Betty Wilson lost her job with the McComb School District because $1.4 million in COVID-19 relief money was used to upgrade air conditioning systems in violation of federal rules, according to testimony Monday at a hearing about her dismissal.
The due process hearing in the school board meeting room is open to the public. About 25 people were on hand.
Wilson, the district’s former federal programs coordinator, testified first for about half an hour, with superintendent Dr. Tiffany Hicks following her. Hicks was still testifying when the hearing stopped for lunch.
According to testimony, the school district received more than $16 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief money from the federal government starting in 2021, and allocated most of it for new air conditioning systems.
One rule for the use of the money was that it could not be used to improve buildings that did not house students, but district officials did not discover until January 2025 that some of it had been spent on non-student buildings. Hicks said the district will have to pay its own money for that work.
Nate Armistead of Brookhaven is the hearing officer. Bethany Tarpley of Cleveland, Miss., is representing the school district and Lisa Ross of Jackson is representing Wilson.
