State Supt Tony Thurmond Asked To Investigate Sac City

In a February 5, 2019, letter to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, the SCTA executive requested that “the California Department of Education (CDE) conduct an investigation into potential misallocation of district resources and the potential conflict of interest conduct of Superintendent Jorge Aguilar, as well as initiate a comprehensive audit” of the District. You can view the letter and accompanying memo here.

The concerns outlined include:

1. Superintendent Jorge Aguilar’s outside employment creates a conflict of interest and violates school board policy;
2. Superintendent Jorge Aguilar has accepted honoraria in direct violation of school board policy;
3. The district’s vacation buyout for administrators may involve staff being paid for work not performed, self-dealing on the part of certain district administrators, and the failure to report properly the cost of the buyout;
4. The district has refused to investigate or refer to CDE as required by school board policy concerns raised about the potential misappropriation of money at C.K. McClatchy High School;
5. The district has refused to investigate thoroughly or refer to CDE the alleged misuse of Site Improvement Grant dollars from Hiram Johnson High School;
6. The district has refused to investigate thoroughly the practice of the former principal of New Technology High School to hold a second, paid job while he was scheduled to be performing services for the district at the same time, and that this practice was carried out with the knowledge and consent of senior administrative officials;  the district also failed to investigate thoroughly or refer to CDE the alleged misconduct of the same former principal of New Technology High School who was alleged to have changed hundreds of student grades, including the transcripts of incoming students.

The District has responded by claiming that although they haven’t seen the letter or done anything to investigate the concerns, the concerns are “meritless.”