After-school programs are the thing Brooklyn parents claw to keep funded, the few hours of care and enrichment between the last bell and a parent getting home. Prosecutors say the woman who ran one of them quietly drained its account for six years and spent the money on herself.
Shalisha Jackson, 37, was indicted this month, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office. She had worked for the city Department of Education since 2008 and served as director of the after-school program at P.S. 146, the Brooklyn New School, from 2016 to 2024. Over that time, prosecutors say, she stole approximately $111,000.
According to the indictment, between June 2018 and October 2024, Jackson wrote 153 checks from the after-school program’s account and spent the money on personal expenses: hotel stays, liquor store runs, payments to a real estate firm that specializes in luxury properties, car payments and online shopping. She is also accused of depositing two checks that belonged to Madiba Prep Middle School, for $714 and $320, straight into her own checking account.
The money was supposed to pay for the program that watches other people’s kids. Prosecutors say it went to a liquor store and a luxury-property broker, 153 checks at a time, for the better part of six years, in a system where the after-school slots themselves are scarce and fought over.
According to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, Jackson was arraigned before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on charges including second- and third-degree grand larceny, forgery and criminal possession of a forged instrument. She was released without bail and is due back in court on August 12. The charges are allegations, and the case has not been decided.
For parents at the Brooklyn New School and Madiba Prep, the question is what the missing money would have paid for and whether the programs ever felt the hole. Prosecutors don’t answer that in a press release. Parents can ask the schools and the DOE directly as the case moves forward.
Featured image: Bushwick Daily image
