RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT)—On Monday night, the Richmond Public Schools school board learned more about an internal audit of its whistleblower hotline.

Richmond Public Schools have a fraud hotline for reporting abuse, waste and fraud. The division is now calling such reports “whistleblower complaints.”

An internal audit report led by the division’s auditor, Doug Graeff, revealed three key findings at the end of 2024. They included more than 700 unopened emails dating back to 2014, old voicemails left unanswered and a scattered and disorganized file system intended to keep track of reported cases.

The file system contained cases that had been started and dropped. A team reviewed the emails and found that most were spam. They also reviewed the voicemails and open cases and found 70 whistleblower complaints.

Some of those complaints stated:

• A sex offender possibly gaining access to a school.
• A parent complained that a child was mistreated.
• A citizen complained that vehicles were being used for personal trips and errands.

The audit claims none of them were actionable as fraud or abuse matters because the report either didn’t include enough details or was unrelated.

Monday night, Graeff addressed the school board about his measures to ensure that things don’t fall behind again.

He says the email system now is current and being monitored by him.

The voicemail feature is deactivated, and all whistleblower calls are forwarded to him.

There is also a system in place to intake new...

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