PARIS, Ill. (WTWO/WAWV)– Paris 95 Schools temporary superintendent Lorraine Bailey said she is close to finalizing its corrective action plan related to an investigation into the district’s finances during the school board meeting on Monday. 

It was the first school board meeting since Bailey was appointed the interim superintendent back in June. Her term comes while current superintendent Jeremy Larson is on administrative leave. The investigation stems from an audit by the Illinois State Board of Education that discovered $3.2 million in questionable spending by Paris 95 School District. 

Addressing the crowd towards the end of the meeting, Bailey said she was nearly finished with the plan, and was awaiting a response from the state. 

“I had the plan basically done on Thursday of last week. I contacted the state board on Friday and I’m still waiting on a response back from them,” she said. “I was hoping to hear something today and I haven’t.”

The deadline to submit this plan is at the end of the week– July 15th– after the district received an extension this past month. Bailey said, while it is her goal to submit the plan this week, ISBE has told her they will give out another extension if needed. 

“He did tell me at ISBE that if we needed an extension, he would get us one,” she said. “I told him my hope was we wouldn’t need that, but I’m waiting to hear back from them. He said if we did, that was not a problem, they would work with us and would be glad to extend us.”

Bailey declined to comment further following the meeting. School Board President Kevin Knoepfel said in June the board was working to reply to a subpoena from a federal grand jury related to the investigation. 

We will continue to follow this story as more information comes out.