SANTA CRUZ >> The Pajaro Valley Unified School District pushed back against a highly critical grand jury report deriding the district’s transparency with its use of Measure L funds in a response released Friday.
The June report described the Citizen’s Oversight Committee, tasked with overseeing the district’s use of the $150 million bond funding, as “mostly ineffective.” It placed blame on the district for providing the seven-member volunteer committee with what it called inadequate information and training.
The district’s board of trustees objected to those findings in the required response released by the grand jury on Friday, insisting oversight committee members receives clear and detailed information about bond expenditures.
The only point on which the two parties agreed was the grand jury’s finding that bond reporting could be greatly improved with the planned implementation of new accounting and business software. The district concurred, adding that the new software was fully implemented in April.
The grand jury report also detailed a list of 10 recommendations related to the district’s reporting processes. The district indicated it has implemented eight of the 10, rejecting the grand jury’s recommendation to discuss cost reduction recommendations with the oversight, writing that the committee is “informed of, but not vested with the authority to approve, cost savings engineering for any project.”
The head of the Citizen’s Oversight Committee also took issue with the report, calling it out of date and a “whitewash.”
“What the grand jury found was true two years ago,” committee chairman Bill Beecher said, echoing similar comments in June. “What the grand jury did not report on were all of the changes that have been made since then.”
Rocco Chappie, then foreman of the civil grand jury, had insisted that the report was based entirely on an investigation conducted over the previous year and that the report reflected the most up-to-date information.
Beecher further critiqued the process by which the grand jury gathered information in an op-ed in the Sentinel. “The grand jury process needs improving,” he said. “We were summoned to appear with no identification of the subject matter. ... They wanted details and expected us to respond from the top of our heads. This is difficult when there are so many projects being done.”
Beecher said he has since filed a complaint about the grand jury process with the district attorney.
Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez attributed the gulf between the grand jury’s findings and the district’s internal assessment to what she said was a flawed process.
“We believe they didn’t ask all the questions they needed to ask,” she said, adding that she also believes the district provided the grand jury with information that it omitted from its report.
But Rodriguez said one thing she is taking away from the process is an emphasis on the need to clearly communicate with the public. The district is now considering hiring a public information officer to do exactly that, an item that will be discussed at Wednesday’s board meeting.
“More than anything, from the grand jury report we saw that we are moving the right direction,” Rodriguez said. “Many of the things they were finding were things we had also found.”
Measure L, a school bond overwhelmingly approved by district voters in 2012, authorized the district to issue $150 million in bonds to improve facilities, classrooms, technology and student safety across its 32 schools.
The Santa Cruz County civil grand jury, composed of 19 residents, is tasked with investigating all aspects of city and county government and publishing its findings and recommendations for improvement.
Grand jury forewoman Lauren Tobin did not respond to requests for comment.
August 22, 2017
Santa Cruz Sentinel
By Nicholas Ibarra
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