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By Jorge Casuso
June 18 -- School Board members last week called
into question testimony presented to the City Council Tuesday
by former CFO Winston Braham and complained they were not
given a chance to respond.
The comments came at the end of a board meeting Wednesday,
one day after the council withheld $530,000 in funding until
the cash-strapped District halts its policy of requiring parents
of special education students to sign confidentiality clauses
in their settlement agreements. (see
story)
Board member Emily Bloomfield kicked off the public response
by calling the council’s
“repeated references to transparency and integrity.
. . a bit ironic.”
“I wondered if I was the only one who was struck by
a process that brought our former CFO before the council and
asked him to speak for close to 45 minutes and share his perspective
and memory of events, and yet no one from this district was
offered an opportunity to respond,” she said.
Bloomfield then questioned Braham’s testimony that
board members had seen a copy of AB 1200, a document certifying
the District’s ability to meet the costs of a 5 percent
teachers raise submitted to the County Office of Education
in October. Braham put a check mark next to the words, “I
am unable to certify.” (see
story)
“I believe, well, I know, I did not see the AB 1200
before it went to the County,” said Bloomfield, who
has announced she will resign from her post because her family
is relocating.
Bloomfield also said Braham failed to provide “budget
scenarios” reflecting the impacts of different salary
hikes.
“We repeatedly asked for the development of budget
scenarios with different salary levels, and these requests
went unmet,” Bloomfield said.
School Board President Kathy Wisnicki and Board member Dr.
Jose Escarce said they agreed with Bloomefield’s “recollections.”
“Unequivocally everything that she said matches my
recollection,” Escarce said. “I think it’s
easy to think that truth is subjective, and perhaps some interpretations
of truth are subjective, but facts are not subjective, and
everything that Emily has said is actually factually correct.”
Escarce said Braham failed to come up with a “budget”
that reflected the board’s tentative decision to grant
the teachers a 5 percent pay raise, which the former CFO said
would put the district $7 million in the red over the next
three years.
“Our ex CFO stated last night that he developed a recovery
plan for us after the decision was made to grant the raise
that we gave to the teachers,” said Escarce, adding
that it was Interim CFO Dr. Steve Hodgson who had “developed
a budget.
“That was an example of the way that you work with
the situation to craft a budget that accommodates the salary
enhancement or whatever other kind of circumstances arise,
working through the needs if the district, the staffing levels
that are required, the priories of the district,” Escarce
said.
“One of the reasons that we were forced to unveil a
budget and an AB 1200 that did not look good was that no process
even closely, even remotely, similar to the one that Dr, Hodgson
undertook this spring was offered by our ex CFO.”
The three board members also questioned Braham’s testimony
that he had made recommendations concerning the settlement
agreements with parents of special education children.
“I absolutely never, ever, ever heard a recommendation
from our CFO with regard to settlement agreements for services”
beyond what are mandated by the State “or confidentiality
agreements, never,” Bloomfield said.
Wisnicki, who thanked Bloomfield for her “courage in
speaking out,” said Braham was “privy to the financial
information regarding settlement agreements between parents
and Deputy Superintendent Tim Walker, who was hired by the
District to help reduce the legal costs associated with such
agreements.
“Mr. Braham was present at every discussion we had
in closed session when Mr. Walker presented cases by case
number, with services rendered and amounts of those services,”
Wisnicki said. “Mr. Braham was also well aware of the
reduction in attorneys fees associated with Mr. Walker’s
ability to resolve disputes.
“And Mr. Braham also failed to mention the fact that
prior to Mr. Walker’s arrival at the District, the County
had given us stern warnings to curtail our growth… in
the escalating the costs in special education, which were
largely due to the number of legal disputes that had occurred
prior to Mr. Walker’s arrival.”
Wisnicki then said she shared Bloomfield’s sentiment
“that our integrity was attacked as a board and the
integrity of our staff.
“We requested to be put on the agenda with the belief
that if questions arose from the council, they would be directed
to us, rather than to members of the public or have the same
sort of council discussion that went on without information
provided by district staff,” Wisnicki said.
“I want to share my disappointment in the process last
night,” the board president said.
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