Charlene Hardin and Barry Applewhite

Daniel Bice continues to follow the story of Milwaukee School Board member Charlene Hardin's taxpayer-funded excellent adventure in Philadelphia.

A Milwaukee Public Schools principal cannot use school funds to underwrite out-of-state trips for people they don’t oversee.

No exceptions.

Which is bad news for Barry Applewhite, who runs the Milwaukee High School of the Arts. He tapped his school’s budget to pay for School Board member Charlene Hardin and Lolita Pearson, a data processing secretary, to go to a national school safety conference in Philadelphia in July.

“The administration is looking into it,” said MPS spokesman Phil Harris.

...Harris declined to say if Hardin’s trip broke the rule. But when asked if principals could use school funds to jet School Board members to national conferences, he said, “The way the policy reads, that would not be appropriate.”

He said he didn’t know what the punishment could be.

...District Attorney John Chisholm has begun an investigation into Hardin and Pearson’s unexcused absence from the conference.

Hardin and Applewhite have maintained that the secretary and School Board member also visited a couple of specialized arts schools in Philadelphia to find out about their safety procedures.

That claim, however, has officials in the Philadelphia School District scratching their heads.

Applewhite refuses to discuss the trip. He'll be delivering a report to MPS officials, in response to a request from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He contends that will answer all questions.

Bice asks:

But couldn’t he just name the Philadelphia schools that Hardin and Pearson visited?

“Not really,” he said. “I’ve got to respond to the open records request.”

Ask a simple question, don't get a simple answer.