In 2016, in light of a county grand jury report that highlighted the misuse of bond money by former San Ysidro school administrators, the school board voted to establish a citizens oversight committee. Almost two years later, a panel has not been created.
The committee was meant to provide a measure of oversight and accountability for the district, which has been roiled by financial and leadership troubles in recent years.
Plans for the panel apparently never drew sufficient interest. However, some say top administrators who resigned last year dragged their feet and didn’t do enough to form the committee.
The district’s new superintendent, Gina Potter, who stepped into the position in May, said she is committed to forming the panel.
In its scathing report released in May 2016, the county grand jury shed light on the district’s spending of funds from Proposition C, a $250 million bond measure approved by voters in 1997.
The report said former administrators misused bond money to pay for travel and administrative services, double-paid vendors and received services that did not match purchase orders. The district issued nine bond series totaling $217 million between 1997 and 2015, according to the report.
The grand jury found the former administrators withheld information from trustees about expenditures and bond obligations and entered into contracts without the school board’s approval. Trustees, meanwhile, approved expenditures for purposes other than those listed in the ballot measure, according to the report.
The grand jury urged the district to “immediately” establish a committee to oversee spending of bond money and funds from Certificates of Participation, or COPs, saying it would increase transparency and accountability.
It was not the first time there were calls for a bond oversight committee. According to the grand jury report, trustees ignored demands from the Parent Teachers Association in 1998, a year after the district’s bond measure was passed.
An oversight board is not a legal requirement for the district, partly because its bond measure was approved three years before the state began to mandate oversight in 2000.
Still, San Ysidro trustees voted in October 2016 to create an oversight committee made up of at least seven members. According to the approved policy, the panel was to ensure the remaining bond money was spent on projects authorized by trustees and not for administrative services.
The policy urges the district to make its best effort to form a committee that includes a business stakeholder, a member of a taxpayer organization, a senior and parents or guardians of the more than 4,700 students enrolled in the district. Members are to be limited to three two-year terms.
In 2017, the district accepted applications. It received four, said district spokesman Francisco Mata.
Some parents and trustees say former Superintendent Julio Fonseca and former Deputy Superintendent Arturo Sanchez-Macias are to blame for the lack of interest.
At the time, interested candidates were asked to contact Sanchez-Macias, who stepped down in November 2017, two months after Fonseca resigned.
A state audit released in June found Sanchez-Macias and Fonseca — who were hired in 2015 — may have engaged in fraud or misappropriated funds.
Rudy Lopez, whose son is enrolled in the district, emailed Sanchez-Macias in May 2017, expressing his interest and requesting more information about the application process. He said Sanchez-Macias never replied.
Nonetheless, he turned in two applications, one of which he requested at the district’s office, the other he downloaded online. Again, he never heard back from the district.
Lopez, who had heard about the committee from news reports, said he believes the district’s efforts to put the word out were inadequate. The district put out information about the committee via social media, the district’s website and at least one news release.
“I feel that they’re putting themselves at risk of falling back into the same routine,” said Lopez, now a member of the Sweetwater Union High School District’s bond oversight committee.
Trustees Rodolfo Linares and Antonio Martinez said Fonseca and Sanchez-Macias said there was a lack of interest when the school board requested updates.
“They dragged their feet,” Linares said. “They didn’t want this to happen, so they didn’t get input from the community and didn’t follow through.”
Asked if he thinks the district did enough to promote the committee, he said, “No.”
Why?
“Well, we don’t have a committee,” he said.
Martinez acknowledged forming the committee “is one of the many things we have to work on.”
“Frankly, I think we need to do it now,” he said. “I’m sure with more outreach, we can get more applicants.”
Potter, San Ysidro’s new superintendent, said she welcomes the opportunity to work with a bond committee.
“I am committed to establishing a robust citizens oversight committee to regain the trust and faith of our community and maintain an atmosphere of transparency in our school district,” she said in a statement.
She noted she helped create an oversight committee during her tenure with the Lemon Grove School District. The panel scored an “A+” on the San Diego Taxpayers Educational Foundation’s 2017 “transparency scorecard” for school bond committees.
August 8, 2018
The San Diego Union-Tribune
By David Hernandez
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