By Eduardo Rueda – Investigative Reporter
The San Diego Grand Jury released a report critical of past actions of the San Ysidro School District, citing missing funds, destruction of documents, and an overall lack of financial accountability spanning several years.
The report calls attention to the District’s lax financial controls and lack of oversight by the school board members sitting between 1997 and 2014.
The report lays most of the blame on “staff”, meaning the superintendent and his administrators. The bulk of the inappropriate activity occurred during the tenure of Superintendent Manual Paul who headed the District from 2007 to 2013.
Several members served for long tenures during that period, including Yolanda Hernandez and Jean Romero, who each served over a dozen years on the board. Other members that served during this period were Raquel Marquez Maden, Paul Randolph, Jose Barajas, and Jason Wells.
Photo: Mario A. Cortez
By Eduardo Rueda – Investigative Reporter
Two current Trustees and one former Trustee of the San Ysidro School District dispute the District’s official position that it properly voted to settle an employee settlement last year.
All three Trustees say that no vote was taken to approve a separation agreement that paid out over $100,000 to an employee that had been terminated by Superintendent Julio Fonseca. That employee felt he was fired only after he talked about Fonseca’s hiring of a woman he was dating.
Three other current Trustees refused to comment. Antonio Martinez, Irene Lopez, and Board President Rosaleah Pellasigue did not return repeated requests for comments.
By Eduardo Rueda / Investigative Reporter
For the second time in two months, a San Ysidro Superintendent has resigned amid allegations of wrongdoing in a district that has already seen a former Superintendent convicted and sentenced to prison time.
Jose Arturo Sanchez-Macias, who had served as Interim Superintendent since Sept. 2, resigned at a special meeting of the San Ysidro school board on Friday night after a five-hour closed door discussion among the Board and its lawyer.
“The San Ysidro School Board has unanimously accepted the resignation of Mr. Jose Arturo Sanchez-Macias as Interim Superintendent effective immediately,” Board member Marcos Diaz said, after Board President Rosaleah Pallasigue appeared visibly shaken and was unable to announce the decision herself.
State Audit Criticized For Using Rumors as Allegations
By Mario A. Cortez
An extraordinary audit report analyzing the San Ysidro School District’s (SYSD) financial mismanagement released last week by the California Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) is being criticized for containing several inaccurate claims and allegations.
The report, published last week and taken offline the next day, analyzed SYSD’s activities and contracts from 2012 through last year. Among the subjects of this fiscal review were the use of bond funds and the approval of a solar energy contract.
Two former School Board members and a local businessman contacted FCMAT this week to dispute the report’s findings, and have offered information challenging the report’s conclusions.
Board member Antonio Martinez and Board President Rosaleah Pallasigue
Two school board members were served with recall notices at Thursday’s meeting of the San Ysidro School District after weeks of complaints being leveled against the District board.
“(W)e intend to seek your recall and removal from the office of San Ysidro School Board, in the City of San Diego, California, and to demand election of a successor in that office,” state the notices, each signed by ten registered voters in the District.
The two members, Board President Rosaleah Pallasigue and Antonio Martinez, were each handed a notice of intent to circulate a recall petition, the first step outlined in state law to remove an elected official from office.