Dr. Nivea Torres has resigned amid allegations of abuse of state funds.
Nivea L. Torres has resigned as superintendent of the Connecticut Technical High School System, 5½ weeks after being suspended while state officials investigated her approval of more than $4.5 million in payments to a public relations firm since 2014.
The state’s education commissioner, Dianna Wentzell, and the chairman of the CTHSS board, Roberty Trefry, announced Monday evening that they had accepted Torres’ resignation, effective next Monday.
They issued a brief statement recognizing “Dr. Torres’ contributions to the Technical High School System.”
But they didn’t talk about the status of the probe by state and federal officials — or about questions Wentzell raised in mid-March when she cited “various areas of concern” about the payments to The Pita Group public relations and marketing firm of Rocky Hill.
On March 15, Wentzell wrote a letter asking the state Department of Administrative Services to conduct an investigation, saying that her concerns included: “potential violations of state or federal laws, regulations or policies relating to use and monitoring of funds, contracting, procurement and ethics; potential violations of laws, policies or duties relating to non-retaliation and the ability of employees to report compliance concerns; [and] potential neglect or misuse of state funds.”
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