOE’s “Do Not Hire” list in January 2020. However, Delgado remains in the same job at PS M169.
Delgado agreed to pay a $10,000 fine to the city Conflicts of Interest Board in March.
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