Thursday, June 18, 2015

[Colusa] Report: County has a plan for Education Village; Grand jury notes progress in dealing with problems, says vigilance must be maintained


The 2014-15 Colusa County grand jury took up where the previous civil watchdog left off in examining the Colusa County Office of Education and its involvement with Education Village, which the previous panel said would leave the office insolvent — possibly in as little as three to five years.
The report, released Thursday, stated that at the end of 2014, had no remedial action been taken, "the CCOE would have soon faced a serious financial crisis."
The county grand jury credits Mike West, superintendent of schools, with addressing some of the concerns the previous grand jury had regarding the county office and Education Village, including the lack of trust and cooperation between CCOE and the school districts, and the threatened termination of the county-administered special education program by the previous superintendent unless the districts paid for the excess costs that arose from maintenance of Education Village and raises in salaries to special education staff.
The districts, which had no part in the decisions that led to the increased costs, would not agree to covering the expenses out of their own budgets, the grand jury said.
According to the report, trust and cooperation between the county office and the four school districts became nonexistant, and the county was forced to make cuts to services when it became apparent the county could not sustain the program.
Although he just took office in January, West has managed to keep the county SELPA in operation, the grand jury determined.
"The new county superintendent has offered a financial plan to stabilize and appropriately divide costs so that necessary operations can continue," the report states. "The school districts have accepted a plan."
West has also address parity concerns between CCOE staff and the school districts, and implemented a yearly salary review to maintain salary parity.
He also proposed a governance review to equalize the voting authority for future decisions in order to develop an atmosphere of trust between the county office and the districts, the grand jury said.
West has also addressed other 2013-14 grand jury concerns, including dropping plans for a county-operated charter school.
But in looking at the overall financial health of CCOE in 2014-15, the grand jury said there are still a number of factors contributing to the financial burden of Education Village, including $150,000 a year in maintenance costs. The grand jury found several income-producing programs that were housed at the facility have been discontinued, and the four students in the county who fit the original purpose of Education Village are being served out of Colusa County.
There is also an ongoing lawsuit with the builders and architects involved in the project which claim the county office of education owes them in excess of $500,000, the report states, and that energy costs are also very high for the facility.
The grand jury noted West is working to promote revenue-generating uses for Education Village for the facility to remain solvent.
Those include sharing the facility with Woodland Community College, an inter-county special education program, and possibly developing a county-wide educational interactive museum, rocketry museum, telescopic observatory or space science education facility.
Williams Unified School District is also planning to relocate its kindergarten to Education Village to alleviate overcrowding at its elementary school campus.
The district is planning to rent four classrooms, the cafeteria and the gymnasium at Education Village, east of Williams on the corner of E and Marguerite streets.
A solar project is also planned at the Education Village to help reduce energy costs, the grand jury said, and phase two of the build-out is planned in order to house all CCOE personnel at one location, which would reduce overall rental and storage expenses.
The grand jury determined the county office of education has about $3.3 million in "untagged" money in reserve, some of which will be applied to building the second phase.
The reserves are also being used for expenses incurred at Education Village and previously committed costs for salary raises for which the school districts did not want to be responsible, the grand jury said.
The reports states future grand juries will likely elect to continue monitoring the ongoing operations at the Colusa County Office of Education and recommends the Board of Education, superintendent and staff, school district officials and the public maintain vigilance regarding the operations and finances of the office to "promote accountability."
June 17, 2015
Colusa County Sun Herald
By Susan Meeker

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