At the March 5, 2014 Local Governmental Officials Conference, Ohio’s State Auditor David Yost recognized Carolyn Smith, the Internal Auditor of the Columbus City Schools, as a “Taxpayer Hero.”
Auditor Yost said of Smith and the other awardee (Heather Winchell, formerly of the Fairfield County Clerk of Courts Office) “these two heroes took personal risks for the public good … by sticking their necks out they helped shine the light on two huge fraud cases, and I am proud to present them with Taxpayer Hero Awards.”
Carolyn Smith was the key public servant who unveiled the District’s nearly 10 year attendance and data scrubbing scheme, through which the District and its individual schools manipulated data to make them appear as though they were performing better than they were.
The issue came to Smith’s attention when a school social worker, informed Smith that record changing was going on that was resulting in delinquency cases being thrown out of court and students from getting their diplomas. Smith verified the same, and went to Superintendent Gene Harris expressing her alarm about the practice, which started the public scrutiny and subsequent state auditor investigation.