State Approves Forensic Audit of Sac City
Rejects Aguilar’s Request for Delay
SCTA Writes Cease and Desist Letter Regarding Brown Act Violations, Demands Further Transparency and Accountability
| Sacramento (March 6, 2019): The California Joint Legislative Audit Committee unanimously approved conducting an audit of the fiscally-mismanaged Sacramento City Unified School District. The request for the audit came from Assemblymember Kevin McCarty whose assemly district covers a significant portion of the Sac City school district. A request to delay the audit by Superintendent Jorge Aguilar was not well-received by the committee, and was soundly rejected. The financial inquiry conducted by the state has been described by Assemblymember McCarty as “akin to a forensic audit,” which is generally understood to include not only an analyisis of what happened, but who was responsible for the purposes of accountability. |
The audit is scheduled to begin May 1, 2019. The District has been under intense scrutiny after its budget was rejected twice by the Sacramento County Office of Education in August and October 2018. In addition, the District submitted a third budget in December 2018 that received a rare “Negative” certification and has submitted a fourth budget to the school board, also with “Negative” certification, which is expected to be approved on March 7th. On February 5, 2019, the Sacramento City Teachers Association requested State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond conduct his own investigation regarding concerns about conflicts of interest from Superintendent Jorge Aguialar and other top administrators, as well as potential misappropriation of tax payer dollars. The request can be viewed here. In addition, today (March 6, 2019), SCTA put Mr. Aguilar and the Sac City school board on notice regarding potential Brown Act violations where the District appears to have conducted deliberations regarding its budget and potential cuts to staff in closed session meetings, rather than in open meetings as required by state law. You can view the letter here. The District has proposed laying off more than 350 certificated and classified staff, while actually INCREASING the number administrators, despitewidespread criticism of the bureaucratic bloat in the Sac City school district. “We strongly supported the JLAC audit and firmly believe that our school board should operate in the open,” said David Fisher, president of SCTA and parent of two students in the district. “There is probably no school district in the state of California that needs more sunshine than Sac City.” |
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