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
No comments:
Post a Comment