Donoroo Payment Issues Not Result of Wrongdoing at CHMS

The failure to pay charities designated to benefit from Clarendon Hills Middle School’s Donoroo fundraiser was not a product of fraud or misappropriation of funds, District 181 board member Gary Clarin said Monday night.

Clarin, who volunteered to review District 181’s concluded Donoroo investigation, said he went through every check issued from the Donoroo account and found that while there were missed payments, there were no signs of impropriety on the part of staff members.

READ: CHMS' Donoroo Fundraiser Discontinued After Payment Issues

Clarin confirmed that after the 2013 event there was $4,955.35 remaining in the Donoroo account, which was meant to have a zero balance after each year's payments to designated charities. That money has since been distributed to the charities it was meant for—Honor Flight Network, Lurie Children’s, and Engineers Without Borders.

No money from the account was used to pay stipends for staff organizers.

Donoroo, which raised more than $33,000 for charity over its six-year run, will not be held in 2014 and beyond.

“Those involved should be commended for their participation in doing this, not ridiculed for how they thought was the best way to distribute the money,” Clarin said.

District 181 Superintendent Renée Schuster said the issue of late payments to charities was raised over the summer, and an ensuing investigation by director of human resources Doug Eccarius showed that payments had indeed not been made.

“I regret that we made some errors as we were processing things and did not pay the charities on time,” Schuster said at the board’s Oct. 28 meeting.

Clarin said Donoroo was originally created by a science teacher at CHMS who wanted to put on an event to benefit the foundation of school nurse Kathy Donohue’s nephew, who was killed in a drunk-driving accident. 

That teacher later went on to work at Hinsdale Middle School, and a CHMS music teacher became the event’s organizer.

The staff members who organized the event were paid a $700 stipend each year. Clarin said those payments came from the district’s extracurricular fund.