The San Bruno Beacon

On 02/14/2008, The Daily Journal published an article titled, "District mulls school site sale" in which it is mentioned that the San Bruno Park School District (SBPSD) Board of Trustees may be considering a parcel tax.

An attempt by the SBPSD Board of Trustees to pass yet another parcel tax by paying tens of thousands dollars to put a measure on the ballot would be mean spirited, insulting, and ridiculous. San Bruno's homeowners are already paying parcel taxes to the SBPSD.

Hitting San Bruno's homeowners with higher property taxes during a recession does not make sense. Many homeowners in San Bruno are having a hard time making ends meet, or for that matter, even paying for the home they live in. More to the point, in my opinion, the San Bruno Park School District has proven through the antics of its Superintendent and Board of Trustees that it lacks the financial controls and organizational stability to be trusted with more taxpayer money. In addition, the SBPSD is awash in millions of dollars in cash and the San Bruno Education Foundation (SBEF) has the ability to raise large amounts of money to plug sporadic deficits and maintain or expand District programs.

In a San Bruno Beacon article published on 10/25/2007, titled, SAN BRUNO BEACON RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE TUESDAY NOVEMBER 6, 2007 ELECTION, I wrote:

"In our opinion, what the San Bruno Park School District really needs is a new Superintendent. We think that the San Bruno Park School District is a troubled entity buried in chaos."

I still think that the San Bruno Park School District (SBPSD) needs a new Superintendent. I would also add, that we need to replace a few SBPSD Board Members starting with Mr. Skip Henderson, the current Board President whose ready, fire, aim style of attack on his Board colleagues and well documented ongoing dysfunctional confrontations with other Board Members have, in my opinion, not only helped reduce the reputation of the SBPSD Board of Trustees but have also made it a less effective organization in serving the needs of its constituency and the students who attend SBPSD schools.

In my opinion, the SBPSD Superintendent and Board of Trustees have destroyed any credibility they may have had with San Bruno's residents. I also think that the children in the District are victims of the Superintendent's and Board's outright fiscal irresponsibility as evidenced by, what in my opinion is, their blatant waste and negligent handling of SBPSD money. This, coupled with the childish antics and petty little league style political posturing of at least one current SBPSD Board Member and a few past Board Members has made the SBPSD Board of Trustees the laughing stock of school boards. In my opinion, they have set a very poor example for the children who attend SBPSD schools.

The most recent scandal at the SBPSD showed how lax the District's internal financial controls are under the leadership of Superintendent David Hutt. The District was caught paying hundreds of dollars each month for the health insurance premiums of several SBPSD Board Members who were not entitled to receive these monthly payouts. This had been going on for several years and amounted to approximately $10,000 in the case of one Board Member, more than $8,000 in the case of another Board Member, and who knows how much in the case of other Board Members. This has resulted in ridiculous scenarios such as the SBPSD suing, and trying to serve papers on, a former SBPSD Board Member. Now, the SBPSD has to spend District money and staff time chasing down money that Hutt should not have allowed to be paid out in the first place.

To add insult to injury, Hutt may have been aware that these improper payouts were happening and allowed them to continue. Hutt may have already made arrangements with one SBPSD Board Member to pay back health insurance premiums, that the Board Member was not entitled to in the midst of this scandal. This repayment agreement may have been made months or years before the recent revelations about the ongoing improper payments of health insurance premiums to Board Members surfaced.

The SBPSD medical insurance premium payout scandal was exposed by Board Member Skip Henderson in what appears to have been an attempt to embarrass a political opponent on the SBPSD Board running for re-election. Ironically, and to Mr. Henderson's dumbfounded surprise, further investigation revealed that Mr. Henderson had also been receiving monthly payments, from the SBPSD, for medical insurance premiums that he was not entitled to.

Hutt is ultimately responsible for the weak or possibly non-existent internal financial controls that resulted in Mr. Henderson receiving over $8,000 in medical insurance premiums that he was not entitled to. After word got out that Henderson had been caught up in the very same scandal he may have tried to use to embarrass his political opponent, he finally coughed up more than $8,000 to pay back the School District.

What Mr. Henderson may not have realized is that he had stumbled onto a huge red flag that is indicative of an organization with weak internal financial controls that leaves the organization open to embezzlement, fraud, and other events that could result in significant financial losses. In my opinion, the medical insurance premium payout scandal at the San Bruno Park School District brings into question the effectiveness and integrity of the financial controls in place at the SBPSD and Superintendent David Hutt's ability to oversee the management of the SBPSD's financial affairs. Not surprisingly, when what appears to have been Henderson's scheme to discredit his Board colleague backfired, he dropped the matter at a time when he should have demanded a full independent audit of the District and stricter internal financial controls.

It has been said, on more than one occasion, that "where there is smoke, there is fire". In the case of the SBPSD, I think there needs to be a thorough independent investigation of the SBPSD's internal financial controls and all financial transactions that have been completed during the past 5 years. For this, we need the services of an independent accounting firm or, if appropriate, State of California Auditors to sort out what could be a colossal financial mess at the SBPSD.

Another example of waste by the SBPSD Board is the lawsuit brought against the SBPSD by VB Golf Inc. This lawsuit was the result of conduct by the SBPSD Board of Trustees that, in my opinion, was so ridiculously stupid and inept that it even set a new low water mark for the SBPSD Board of Trustees. This incident cost the District what may be as much as $150,000 or more in legal fees and settlement costs.

Instead of yet another parcel tax, the SBPSD needs a new Superintendent, a few new Board Members, an independent financial audit, and the implementation of tighter financial controls. The sloppy mismanagement of District money is having a negative impact on our children's education. When money earmarked for our children's education is diverted into the pockets of unintended recipients, by people who are entrusted with the care and custody of this taxpayer money, legal and political action must be taken against the offending parties.

The big question on my mind at this point is why hasn't SBPSD Superintendent David Hutt been asked by the District's Board of Trustees to resign?

The SBPSD Board doesn't need to burden San Bruno's homeowners with a multi decade parcel tax to meet sporadic cash flow problems and save or expand extracurricular programs in our schools.

We already have an organization in place for raising money to erase SBPSD budget deficits and achieve other District financial objectives. This organization is the San Bruno Education Foundation (SBEF). The SBEF is a private, non-profit educational corporation that includes the following comment in their mission statement:

"Our goals include supplementing school budgets to erase deficits, establishing a permanent SBEF Endowment Fund, and funding curriculum enhancements."

Not unlike education foundations in other cities, the SBEF has the potential to raise tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars or more each year for the San Bruno Park School District. Just like the SBPSD, the Kentfield School District, in Marin County, is both an elementary and middle school district. The Kentfield Schools Foundation has raised in excess of $1 million in some years for the Kentfield School District. The SBEF should study the techniques used by the The Kentfield Schools Foundation to raise money.

The web site for the California Consortium of Education Foundations (CCEF), an organization based in Stanford, California, has a listing of local education foundations for each California county. According to the CCEF site, there are 29 educational foundations in San Mateo County.

Perhaps the San Bruno Education Foundation should do an analysis of all the educational foundations in California to determine which of these educational foundations is the most successful at raising money for their school districts. Pick the top 10 or 20 educational foundations, in terms of money raised, find out what their methodology is for raising money and adopt the best of breed methodologies.

The analysis and implementation of effective fundraising methodologies could be done in 3 to 6 months. Possibly sooner if this effort was fast tracked. If educational foundations in other communities can raise large amounts of money for their elementary and junior high schools so can San Bruno.