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 Mentoring s board delivered the results of a lengthy scrutiny into an alleged misuse of society funds by the county s former superintendent of schools but conflicting states by county office of teaching leaders made it clear that a large number of 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 scheme which helps low-income children under the age of five access critical tools The statement 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 Guidance misused society funds and violated several board policies that the county superintendent s segregated account was used to redirect grant funding for unrelated purposes and that masses dollars were used for legal expenses and investigations of the board of schooling A federal audit disclosed earlier this year declared the county office of schooling 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 disclosed Wednesday that the board and staff were not aware of any charges being filed by law enforcement or the district attorney s office The account 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 assessment s findings also reported several office of mentoring contracts were awarded in a manner that suggested personal favoritism and that ethical safeguards were ignored with several county office of teaching employees allegedly using citizens tools to show promotion for their superior In a message 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 stated This pattern of masses 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 affair 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 explained 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 locality members and head start staff expressed their gratitude to the board for studying 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 disclosed Mercedes Hill a Head Start office specialist within the county office of learning 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 probe 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 substantial procedures overhaul What is your plan to rebuild the school oversight repair the damage and ensure that this never happens again Krishna petitioned How will you repair this harm The board of development presented several suggested program changes in response to the assessment 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 guidelines changes which she explained centralizes authority in the board president restricts speech reduces transparency and moves the county office of teaching toward punitive politically motivated governance She also expressed deep concerns about the assessment s findings The findings raise broad and serious concerns but they are presented without evidence or specific examples which makes it intricate for the constituents trustees or any oversight agency to fully evaluate them Sreekrishnan revealed in a message Wednesday The review s findings come amid several other investigations into the county office of instruction and board over the last year which have pointed to an alleged history of tension between the county office of teaching leadership and board members and uncovered that the board failed to follow its own management policies Several other former county office of training leaders came to the defense of Dewan Wednesday including former board president Claudia Rossi and former trustee Kathleen King Countless constituents dollars have been poured into this two-year witch hunt and still not a shred of evidence of wrongdoing has been produced Rossi announced in a announcement Wednesday But current board member Don Rocha cautioned the society that in his more than years of population provision he s never seen an agency as unconcerned with serving group interests as the Santa Clara County Office of Coaching was under Dewan The evidence speaks for itself unless you choose to look the other way Rocha noted