CUSD Forensic Audit of San Juan Hills High School

On Thursday, 12/18, I attended a meeting at the Ed Center to discuss the SJHHS forensic audit initiated by the CUSD Board. This meeting occurred just two hours before the widely-publicized meeting of the Board that included an evaluation of the Superintendent. While the mood in the meeting was calm, it was clear that some participants were preoccupied with the larger meeting that was to follow.

Accompanied by another parent, the purpose of the meeting was to introduce the auditor-investigators and establish a line of communication. Members of the community have collected a large volume of information -- perhaps more information than exists at CUSD. We discussed this information and offered to share it. In part, it's the same information you see in these pages and the related group website.

Most of our discussion focused on the scope of the upcoming investigation. I urged the auditors to focus on areas of the SJHHS project that might yield financial claims for CUSD against the developer (Whispering Hills LLC), or project contractors (e.g., the environmental firm and the architect). Political blame can be handled by others (including me, sure enough), but the District should focus on money.

The complaint filed with the California Attorney General outlines more than $10 million in questionable expenditures. At the end of our meeting, we pointed to that complaint as a road map for detailed investigation and volunteered our full support.