At a contentious assembly Wednesday evening, the Santa Clara County Workplace of Training’s board delivered the outcomes of a prolonged investigation into an alleged misuse of public funds by the county’s former superintendent of colleges — however conflicting claims by county workplace of schooling leaders made it clear that many questions nonetheless swirl across the findings.
They arrive greater than a yr after former Superintendent Mary Ann Dewan was unexpectedly faraway from her place in a 4-2 vote; the motion was labeled as “without cause.” The board declined to develop on the reasoning for Dewan’s mysterious elimination for months, however says now the choice stemmed from her dealing with of a number of complaints concerning the county’s Head Begin program, which helps low-income youngsters underneath the age of 5 entry essential sources.
The report didn’t cite particular examples of wrongdoing, or embody the names of the 2 legislation corporations that performed the impartial evaluation. Nevertheless it contained 14 findings, together with that underneath Dewan’s management, the Santa Clara County Workplace of Training misused public funds and violated a number of board insurance policies, that the county superintendent’s segregated account was used to redirect grant funding for unrelated functions and that public {dollars} have been used for authorized bills and investigations of the board of schooling.
A federal audit launched earlier this yr mentioned the county workplace of schooling misused greater than $135,370 in federal Head Begin funds underneath Dewan, an error the board known as a failed cover-up and an intentional effort to undermine the board’s authority — however which Dewan mentioned was a communication error.
The county workplace of schooling mentioned Wednesday that the board and employees weren’t conscious of any prices being filed by legislation enforcement or the district lawyer’s workplace.
The report’s summarized findings introduced Wednesday have been written by board counsel and the board’s governance committee — comprised of board president Maimona Afzal Berta, vice chairman Victoria Chon and trustee Jessica Speiser in addition to present county superintendent David Toston — the board’s authorized counsel mentioned Wednesday and the findings stemmed from a number of investigations and experiences performed within the final two years.
The report’s findings additionally mentioned a number of workplace of schooling contracts have been awarded in a fashion that advised private favoritism and that “ethical safeguards” have been ignored, with a number of county workplace of schooling staff allegedly utilizing “public resources” to point out assist for his or her superior.
In an announcement Wednesday, Dewan condemned the board’s findings, calling them “meritless, malicious and baseless attacks unsupported by any evidence.”
“I have no knowledge of any wrongdoing and fulfilled all of my duties with integrity and within the statutory framework of my role,” Dewan mentioned. “This pattern of public attacks, mischaracterizations and personal targeting is harmful to the institution and discourages talented educators from serving our students.”
Dewan additionally identified that whether or not appointed by the board — within the case of Santa Clara County — or elected by the group, a county superintendent has impartial authority underneath the legislation to enter into agreements and contracts. She additionally mentioned that staff, like all people, have First Modification rights and the board’s effort to border worker free speech as misconduct is troubling.
At Wednesday’s assembly, a handful of group members and head begin employees expressed their gratitude to the board for investigating the misuse of funds and Dewan’s “unethical” requests.
“The findings are astonishing but not surprising given that I and Head Start staff have been saying this for the last two years,” mentioned Mercedes Hill, a Head Begin workplace specialist throughout the county workplace of schooling.
However Riju Krishna, the president of the Affiliation of County Educators — a gaggle of native academics unions — identified that the quantity of improperly misused funding alleged within the investigation’s findings “cannot possibly be the work of one single superintendent” in a system that requires a number of checks and balances, and known as on the present county superintendent Toston to implement vital coverage reform.
“What is your plan…to rebuild the school oversight, repair the damage and ensure that this never happens again?” Krishna requested. “How will you repair this harm?”
The board of schooling introduced a number of advised coverage adjustments in response to the investigation’s findings Wednesday in an effort to forestall the misuse of funds from reoccurring.
However Tara Sreekrishnan, who mentioned she was talking as a person member of the board and never on behalf of the board itself, expressed issues in regards to the proposed board coverage adjustments, which she mentioned centralizes authority within the board president, restricts speech, reduces transparency and strikes the county workplace of schooling towards “punitive, politically motivated governance.”
She additionally expressed deep issues in regards to the investigation’s findings.
“The findings raise broad and serious concerns but they are presented without evidence or specific examples, which makes it difficult for the public trustees or any oversight agency to fully evaluate them,” Sreekrishnan mentioned in an announcement Wednesday.
The report’s findings come amid a number of different investigations into the county workplace of schooling and board over the past yr, which have pointed to an alleged historical past of rigidity between the county workplace of schooling management and board members and located that the board didn’t comply with its personal administration insurance policies.
A number of different former county workplace of schooling leaders got here to the protection of Dewan Wednesday, together with former board president Claudia Rossi and former trustee Kathleen King.
“Countless public dollars have been poured into this two-year witch hunt and still not a shred of evidence of wrongdoing has been produced,” Rossi mentioned in an announcement Wednesday.
However present board member Don Rocha cautioned the group that in his greater than 30 years of public service, he’s by no means seen an company as unconcerned with serving group pursuits because the Santa Clara County Workplace of Training was underneath Dewan.
“The evidence speaks for itself unless you choose to look the other way,” Rocha mentioned.
