Lawmakers call for audit of district

Amid allegations of fiscal impropriety and possible conflicts of interest, state lawmakers are calling for an audit of the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District Board of Trustees.

Assemblyman Ash Kalra and Senator Jim Beall, both Democrats from San Jose who served on the City Council, said Thursday they would request an audit to look into the troubled board’s governance of the district.

In March, Santa Clara County’s chief school official invoked veto power over the board, a little used maneuver for districts in danger of collapsing.

“I am greatly concerned with the growing instability of the district,” Kalra said in a statement Thursday afternoon. A June 2017 audit by the California Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team suggested the district relinquished control of its multimillion-dollar bond construction program to a Southern California management company that was more interested in padding its own pockets than helping the district.

The audit suggested a series of 70 steps to fix the district’s current financial instability. But the district has so far largely ignored those recommendations.

Students and parents staged a walkout in March to protest the board, calling for the resignation of several members, including board president Esau Herrera.

“I support the call for an audit issued by Assemblymember Kalra and Senator Beall,” Herrera said. “It’s unfortunate that we need that extra review… but it seems like that’s where the district finds itself and we need to simply get to the bottom of what’s going on here.”

In a statement Beall said, “An audit of Alum Rock Unified’s finances is in the best interests of the children who attend the district’s schools. Parents of students have real concerns about how the district board functions and how it spends their tax dollars. Is money being spent on instruction or is it being wasted? The community deserves to know.”