School founder contradicts governor

The founder of a school that got $1 million in state assistance following a fire at a historic Chicago church is contradicting claims by the Blagojevich administration that the school got the money in a bureaucratic mistake.

In a published report, Elmira Mayes, the founder of the family-run Loop Lab School, said that Gov. Rod Blagojevich personally promised her the money.

Mayes said the governor made the promise when he visited Pilgrim Baptist Church and talked with her as she was sifting through debris from her burned-out school. The school rented space from the church.

Blagojevich has said unnamed officials in his administration mishandled his pledge to help the church, a landmark badly damaged in the January 2006 fire. And on Wednesday, Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero said the governor didn't tell Mayes her school was getting money. Guerrero said she may have misunderstood what he said.

According to a financial report, Loop Lab School had $243 in cash and a $32,000 debt at the start of 2006, just six days before it lost the space it was renting when fire destroyed the church. The school used the $1 million to buy a floor and build classrooms in a condominium office building in Chicago's Loop business district, but has yet to reopen.

The state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is reviewing the circumstances of the school obtaining the money, and has told the school that it believes the school "has not fully complied with the terms" of the grant. Attorney General Lisa Madigan is also conducting a review.

The governor has pledged the church will receive $1 million.

In order for the church to receive the funds, the money has to be used to rebuild a burnt-out building next to the church. The rehabilitated building would be used as a community center for legal fairs, health clinics and other "non-secular" purposes.