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A swim coach at Whitney Young in Chicago rented out school pool and pocketed $30,000, officials say. Now he’s charged with felony theft.

As a high school athlete at Whitney Young, Andrew Parro earned multiple Chicago Public League titles in swimming, also lettering in water polo.

As a swim coach at the same school, Parro committed felony theft and official misconduct, Cook County prosecutors allege, through a scheme by which he rented out the school pool and pocketed the payments.

Parro allegedly deposited nearly $30,000 into his bank account that he gained from “multiple improper side deals to lease the school pool to outside groups” between 2013 and 2016, according to a report released Monday by Chicago Public Schools Inspector General Nick Schuler.

In some cases, the coach allegedly sublet pool time he’d leased for much less money for his own private club, according to the inspector general’s report.

“For other side agreements, his conduct was even more egregious, as he simply rented out pool time that he was not entitled to at all,” the report states. “Each of his rental agreements with the outside groups was off-the-books, violating CPS rules governing the rental of CPS property.”

The report does not name Parro or Whitney Young, but court records confirm those details.

Chicago police said Parro, 31, of Chicago, was charged in August with felony theft and felony official misconduct.

The grand jury indictment against Parro alleges that he “knowingly obtained by deception” and “knowingly obtained or exerted unauthorized control” over government property. He obtained $10,000 to $100,000 through pool rentals on Chicago Board of Education property and knew his actions deprived the board of the property’s use or benefit, according to the indictment.

Parro and his lawyer could not immediately be reached Monday. He has been released from custody on a signature bond, with bail set at $10,000. A judge granted Parro permission to travel to and from Miami this week “for employment purposes” and previously allowed him to visit family in Texas, according to court orders.

Parro is currently employed as a swim coach at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where a university official said Monday that the school only learned of the charges against Parro with the release of the inspector general’s report.

He was named aquatics director and head coach of IIT’s swimming and diving teams in April, according to the university’s blog.

He also swam for the University of Illinois at Chicago, and was aquatics director and head swimming and diving coach at Whitney Young from 2009 to 2018, according to the university announcement, which says that teams he coached at Whitney Young won six Chicago Public League conference championships and that he was IHSA’s Sectional Coach of the Year in 2017.

After an earlier inspector general investigation revealed Parro had allegedly been renting the school pool for his private swim club at the “steeply discounted” rate of $1.20 per hour — adding up to about half a million dollars in free rent, the report states — CPS moved to bar him and his club from doing any business with the district.

“Although he stopped using the pool pursuant to his notice of debarment, he nevertheless attempted to merge his club with a competing club while simultaneously attempting to secure the school pool for that new club,” the report states. “Essentially, he sought to circumvent the debarment of his club by continuing to use the pool under a different name.”

The OIG’s office determined the school principal and an assistant principal “either knew or should have known about the coach’s informal school rental agreements with outside groups,” the report states. “… At a minimum, the OIG recommended serious discipline — such as an appropriate suspension — up to and including termination.” The board gave the principal a five-day suspension.

In response to questions from the Tribune, Whitney Young Principal Joyce Kenner said in an email that she “had no knowledge” of Parro allegedly “renting out the pool to a third party.”

“I would never have approved this type of transaction,” said Kenner, who is not named in the OIG report. “Should I have known yes as the principal of the school. Did I know absolutely not. I have been principal here for 25 years. Why would I jeopardize my job? This would not have benefited me.”

Kenner said she thinks the five-day suspension “was punishment enough for something I did not do.”

Parro eventually was fired from his coaching job at CPS, the report states.

Whitney Young, which also has a selective enrollment academic center for grades seven and eight, has been ranked among the top 100 high schools in the U.S. and has one of Illinois’ biggest Advanced Placement programs, according to CPS.

hleone@chicagotribune.com