OK, THAT DOESN'T LOOK AT ALL SUSPICIOUS ..... OR NOT

By Bob Walsh

 

                Stockton Ca Unified School District a Tower of Babel

 

Regular readers will remember that a few days ago I wrote about the fact that the Stockton Ca Unified School District is undergoing an audit by the California Fiscal Crisis Management Assistant Team.  At a school board meeting a week or so ago Armando Orozco, who is the Director of Facilities and Planning, announced to the board that he has been interviewed by the FBI and the state in the matter.  

I have been a resident of Stockton for almost half my life.  The schools here suck.  It isn't all their fault.  According to the Census Bureau San Joaquin County is probably the most ethnically diverse county in the country.  There are dozens of languages spoken by students in the schools.  The quality of the "product" the schools turn out, if by product you mean reasonably well educated and functional high school graduates, is lower than whale shit.  Now it would seem that there is a fair chance a lot of the problems are being caused not by incompetence and inability but downright chicanery and theft.  (The FBI does not by and large investigate incompetent bureaucrats.)

A recent Civil Grand Jury report dinged the district heavily for lack of transparency and stupidity.  

One of the more interesting items is that California state law very specifically requires that the school board approve (or disapprove) contract and bid change orders.  Out of 31 recent change orders under audit only ONE was actually submitted to the board.  One of these change orders was a contract overrun of $6 million.  That is not chump change. 

It is believed the extremely detailed audit will take 12-18 months.  It seems likely that the SUSD will be placed in receivership and run by the county board of education if the level of grotesque incompetence that appears to be in place is real.