FAIRFIELD — The Solano County grand jury began its annual release of reports Monday with a trio of wordy reports largely absent of substance.
A report purporting to be an investigation into the eight charter high schools in Solano County came away with one conclusion: that the schools should state on their websites and elsewhere that parent participation is strictly voluntary and not required.
The report mentions the charter schools, four in Vacaville, three in Vallejo and one in Dixon and includes their ethnic demographics, but makes no mention of why those demographics are in the report.
The report offers no analysis of the effectiveness of local charter school teaching, educational success or failure or any comparative cost-benefit analysis with public schools.
The 14-page report of local charter schools includes 11 pages reciting the Education Code and a few pages of background information.
A second report, seven pages long, is part of a legally mandated annual examination of prison conditions if there are prisons in the county.
The scrutiny of California Medical Facility in Vacaville includes three pages of basic details such as the address of the prison. That is followed by a brief review of a 2010 grand jury report stating inmates getting cellphones is a problem. The current report then briefly references a 2017 report by prison officials touching on employee safety in a dangerous setting.
The report concluded the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation should speed up administrative changes, pay some prison staff more wages and that top officials at CMF should admit their underlings are smuggling in contraband. The report also recommended staff stop providing details to some prisoners about where they might be working in the future on work projects outside the prison and that employee communication systems be upgraded.
The third report, largely about the county’s Humane Animal Services program, made no mention of the quality of their work or cost effectiveness.
Instead the nine-page report focused on the 1986 inter-agency agreement that created the program. The report says the program, funded at roughly $700,000 annually, doesn’t comply with the state Government Code, lacks a treasurer to ensure oversight over spending and should change it bylaws about removing board members.
The report included seven pages of background information about the Solano Animal Control Authority that oversees Humane Animal Services.
May 15, 2018
Fairfield Daily Republic
By Jess Sullivan
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