Multiple local teachers are turning to the state for help and confronting officials at a rural El Paso County school district for “gross negligence” after they and other staff members were allegedly “red-flagged” for tax fraud.

Employees with Hanover School District 28, southeast of Colorado Springs, say they have filed dozens of grievances alleging that they have not received tax refunds and have faced fines by the Internal Revenue Service after the district failed to submit employees’ W-2 forms to the federal agency nearly every year since 2018.

While the grievances were not an agenda item at the D-28 Board of Education’s regular meeting Wednesday evening, more than 60 people packed into the administration building in support of the staff members who addressed the board through public comments.

Abby Engel, a former head cook at Prairie Heights Elementary and who left the district this summer, told The Gazette that employees began receiving notifications last spring that the IRS would be holding their tax refunds while it investigated missing wage and tax statements, and that those employees were officially fraudulent in their tax payments from 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

When filing her taxes for the first year of her employment with the district, 2020, Engel said she thought it was a “fluke” when she found she owed a large sum in taxes because the district had not taken them from her paychecks throughout the year.

While she said she did not personally face fines that year, others who were not able to cover the unexpected costs were penalized by the IRS.

“We had enough money to cover the taxes and then the next year … I changed my W-4 (form) to have taxes taken out,” Engel said. “But, that still wasn’t happening the next school year, so we started putting money aside to make sure that our taxes were going to be covered.”

Another current district employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the IRS told them that the COVID-19 pandemic had created a backlog of investigations, causing D-28’s employee’s tax filings to be flagged only recently.

In April, interim Superintendent Mark Koopman met with each Prairie Heights Elementary employee who had filed a grievance with the district, but employees discovered that their grievances had been closed with no follow-up, and that Patricia Petrukitas, D-28 director of business, services and human resources, would be allowed to conduct her own audit, affected employees told The Gazette.

“(The district) tends to take care of everything in-house, very hush-hush,” Engel said. “It just didn’t sit well with me. Where’s the accountability? Where’s the responsibility?”

Engel said she attended a school board meeting in April and read aloud a letter of grievances signed by the affected staff.

She said she learned soon after, during her end-of-year review, that her contract with the district would not be renewed.

“I never had any write-ups and I had two years of good reviews,” Engel said. “I was pretty blindsided by it, because there was not even a plan of improvement or anything like that.”

“I was assured that it would be fine, and that I wouldn’t face any sort of retribution, but it definitely doesn’t feel that way,” Engels added.

Engel said that an IRS agent in August confirmed with her and others via phone calls that the service did not have income reported through W-2 forms from the district for the years 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022 and that several employees were officially fraudulent in their tax filings.

On Wednesday, Pikes Peak Education Association member Chris Idzik spoke on behalf of the employees and told board members that some D-28 employees’ spouses who maintain military-related security clearances could also risk losing their clearance due to red flagging by the IRS.

“That’s someone’s livelihood, it’s very hard to get it cleared up,” Idzik told the board. “We just are here because we want the answers. We don’t see ill (or) bad intent, but we’re here just to get to the bottom of it … and we’re here to support you in this investigation.”

According to emails shared with The Gazette, multiple state agencies have received and are reviewing the complaints.

An email from a consumer engagement specialist with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office told Engel on Sept. 15 that the office received and will obtain information in her official complaint against D-28.

On Monday, Colorado Department of Education representative Sheldon Rosencrance said in an email shared with The Gazette that he had forwarded the complaint to CDE’s Finance and Operations Division to “identify supports that (CDE) can provide” such as an assigned field representative and contact with D-28.

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment has also received the complaint, according to an email dated Sept. 15.

State Rep. Marc Snyder, a former Manitou Springs mayor and current House District 18 representative, attended the Wednesday meeting per request, Idzik said. Snyder is planning to run for the state Senate next year.

State Rep. Rod Bockenfeld, R-Watkins, told Engel in an email on Monday that he had forwarded her complaint to state auditor Kerri Hunter. In an emailed response, Hunter said that while the Legislative Audit Committee does not have authority to audit local governments and school districts, she could confirm that D-28 is “up to date” on audit submissions and received a “clean opinion” from its 2022 auditor.

“As possible steps that we can take, we can reach out to the (fiscal year) 2022 auditor to determine if that individual is also conducting the School District’s (fiscal year) 2023 audit and, if so, bring these issues up to them for their consideration in their risk assessment and possible testing,” Hunter said in an email to Bockenfeld.

“We can also contact the appropriate individual at the Department of Education who works with the various school districts to ensure that they are aware of the allegations,” Hunter said.

At the meeting on Wednesday, employees requested that Petrukitas, the D-28 business director, be placed on leave during an external forensic audit process and that a fund be set up to support employees who may face “future tax problems.”

Employees also requested that they be paid interest on refunds that have not been received on time or at all.

Current superintendent Paul Calvert told employees that he met with a Colorado Springs-based certified public accountant Wednesday and that she is currently in the “data-gathering phase” of an independent audit.

“The whole intent is to diagnose any issues or things that are going wrong, fix those issues, remedy any practices that are needed and to assist all employees with anything that we can to the best of our ability,” Calvert said.

After board treasurer Ed Sweazy stated that he had only first heard of the issue roughly two weeks ago, several attendees walked out of the meeting in protest.

Engel said the district failed to show proof of W-2 submissions by the requested deadline of Sept. 1 and again on Sept. 5. On Sept. 8, the district reportedly sent proof that their W-2 forms for 2020, 2021 and 2022 — but not 2018 — had been submitted as of Sept. 6. Staff members also have submitted 18 new grievances as of Sept. 15 to address further lapses in financial duties, employees said.

A special board meeting has been scheduled at the D-28 administrative building, located at 17050 S. Peyton Highway, on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. ahead of the next regular board meeting on Oct. 11.

District officials did not indicate whether the complaint would be discussed at the special meeting.