An audit of the Morgan Hill School District, requested by County
Superintendent Colleen Wilcox and carried out by the state agency
Fiscal Crisis
&
amp; Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) will not be as extensive
as originally reported.
An audit of the Morgan Hill School District, requested by County Superintendent Colleen Wilcox and carried out by the state agency Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) will not be as extensive as originally reported.
“It is a very, very specific sort of review,” Joel Montero, deputy executive officer of FCMAT said Wednesday. “It’s an AB139 review, a review or audit that can only be triggered by a county superintendent.
“Those reviews are triggered when information comes to her or she becomes aware of information that might lead her to believe that something of an illegal nature might have occurred. That’s why it is sometimes called a fraud audit, and it is very, very narrow in scope, deal only with the allegations.”
Wilcox said the expanded role of the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) came about through an Assembly Bill 139, and state Education Code 1241.S(b) and allows the county office to have more oversight of individual districts.
The audit team, comprised of one certified public accountant and one expert in construction matters, arrived at the District Office on Monday and completed their work at the district on Wednesday.
“This was the initial field work,” Montero said. “But they will bring back with them a whole trailerload of documents that require review. At this point, we only have the two (experts) in the field, but by extension, others will be involved in preparing the report. Those two will determine whether we need other experts. It could be that we need to call in others.”
In a letter from SCCOE Assistant Superintendent Cathy Grovenburg, Harlan Warthen is listed as the “concerned citizen that resides in the district” that brought the information to Wilcox’s attention.
“He alleges gross mismanagement of public funds, violations of state contract code, education code and the Brown Act along with harassment of minority employees,” Grovenburg said in the letter to FCMAT. “
He also alludes to possible fraud on the part of Carolyn McKennan, the district’s superintendent.”
Most of the complaints are based on the construction management process in the construction of Barrett Elementary, the renovation of Live Oak High and the initial work on Sobrato High, specifically the hiring of Sverdrup Facilities, now known as Jacobs Facilities.
The timeline for the presentation of the report depends largely on the amount of information the team will have to sort through.
“We’ll develop a report based on our findings and determine whether we need to go back and dig deeper,” said Montero. “The timing is always different, depending on the breath of review documentation.
“The team spends much of its field work time interviewing people, talking to those that need to be interviewed and those that ask to be. How much actual time, writing time for the report is hard to say, but I’m anticipating somewhere around the end of March or beginning of April.”
Once the report is prepared, he said, it will be presented to Wilcox, who will then be responsible for its distribution.
The report will be a public document.
If the School Board is not satisfied with the scope of the report, Montero said, trustees may request a management assistance review.
“School districts can invite FCMAT, and do routinely, to come in and review their district,” he said. “Technically speaking, all of our engagements are between FCMAT and the board of trustees and the superintendent, and might come through either the superintendent or a board member’s request.”
Montero said a request for further review must have majority approval by the board.
Having talked to the team leader Monday night, Montero said, he believes the district is working with the team.
“He told me the district is being very cooperative,” he said.
Montero said he is not concerned that information will be concealed from the team.
“We do enough of this sort of work that we know which documents should exist and if something’s not available, if there’s a document that’s out there we’ll be able to get our hands on it,” he said.
