Paint the South Bend Community School Corporation bought with state money to renovate Brown School turned up in the garage of a former district official, a school board member told Redress, and the South Bend Police Department is now investigating the matter.
When the district official later put their home up for sale, a member of the public walked through the open house and found shelves of paint in the garage. That person photographed the cans and wrote down the product codes, which matched the paint bought for the Brown renovation.
“It’s definitely the paint that [redacted] bought for Brown School,” the board member said. Other sources confirmed the account.
A second board member confirmed that a police report was filed over items the district bought for the Brown renovation that went missing. According to that board member, the new superintendent filed the police report after the board pushed for one. Redress sought comment from six of the district’s seven board members.
The first board member said federal investigators are also looking at the district, examining its finances from 2019 through 2025. Asked what the federal inquiry covers, the board member said, “The only thing I could say is inappropriate funds being used.” The second board member would not confirm or deny a federal investigation.
The police department has been less forthcoming. On Sept. 2, Redress went to the records bureau and asked for a copy of the report, providing the date, the location, and the suspect’s name. Redress told the records employee the theft had been reported in person, not through 911, and provided the approximate date the report was filed.
“I don’t have anything,” the employee said.
When Redress pressed, she was firmer. “I’m telling you, nobody came in,” she said. “I do not have anybody with that name.”
“There is no report, so there is nothing to give you,” she said.
A few hours later, Redress obtained the case number: 26-10646. Redress filed a public records request for the report and any supplements on Sept. 3. The employee had said the department does not “hand out police reports to anybody in the public.” Requests go through the city’s legal department, where she said she had “seen it take up to six months to a year” to produce a police report.
It has been 25 days. The city has not produced the report.
Note: You can request a copy of the report yourself. Submit a request through the city’s public records portal at southbendin.jotform.com/team/legal/APRA and ask for SBPD case No. 26-10646.
The painting at Brown was already under scrutiny before any of this. Redress reported in May that the Indiana State Board of Accounts questioned $767,585 in district spending from the 2022-23 school year and sent its findings to the Indiana attorney general and the St. Joseph County prosecutor’s office. The largest single item was $271,568 paid to Alignment Ventures, the painting contractor at Brown, while its owner, Chekesha Donaldson, was working as a paid district intern. The district produced no contract or bid for the work, and payments to Alignment Ventures reached $506,534 by September 2024.
Logan Foster
Logan Foster is the founder and editor of Redress South Bend, an independent news outlet covering local government, courts, and public institutions in South Bend and St. Joseph County, Indiana. He reports from primary documents: public records requests, court filings, state audit reports, and campaign finance disclosures. His reporting has examined city and school district payments made without competitive bidding, school board spending, and the records of candidates in county races. Redress South Bend obtained the South Bend Police Department's ShotSpotter coverage map after the department initially denied public access. The outlet is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Online News Association. Reach him at info@redresssouthbend.com
