Antonio Ross and Alfonzo Lewis

Introduction

Antonio Ross, a former Hyde Park Academy High School principal, and Alfonzo Lewis, the school’s former athletic director, pleaded guilty in federal court on October 13, 2026, to wire fraud charges for their roles in a kickback scheme centered on Evanston/Skokie School District 65. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, the two Chicago men — both 49 — admitted in plea agreements that they paid kickbacks to the district’s then-superintendent, Devon Horton, in exchange for his efforts to steer District 65 contracts to consulting companies they owned. Each count carries a maximum of 20 years in federal prison; sentencing was set for Lewis on January 25, 2027, and for Ross on March 10, 2027, by U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin .

Background Information

The scheme ran through the Chicago area’s public education system on two levels. Ross and Lewis held leadership posts at Hyde Park Academy High School within Chicago Public Schools — Ross as principal, Lewis as athletic director under Ross — while operating consulting companies that sold professional services to District 65, the Evanston/Skokie school district where Horton had become superintendent. According to court records reported by the Sun-Times, the two created their companies to apply as vendors for professional service contracts with District 65, submitting “false and fraudulent” documents to win them; prosecutors said the scheme ran from August 2020 to June 2023 .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted by guilty plea. Ross and Lewis each pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud on October 13, 2026, admitting the kickbacks and the inflated invoicing described below. Sentencing is pending; the facts come from their plea agreements as announced by federal prosecutors.

In their pleas, Ross and Lewis admitted their companies did not perform some of the services for which they invoiced the district. Ross obtained approximately $119,500 from District 65 and paid Horton at least $41,900 in cash from the contract proceeds. Lewis obtained approximately $24,000 and paid Horton at least $6,000 in cash kickbacks. The plea deal came just over a year after both men were indicted, with the case having been scheduled for trial the following week, according to the Evanston RoundTable .

The kickback arrangement was one thread of a wider corruption case. Horton pleaded guilty earlier in October to wire fraud, embezzlement, and tax charges, admitting he took the kickbacks from Ross and Lewis plus an additional $30,000 from a third vendor, Samuel Ross — who pleaded guilty on September 29 and agreed to testify against the other three. With the October 13 pleas, all four men charged in the case had pleaded guilty. In their plea agreements, prosecutors preliminarily recommended prison terms of 37 to 46 months for Antonio Ross and 24 to 30 months for Lewis .

Public Reaction and Consequences

The guilty pleas were announced by U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Boutros alongside the IRS, the Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General, and the FBI, with the Chicago Public Schools Office of Inspector General credited with substantial assistance. For both men the professional reckoning had already landed before the pleas: Ross had been dismissed by CPS in 2023 for “engaging in public benefits fraud by deliberately obtaining a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan and PPP loan forgiveness through fraudulent means,” according to his dismissal proceedings before a state board hearing officer, and Lewis had been suspended pending the outcome of the federal investigation, according to a CPS spokesperson .

The consequences now run on three tracks: the wire fraud convictions themselves, the sentencing recommendations of 37-46 months for Ross and 24-30 months for Lewis, and the restitution-and-career wreckage of two educators who went from running a high school’s leadership to federal defendants in under three years .

Current Status

As of the October 13, 2026 pleas, Ross and Lewis had each pleaded guilty to one federal wire fraud count and were awaiting sentencing — Lewis on January 25, 2027, and Ross on March 10, 2027, before Judge Durkin. Prosecutors’ preliminary recommendations stand at 24-30 and 37-46 months respectively, and the government’s case remains open on the edges: Samuel Ross’s sentencing had not been scheduled as of the pleas, and Horton’s is set for January 5, 2027, where he faces a guidelines range the RoundTable reported at seven to 12 years depending on the court’s view of his acceptance of responsibility .

Impact on Their Career/Life

For two men who spent decades inside the Chicago school system — one as a building principal, one as the athletic director who reported to him — the pleas close the door on public education work and open a two-to-four-year prison exposure each, with the PPP-fraud dismissal that preceded Ross’s indictment now looking like the earlier warning sign of a pattern. The case’s structure is its own lesson: the same two people simultaneously held positions of trust at one school district and vendor identities at another, with the superintendent across the district line monetizing the bridge between them. That both CPS and District 65 were moved by the same three men’s side companies is the detail prosecutors used to frame the case as a corridor of public corruption between two districts, not isolated vendor fraud .

Sources

IRS Criminal Investigation, “Federal investigation into kickback scheme at Evanston/Skokie School District 65 results in two more guilty pleas,” October 13, 2026 — source
Chicago Sun-Times, “Former CPS employees plea guilty to federal fraud charges in district contract kickback scheme,” October 13, 2026 — source
Evanston RoundTable, “Last two Horton co-defendants plead guilty in District 65 kickback case,” October 13, 2026 — source