$3.2 million loss in state funding for California district
California’s Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) has announced it will lose $3.2 million in state funding because it overstated the number of special education students enrolled in its summer school programs. The erroneous tallies came to light after officials reviewed the district's state-funded programs following the discovery this spring of a series of problems with efforts to cut class sizes. Superintendent Jane Russo says the district is continuing to review how it does business. The announcement is the latest financial blow to the beleaguered district, which this year cut $21 million in spending because of declining enrollment. The irregularity took place during the 2005-06 school year, when two employees mistakenly multiplied the number of special education students participating in summer-school programs by 4.8, the number of hours a summer school student spends in class each day, says Don Trigg, associate superintendent of business services. The district will not have to pay back the money but will receive $3.2 million less for the current school year, he says. Officials are considering disciplinary action against those involved in the matter. The district also plans to hire a quality-control specialist to deal with state and federal program documentation and to move employees who handle accounting for such programs into the business services department. Mr. Trigg says the loss will not result in further program cuts, because district officials were able to offset it with unspent funds.
This year, SAUSD lost $2 million because of problems in its class-size reduction program in elementary schools. Teachers at several schools were asked to sign falsified class rosters and the district misused substitute teachers in an attempt to qualify for $16 million in state funds. The loss stems from the district's failure to keep first-, second- and third-grade classes limited to an average of 20.4 students per teacher, in order to receive state money. Auditors faulted the district for shoddy bookkeeping and urged trustees to monitor class sizes frequently and to ensure that class rosters were accurately recorded.
Los Angeles Times By Ashley Powers & Seema Mehta