After hours of arguing, Paso Robles school board accepts most findings of mismanagement
After more than 20 hours of discussion spanning several meetings, the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees approved its response to a grand jury report in a meeting on Tuesday.
A San Luis Obispo County grand jury found that administrative mismanagement and lack of financial oversight led to the North County school district’s budget crisis that came to a head in late 2018.
The grand jury’s report was released in November 2020. The Paso Robles school board was required to respond by Feb. 17.
On Tuesday evening, the board voted to deliver the report by hand to San Luis Obispo Superior Court presiding Judge Jacquelyn H. Duffy and San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow on Wednesday.
Responding to the grand jury report required the school board to examine past actions by the previous board and administration that led to the budget crisis.
In its report, the grand jury outlined faulty budget forecasting, unnecessary and unfeasible hiring, rapid staff turnover and a complete lack of oversight by the previous board, among other things.
The grand jury report also examined how the proposed aquatics complex at Paso Robles High School was not fully and properly funded before materials were purchased and construction began.
Over the course of five meetings with discussion lasting roughly 23 hours, the Paso Robles school board talked about how they would respond to the grand jury report.
Tensions high as school board finalizes response to grand jury report
But getting to a vote was not an easy task for the Paso Robles school board Tuesday.
After reading what was supposed to be the final draft, board members spent two hours of the meeting bickering, making snide comments at each other and arguing over specific language and typos. They also debated how the board’s response would be delivered to the grand jury’s presiding judge.
Board president Chris Arend had to call the board to order at one point, and trustee Nathan Williams twice admonished trustees Tim Gearhart and Chris Bausch for “unnecessary comments.”
One discussion involved the date former Superintendent Chris Williams was hired — the board’s draft response said June 23, 2015, when the actual date was Aug. 12, 2014.
At another point during Tuesday’s meeting, Bausch asked to include specific language regarding the board’s plan if a grand jury recommendation was not implemented as of trustees’ response. Arend argued against that request and replied that “the judge can find me in contempt” for not including the language in the response.
In the end, the board agreed with 21 of the grand jury’s 24 findings.
Board members partially disagreed on three findings: that additional financial management tools are needed to properly provide financial oversight, that the aquatics complex did not receive adequate community support, and that an advisory committee is negligent in their charge to oversee the Measure M fund distributions.
Board members voted 5-2 in favor of its response to the grand jury report. Bausch and trustee Dorian Baker voted no.
Also included in the board’s response is a cover letter by district Superintendent Curt Dubost.
In his letter, Dubost largely concurred with the grand jury report items he was required to respond to, but provided additional clarification on two main points — noting that previous board members did not “rubber stamp” the previous superintendent’s proposals and recommendations, and that the operating costs for the proposed aquatics complex are estimated to be about $400,000 annually.
Dubost wrote in his letter that “while employees may have been pressured to donate to the Aquatics Complex project, all employees who have requested a return of their donation from the 4A Foundation have been reimbursed.”
School accountability, Measure M bond discussions tabled
Because the length of the discussion over the grand jury response, some items on the agenda — such as approving state-mandated school accountability report cards, receiving a Measure M bond project update, monthly enrollment update and approving increases in project costs at Marie Bauer Early Childhood Center, now under construction — were tabled for a later board meeting.
Throughout their discussion about the grand jury report response, trustees expressed annoyance at the longevity of the subject and their fellow board members’ desire to pin down the details.
“It’s done, it’s dead, let’s turn it in ... Let’s get back to the job we’re here for,” Gearhart said near the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting.
Even newcomers to the board — such as Williams, who was elected to the board in the November 2020 election — expressed a desire to move on.
“We have spent countless hours on this. I don’t think there is anything rushed here,” Williams said. “I don’t see the need to drag this out further.”
After board members voted on the response to the grand jury report, the meeting moved on to other matters.
Trustees received an update on the reopening of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. Board members asked questions about a staffing report done by an outside consultant from San Luis Coastal Unified School District, and received a budget update.
The budget update provided clarity for board members wondering about new federal coronavirus relief funding, and the staffing report gave the board and district guidance on how to restructure its administration and reexamine things such as class sizes and staffing levels.
Dubost said during the staffing report question-and-answer session that he hopes “our ongoing problems don’t dissuade people from coming to us.”
