Investigation into removal of superintendent reveals misuse of public funds, Santa Clara County Office of Ed says

At a contentious meeting Wednesday night the Santa Clara County Office of Instruction s board delivered the results of a lengthy assessment into an alleged misuse of inhabitants funds by the county s former superintendent of schools but conflicting maintains by county office of teaching leaders made it clear that multiple questions still swirl around the findings They come more than a year after former Superintendent Mary Ann Dewan was unexpectedly removed from her position in a - vote the action was classified as without cause The board declined to expand on the reasoning for Dewan s mysterious removal for months but says now the decision stemmed from her handling of several complaints regarding the county s Head Start campaign which helps low-income children under the age of five access critical tools The account did not cite specific examples of wrongdoing or include the names of the two law firms that conducted the independent review But it contained findings including that under Dewan s leadership the Santa Clara County Office of Mentoring misused citizens funds and violated several board policies that the county superintendent s segregated account was used to redirect grant funding for unrelated purposes and that constituents dollars were used for legal expenses and investigations of the board of instruction A federal audit distributed earlier this year explained the county office of coaching misused more than in federal Head Start funds under Dewan an error the board called a failed cover-up and an intentional effort to undermine the board s authority but which Dewan commented was a communication error The county office of training stated Wednesday that the board and staff were not aware of any charges being filed by law enforcement or the district attorney s office The record s summarized findings presented Wednesday were written by board counsel and the board s governance committee comprised of board president Maimona Afzal Berta vice president Victoria Chon and trustee Jessica Speiser as well as current county superintendent David Toston the board s legal counsel stated Wednesday and the findings stemmed from multiple investigations and reports conducted in the last two years The statement s findings also revealed several office of instruction contracts were awarded in a manner that suggested personal favoritism and that ethical safeguards were ignored with several county office of instruction employees allegedly using society support to show promotion for their superior In a comment Wednesday Dewan condemned the board s findings calling them meritless malicious and baseless attacks unsupported by any evidence I have no knowledge of any wrongdoing and fulfilled all of my duties with integrity and within the statutory framework of my role Dewan noted This pattern of population attacks mischaracterizations and personal targeting is harmful to the institution and discourages talented educators from serving our students Dewan also pointed out that whether appointed by the board in the situation of Santa Clara County or elected by the neighborhood a county superintendent has independent authority under the law to enter into agreements and contracts She also announced that employees like all individuals have First Amendment rights and the board s effort to frame employee free speech as misconduct is troubling At Wednesday s meeting a handful of group members and head start staff expressed their gratitude to the board for examining the misuse of funds and Dewan s unethical requests The findings are astonishing but not surprising given that I and Head Start staff have been saying this for the last two years reported Mercedes Hill a Head Start office specialist within the county office of mentoring But Riju Krishna the president of the Association of County Educators a group of local teachers unions pointed out that the amount of improperly misused funding alleged in the examination s findings cannot possibly be the work of one single superintendent in a system that requires multiple checks and balances and called on the current county superintendent Toston to implement crucial framework improvement What is your plan to rebuild the school oversight repair the damage and ensure that this never happens again Krishna urged How will you repair this harm The board of tuition presented several suggested procedures changes in response to the review s findings Wednesday in an effort to prevent the misuse of funds from reoccurring But Tara Sreekrishnan who mentioned she was speaking as an individual member of the board and not on behalf of the board itself expressed concerns about the proposed board protocol changes which she reported centralizes authority in the board president restricts speech reduces transparency and moves the county office of development toward punitive politically motivated governance She also expressed deep concerns about the inquiry s findings The findings raise broad and serious concerns but they are presented without evidence or specific examples which makes it demanding for the masses trustees or any oversight agency to fully evaluate them Sreekrishnan reported in a report Wednesday The document s findings come amid several other investigations into the county office of teaching and board over the last year which have pointed to an alleged history of tension between the county office of guidance leadership and board members and exposed that the board failed to follow its own management policies Several other former county office of tuition leaders came to the defense of Dewan Wednesday including former board president Claudia Rossi and former trustee Kathleen King Countless society dollars have been poured into this two-year witch hunt and still not a shred of evidence of wrongdoing has been produced Rossi noted in a report Wednesday But current board member Don Rocha cautioned the region that in his more than years of residents facility he s never seen an agency as unconcerned with serving neighborhood interests as the Santa Clara County Office of Teaching was under Dewan The evidence speaks for itself unless you choose to look the other way Rocha explained