A high-powered, influential Denver Public Schools principal with a history of financial woes was investigated last year over allegations that more than $175,000 was misspent on district credit cards — nearly half of it unaccounted for and without receipts — but managed to keep her job and was eventually promoted, according to documents obtained by The Denver Gazette and interviews.
And although the school district in mid-2020 confiscated the credit card it issued to Kimberly Grayson, the principal at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Early College middle and high school in northeast Denver, over concerns of misspending — as well as the cards issued to three others she supervised at the school — the district later gave the card back to Grayson and, according to documents, her spending quickly resumed.
Additional allegations of misspending in 2021 resulted in a full-blown investigation, but Grayson remained on the job and was given a promotion as it was ongoing, records show. People familiar with the inquiry said they were confident all the transactions were made on Grayson's behalf.
One of the other three employees whose card was confiscated left the district before investigators could interview her; the other two remain employed by DPS. The district would not identify them.
Grayson eventually resigned in August 2022 amid a different investigation that was launched into allegations she racially discriminated and retaliated against some DPS employees.
The Denver district attorney’s office has recently launched its own inquiry into the Grayson financial affair, according to people familiar with that probe.
DPS’s initial internal nine-month investigation into how Grayson used the credit card provided to her — known as a P-card — uncovered dozens of eyebrow-raising purchases that people familiar with the inquiry said occurred without explanation or rationale.
It began in January 2021 following a complaint about the alleged misappropriation of money that came through DPS's fraud hotline a month earlier, district officials confirmed, and ended in September 2021.
But rather than face harsh discipline — the district will not say what penalty she was given and refused to release any details about its investigation other than some receipts and a general accounting overview of how the money was spent — Grayson remained at the school as its principal through the end of the 2021-22 school year.
Grayson was given an admonishment and remedial training for how to properly use the credit card, which was eventually taken from her, according to people familiar with the investigation who were not authorized to speak about it publicly. Investigators were unable to specifically determine if Grayson made all the purchases herself or if someone else had made them at her direction, those sources said.
Former Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College principal Kimberly Grayson is featured in a Facebook post on her page from August 15, 2022, as seen on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022, in Denver, Colo.
DPS again confiscated Grayson's P-card in April 2021 following additional allegations of misspending, the district confirmed.
Grayson told students' parents in a May 2022 letter that she was leaving MLK for a job at DPS headquarters as its director of specialized student service plans with a concentration on Black excellence plans. District officials confirmed she was given the job, without a raise to her $189,000 salary as MLK's principal.
“I take comfort in knowing I will still be able to support and collaborate with this school at the district level and return from time to time to check on and support the needs of this school and visit where I have poured my heart and soul for the past nine years,” Grayson wrote in her May 26, 2022, letter, a copy of which was posted on the school’s Facebook page. “Here’s to continuing the work we have started.”
But Grayson never started the new job. Instead, she was placed on administrative leave as additional allegations about her spending and personal conduct surfaced and her credit card was again confiscated. She remained on leave until she resigned in August 2022, refusing to cooperate with the investigations, people familiar with the probe said.
Grayson could not be reached for comment and did not respond to email and text messages left for her by The Gazette.
Documents show Grayson charged over $175,000 of personal expenses to DPS-issued credit card
Some of the items purchased on the P-cards were shipped to Grayson's mother in Wichita, Kan., documents show, but the majority went to Grayson’s Aurora home, the documents show.
They included:
• More than 60 Barbie dolls costing $2,864
• 107 purchases of games, toys and remote control cars for nearly $2,000
• 73 other dolls for $2,639
• Nearly $1,000 in scented candles and $280 in essential oils
• Dallas Cowboys-branded steering wheel and headrest covers
• 50 bulletproof inserts for backpacks for more than $7,500
• Nearly a dozen Netflix subscriptions
• A half dozen under-desk treadmills for $2,500
• $6,000 in graduate school tuition for an employee with close ties to Grayson
• Nine genetic testing kits totaling nearly $600
• An inflatable man for $79
• A Michael Kors designer bag for $140
• Four charges totaling $12,000 for production services to a vendor with an apparent conflict of interest, although it’s unclear how. About $6,000 of the charges couldn’t be explained
• A trio of yoga instruction sessions at nearly $600 for a yoga instructor
• Nearly $73,000 in undefined purchases that had no receipt
Some purchases — 13 air purifiers for $5,500 and 27 purchases of Christmas trees and decorations totaling $1,200 — were sent to the home of someone identified only as “EE,” according to the records.
In all, P-card purchases tied to Grayson included more than 2,400 items totaling $175,944 during the 2019-2020 school year that ended June 30, 2020.
While some of the items appear to be things a teacher or administrator could purchase for their students or families affiliated with the school, district officials said they’ve been unable to locate or identify the recipients of the bulk of the items.
“DPS is hoping to learn the scope of this alleged misuse of public funds,” DPS spokesman Will Jones told The Gazette. “Any dollar not used for the students’ benefit impacts the district’s ability to provide more for our students.”
Jones refused to offer additional details about the inquiry or how the school district handled any discipline tied to it.
A spokeswoman for Denver District Attorney Beth McCann would not confirm or deny the existence of any investigation it is conducting.
Part of the latest inquiry includes invoices from February 2022 totaling more than $408,000 from an Aurora man that Grayson hired to paint parts of the MLK school. District officials said they had paid about $20,000 toward the work before discovering the contract did not go through the appropriate public-bidding process and stopped it. DPS rules require that any contract worth more than $100,000 go up for public bid.
Some of the concern, according to notes reflected on copies of the invoices provided to The Gazette, was the cost of the painting work. A similar contract was publicly bid to paint the entirety of East High School — which is considerably larger than MLK — and cost $500,000.
The name of the person listed on the invoices, Oscar Martinez of Aurora, did not return calls from The Gazette. An Oscar Martinez is listed among Colorado secretary of state records as the owner of the company, Pro Painting Inc.
DPS launched an inquiry into Grayson’s conduct in May 2022 following accusations by district employees about discrimination and retaliation. The district hired Washington, D.C., law firm Potter & Murdock to conduct the investigation and ultimately paid it $88,000. DPS has refused to release the law firm’s final report, saying it is protected by privacy rules.
Additional spending Grayson made on the DPS P-card after it was returned to her came under scrutiny, including a $70 teapot and several items related to parties to celebrate a 16th birthday, according to the receipts. DPS said they appear to be related to a Sweet 16 birthday party Grayson allegedly held at the school in April 2021 for a family member. The district provided The Gazette with security camera footage at the school that shows hours of set-up for the party and a red-carpet entrance for its celebrant. District officials said Grayson's P-card was confiscated following the party.
Officials believe Grayson's DPS-issued credit card purchased items related to a Sweet 16 birthday party for a family member
Grayson has had her own personal history of financial troubles.
Just after the DPS inquiry began, in April 2021, Grayson filed for personal bankruptcy protection — the third time she’s filed bankruptcy since 2000, according to U.S. Bankruptcy Court records.
In her most recent filings in Denver, Grayson disclosed more than $430,000 in debts that included a $255,000 student loan and more than $128,000 she owes in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service and the Colorado Department of Revenue.
She disclosed her DPS salary as $189,371, an increase from $155,057 the year before.
She was discharged from her debts in August 2021, bankruptcy records show.
Grayson had also filed for personal bankruptcy in 2011 — with her then-husband Albert Jackson — and in 2000, both times in her home state of Kansas. Her 2011 bankruptcy also showed unpaid debts to taxing authorities that included the IRS.
Grayson has been a firebrand leader at MLK since she arrived there in July 2013, standing up for student’s rights and initiating a posture of self-determination and self-reliance that many found uplifting.
In June 2022, she registered Know Justice Know Peace; The Take LLC with the Colorado secretary of state, a spin on the “No Justice, No Peace” racial justice campaign that made headlines nationally after the beating death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020.
The campaign Grayson promoted began as a podcast run by students at her school in 2020 and frequently featured the 47-year-old principal. Students have said she filed the paperwork on behalf of the podcast creators.
The school district in September issued a formal “cease and desist” letter to Grayson, saying the Know Justice brand belonged to DPS since the podcast was started at the school using district equipment and resources.
Grayson turned over ownership of the name in October to former student Jenelle Nangah, who was one of the podcast’s originators.
In turn, four students sued the district claiming it had unlawfully tried to trademark the podcast name.
Grayson has frequently encouraged students to stand up for themselves and has had her own photos displayed on the school’s Facebook page with her fist held high, standing atop a school staircase.
The school board not only applauded and approved a “Know Justice, Know Peace” resolution in October 2020 but also used it to develop curriculum revisions, resources and professional development for teachers districtwide in literacy and middle and high school social studies.
The MLK effort started after a group of students visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. in October 2019. Motivated by what they learned at the museum, the students sought changes in their curriculum to better reflect Black history.
Documents obtained by The Gazette show Grayson purchased a number of items during that trip on the district credit card, including nearly a dozen souvenirs from the Smithsonian Institute.
The students and the school gained national attention with the Know Justice, Know Peace initiative, and each was awarded $1,500 college scholarships by the education advocacy organization Black History 365.