The Valley Center-Pauma Unified School Board Thursday presented the All Tribes American Indian Charter School with what amounts to an ultimatum—with a May 7 deadline.
The board demanded that the charter school fix a long list of conditions, among the most serious being allegations that the charter school has not accurately recorded student attendance.
This is a potentially devastating finding, based on an audit of the school, and is the basis for the state’s demand that the charter school pay back $140,000 in ADA (average daily attendance) money.
This week The Roadrunner learned of a lawsuit in which a former office employee of the All Tribes School alleges wrongful termination and retaliation for whistle blowing—among other things—against the All Tribes School and its chartering authority, the VC-P school district.
The Roadrunner obtained copies of the lawsuit with a California Public Records Act request.
In its action Thursday the VC-P school board gave the charter school three weeks, until May 7, to “cure and correct,” a series of conditions in three broad categories, including financial concerns, curriculum concerns and governance concerns.
Michelle Parada, one of the founders of the charter school, was on hand at the board meeting. She asked the board to give the school an extra month to correct the conditions. She said that in any event that the school would comply within the deadline, even if it was not extended.
The board declined, without comment.
Supt. Lou Obermeyer told The Roadrunner, “The information that they need to provide to the district is information that they should already have. We aren't asking them to do anything new.”
The school district, which first granted the charter, is entitled to revoke the charter if it can be shown that the school did any of four conditions. One of those four conditions is 3) Failed to meet generally accepted accounting principles, or engaged in fiscal mismanagement.
At the top of the district’s listing of financial concerns is a reference to the 2007 audit report, which “determined that the Charter School has not maintained accurate accounting and recording of student attendance. Audit Reports have found recurring inaccurate accounting and recording of student attendance by the Charter School since 2002. Further, it appears that no entries have been made to the student attendance system since January 7, 2008. Inaccurate accounting and recording of student attendance violates statute and Sections VI (B) and VII of the MOU [memorandum of understanding].”
The State Education Code also requires that a charter provide financial reports to its chartering authority.
According to the district, the first Interim Report of 2007/08 shows that the Charter School wouldn’t have been able to remain solvent for this year and the next two years if the school district hadn’t helped it revise its budget.
According to the district it asked the Charter School to submit a balanced budget. “The Charter School submitted a revised budget document that did not balance and contained figures that were inaccurate.”
It was also asked to submit a revised budget that includes the $143,349 ($140,410 for overstated ADA) that the state is demanding be paid back. “The Charter School failed to submit an Amended Budget, Budget Reduction Plan, or revised Multi-Year Projection Report,” according to the district.
Had the district not assisted them with their budget, at their request, and revised the budget, they would have submitted and filed a negative Interim Report—meaning that they did not have funds to operate the school.
Lawsuit
Ann Marie Mollica, who was employed for six years by the Charter School, from 2001 to August 2007, was campus supervisor, library/computer lab assistant and registrar. She was responsible for clerical duties associated with the record keeping of student attendance. However, she alleges that she was not always in control of the records and that “they were often physically out of her hands and attendance information was periodically changed on them by the school administrator, Mary Ann Donohue.”
In her lawsuit she alleges that she was terminated from her position because she refused to perform fraudulent acts.
She alleges that the Charter School, Mary Ann Donohue, principal of the charter school (and the school district because it is the overseeing authority) “violated California Business and Professions Codes Sect. 17200 and 17500 by the material and intentional submission of false student attendance from the All Tribes American Indian School.”
Another section of the lawsuit states: “Defendants…did not follow the pertinent California Education Codes in taking student attendance or in reporting it. Instead they submitted falsified attendance data.”
In another section the lawsuit states: “The falsification of attendance records were done by Defendant Donohue between September 2006 and June 2007, and possible other times. Defendant Donohue falsified the student attendance time records in order to make it appear that students of Defendant ATAICS had attended classes for more time than they actually had. The falsely altered attendance reports thus wrongly increased the amount of ADA reimbursement funding that Defendant ATAICS received from the State of California.”
She backs up her assertion that Donohue falsified student attendance by quoting Parada:
“The attendance falsification took place following Defendant Donohue’s public declaration that 222 pages of student attendance records had ‘disappeared.’ Ms. Parada described what then happened, stating in writing on Mollica’s employment evaluation that, ‘Ms. Donohue had to work after school to fix this error.’ Ms. Parada explained that Ms. Donohue’s fix involved rewriting of the student attendance records based solely on Ms. Donohue’s unilateral version of the attendance and not, as required by law, on the contemporaneous notation of the students’ teachers.”
Mollica was accused of losing those 222 pages of attendance, although she claims she never had the records completely under her control.
Editor’s Note: Although the All Tribes Charter School had a representative at Thursday night’s board meeting, and The Roadrunner asked her to call us to give their side of this issue, so far we have received no phone calls.
Valley View Casino last week made a $20,000 donation to the Western Days Committee. Show are (from left) Casino Gen. Mgr. Michael Gorczynski, Chamber officers Verle Yoder, Shawneen Burdick, Chelsea Good and Bob Payne, and Valley View Business Committee Chairman Joe Navarro.
Kevin O’Leary, who has for many years been Valley Center’s fire chief, and was later promoted to be Cal Fire division chief of the area that includes Valley Center, will be leaving this area, although he will be just next door.
Thursday night O’Leary announced his transfer, an announcement that drew an audible sigh of sadness from the five members of the Valley Center Fire Protection District board.
“I have a couple of announcements. The promotions have finally been announced and I have accepted a position in the Central Division which includes from Borrego Springs to Valley Center, stopping prior to Valley Center,” said the Chief.
O’Leary’s new title will be Division Chief, Central Operations. His promotion is effective May 5.
His office will be in Ramona and his area will be the Puerta La Cruz Camp, Ramona, Julian and the Borrego Springs area.
Puerta La Cruz Camp is a conservation camp with inmate firefighters
Division Chief Mike Bratton will be division chief serving Valley Center. His title is Division Chief, Northern Operations and his office will be the Rainbow Conservation Camp.
John Kremensky will continue to be Valley Center’s fire chief, as O’Leary was for many years.
With a week to go after this newspaper comes out before the deadline to get a deposit to the fireworks company, it is looking like a Valley Center fireworks show won’t happen this year.
Although VC residents raised the $30,000 last year, Kelly Crews, organizer of the event, reports that fund-raising efforts are still about $15,700 short.
“I got one phone call last week to donate $100,” she reported.
The deadline to raise $30,000 is April 30.
The family-friendly event has been a major Valley Center event for the last decade or so. It occurs at Jaguar Stadium on the evening of July 4.
So far donors include a $10,000 donation from the Rincon tribe, $500 from The Roadrunner, $500 from Subway, $500 from VC Wireless, $100 from the Salisbury Family and $100 from Ken Baldry, according to Crews. There has also been a donation from A-1 Irrigation.
There are also $2,500 left from last year’s donations.
If you’d like to help with the fireworks show, or be a donor, call Mrs. Crews at 760-670-7062.
Ron McCowan, this year’s Citizen of the Year, is representing the Chamber of Commerce as its candidate for Honorary Mayor.
The high school principal’s slogs are “Attendance Counts,” and “The Principal with Principles.”
LaVonne Johnson is his campaign manager—“She’s the one who got me into this mess!” confides the candidate.
As with most candidates for honorary mayor, McCowan is making some big promises.
He promises to make all those who cause the traffic on Valley Center Road to back up to “stay after school.”
“We will open Valley Center Road to all four lanes within two weeks after the election, right before graduation, and the planted medians will be fully grown by then, too!” he promised.
He just opened his new house in town. Anyone who gives $1000 money will get an unlimited stay in his guest room. “We call it the yellow room, but because we want $1000 we are going to change it to the ‘green’ room.”
Finally: “If I win I will take away all of the Saturday Schools.”
But back to the campaign, McCowan has singled out his Rotary opponent, Chelsea Good, for particular abuse.
He had intended to bring a pair of boxing gloves to this interview and settle the issue then and there—however he wasn’t able to find any.
“She’s been trying to pick a fight ever since this was announced. So although she’s raising money for scholarships, my plan is to raise more and the kids who get it will be more deserving!” he announced.
Seriously, though, McCowan said that the main reason he is participating in the election is because the money raised will go to scholarships for graduating seniors.
“I’m a past Kiwanis president and it’s right in line with the same goals we have as the Kiwanis to give back to the community and the children of the community. I think that's the fun part of it.”
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The Chamber is holding an Honorary Mayor’s race fund-raiser for McCowan on April 26, noon- 3 p.m. at VC Community Hall.
The Vaqueros and the Women’s Club will also be joining them to raise money for their respective candidates.
Activities at this family-friendly event include “Dunk the Principal.” Besides himself, other dunkees will include Coach Rob Gilster, Coach Bill Dunckle, teacher Bart Schwarz, David Williams, lead maintenance, lead security Rob Hutchens, and assistant principals Jon Petersen and Dennis Zabinsky.
The high school senior class is doing a barbecue at the event and the Key Club will sell ice cream. AVID will also be participating.
They are still accepting participants. Call La Vonne Johnson at 760-212-0738.
Valley Center artist and Japanese prison camp survivor Don Schloat was among those honored April 9 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
He was also a keynote speaker at the event which honored survivors of the Bataan Death March at the Bataan Memorial Building.
Schloat, who painted a series of disturbing, riveting paintings that depict the deaths of U.S. soldiers executed in Palawan, the Philippines in 1944, has been honored with a permanent exhibit of his works at the New Mexico Bataan Memorial Museum.
The Palawan massacre occurred on Dec. 14, 1944, when 143 U.S. POWs were herded into an air raid shelter that they had built. The Japanese then poured gasoline on the building and set it on fire, burning alive everyone within.
Schloat’s series of paintings memorializes that event, with each painting capturing the death of individual soldiers.
Schloat, a longtime resident of Valley Center, worked for many years as an animator for Walt Disney studios and later owned his own video company, which produced educational videos for science education in the middle and high schools.
New Mexico has a particular interest in the Bataan Death March because its entire National Guard unit of 1,826 was captured at the surrender of the American army in Bataan in the Philippines to the Japanese in 1942.
Besides the talk by Schloat, the ceremony included the raising and lowering of the Bataan White Flag of Defeat at the Bataan Flag Memorial.
Schloat was a prisoner of war for three years in the Philippines, and came close to experiencing the horrendous death by fire that his friends at Palawan were subjected to.
Schloat recently returned to the Philippines, to the scenes of the POW camp where he lived and to the site of the Palawan massacre.
Richard Rivera in the yellow fright wig and his step-son Zack Bonin, the Queen’s Swordsmen, gave a fencing demonstration Friday at the library. They also did skits from Romeo & Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew.
The Valley Roadrunner
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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