Trustees at the Helen Y. Davis Leadership Academy charter school in Dorchester lavished its former executive director with hefty pay increases and other perks, including an overpayment of nearly $100,000 as she departed for retirement, the state Inspector General’s Office announced Thursday.
Between 2011 and 2017, trustees more than doubled Karmala Sherwood’s base salary and gave her no-cost health insurance, a benefit that no other employee received at the middle school, which serves 200 students.
In her final year on the job in 2017, Sherwood walked away with $380,000 in salary, benefits, and payouts, representing 11.3 percent of the school’s budget, the investigation found, noting that she continues to work for the school as an $80,000-a-year consultant.