Board defiant, secretive toward state audit
SAN JOSE » A defiant majority of the Alum Rock Union School District board is ignoring pleas for reform and transparency, and has launched its response to a scathing state audit by keeping secret how it will choose an attorney to craft its strategy.
Board President Khanh Tran has named trustee Esau Ruiz Herrera to lead the board’s response to the audit and to select and direct an outside attorney to guide it. The board will not seek proposals or bids. It also has rebuffed calls to ensure the attorney has no conflicts of interest in the issue. And it barred Superintendent Hilaria Bauer from participating in the selection, Tran said, because she was mentioned in the audit.
About district critics, Tran said, “I will fight them all the way to the Supreme Court because we have not done anything wrong.”
Likewise, Herrera declared, “We have nothing to hide. We have nothing to apologize for.”
The board’s decision came at the end of a 5½hour Monday meeting, after a loud and at times unruly crowd had thinned.
A state audit released June 9 examined Alum Rock’s management of its multimillion-dollar bond construction program.
The report cited poorly drafted contracts, sloppy documentation and missing records, all pointing to the district ceding control of its bond spending to a Southern California-based management firm.
The 150-page report by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team also noted high turnover among district administrators leading to a lack of institutional memory. Without naming names, the audit also noted interference in district decisions and management, as well as possible conflicts of interest on the part of Alum Rock school board members.
All of that put the district at risk of overpaying for construction management and of fraud, mismanagement and misspending, auditors concluded.
They suggested canceling or renegotiating contracts with Del Terra Real Estate and hiring a better qualified attorney to handle those contracts.
On Monday, a parade of furious parents, teachers, principals and community members lambasted the board over the audit and reports that trustees might suspend Superintendent Hilaria Bauer.
“I am very angry about this company Del Terra,” said Araceli Sierra, mother of two children in the district. Parents who complain about problems are always told there is no money to fix them, she said in Spanish. “How can that be? What are you going to do to solve this?”
The meeting got off to a raucous start with Tran seeking to limit speakers to one minute each, and trustee Dolores Marquez responding to the noisy crowd by asking Tran if he wanted to call police. He declined. Speakers also reminded the board about neglected repairs and upgrades.
“Imagine having this meeting right now outside,” said teacher Elena Barron, referring to Monday’s oppressive heat. “Could you get a lot done? Probably not.” Her school, Ryan Elementary, is one of seven Alum Rock schools lacking air-conditioning.
The crowd also was dismayed by Marquez’s grilling of the district’s maintenance director, over unfinished construction to repair fire-damaged classrooms at Mathson Middle School.
“People are scapegoating,” said Mathson teacher Victor Guendulain, whose classroom burned in the February 2016 fire. “How is it that we can be hypocritical and talk to kids about not being bullied, when our leadership is doing it right now?”
“It’s time to be looking in the mirror ,” said Kathy Ericksen of the community group Somos Mayfair. “Where is your leadership?”