By Sharon Noguchi
snoguchi@mercurynews.com
Posted: 07/03/2011 05:02:40 PM PDT
Updated: 07/04/2011 06:55:39 AM PDT
For the second time in three years, the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury has issued a biting report on the tiny Luther Burbank School District, which the jury alleges has wasted $900,000 on consultants and on buyouts of fired superintendents.
In a report issued last month, the jury called for the district to merge with one of its larger neighbors such as San Jose Unified. The report harshly criticized interim Superintendent Richard Rodriguez, who recruited and campaigned for a new board majority that took over in the fall. The jury alleged that trustees governed poorly, may have conducted business in secret and granted excessive authority to Rodriguez, whom it hired first as an unpaid consultant then named interim chief.
"Time really has come for this district to be consolidated with a larger district," jury forewoman Helene Popenhager said. The biggest problem, she said, is "the naiveté of the board," which the jury said has been misled, ceded authority and lost control of personnel and financial records. Also, the jury said the board has not responded to a 2009 grand jury report, lacks training and is inaccessible to constituents.
Board member Guadalupe Reyes said grand jurors didn't talk to her. She said Rodriguez is a good man who has been misunderstood. With recent changes, she said, "That school is going to get so much better."
Rodriguez lashed out at the report, calling it sloppy, inaccurate and incomplete. And he said the grand jury never interviewed him.
Popenhager said she could not reveal the names of the 25 people the jury interviewed.
In an eight-page letter addressed to the grand jury, Rodriguez wrote that he was trying to remedy injustices in the one-school district and has restored several people's jobs. "You should be thanking me, rather than trying to stir up gossip and reporting that I mismanaged my district."
In addition to the previous grand jury report, a 2008 outside audit cited the district for 119 failings. The grand jury, citing that report, said that Rodriguez should not have been hired as interim superintendent.
Rodriguez served 35 years in the district, starting as a teacher and rising to superintendent, before a previous school board ousted him in December 2008. He successfully sued the district for failing to pay his benefits.
The then-chairman of the board that ousted Rodriguez, Antonio Perez, welcomed the grand jury report. "I'm glad this brings proper light on the subject," he said, calling the current board "a puppet regime" and adding that he suffered because he challenged the status quo.
After the previous grand jury report, Perez was charged with conflict of interest for voting to award a multimillion-dollar contract to Blach Construction Co., with whom he had done business. In April, Judge David Cena reduced the charges and sentenced Perez to probation and to pay $7,110 in fines and penalties.
Luther Burbank serves 525 students in one K-8 school in San Jose, near the interchange of interstates 280 and 880. The student body is largely from poor, immigrant Latino families.
In terminating Rodriguez in 2008, the board bought out his contract for $202,218. It then hired Fernando Elizondo to lead the district and search for a permanent replacement, and paid him more than $240,000 for less than a year. After the district hired Becki Cohn-Vargas as superintendent in October 2009, Elizondo was paid more than $50,000 to mentor her.
When the Rodriguez-backed board was elected in November it contracted with him as an unpaid consultant, then bought out Cohn-Vargas's contract for $160,000. The board later hired Rodriguez as interim superintendent, paid at a rate of $684 per day.
"The board's lack of management oversight and governance has resulted in significant unnecessary expenditures," the jury reported. "The district often paid two persons for the same work or portions of it."
Rodriguez, who lives in Gilroy, "engaged in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to stack the board in his favor," the jury wrote.
Rodriguez responded that it is his right as a citizen to campaign for candidates.
He takes credit for helping to restore the jobs of employees who lost positions under the previous board. One of them, Jan Kaay, who was demoted to a teacher, has been named the next superintendent.
Rodriguez said the board will not address the grand jury report at its next meeting, July 12. "The superintendent, Jan, will answer regarding the recommendations," Rodriguez said, "and that will be all."
Contact Sharon Noguchi at 408-271-3775.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18403542?nclick_check=1
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