The Sacamento County Grand Jury investigated complaints about Twin Rivers Unified School District during their 2010/2011 session. The complete report is available on the Sacarmento Grand Jury website http://www.sacgrandjury.org/. The Grand Jury ended their report with findings and recommendations. Unfortunately, Twin Rivers has chosen to denigrate the Grand Jury rather than use the recommendations to make changes. Upon being elected, I plan to use the Sacramento Grant Jury findings and recommendations as the bluerpint for change.
Twin Rivers Unified School District: Lack of Trust + Lost Opportunities = Children’s Loss
Findings and Recommendations
Finding 1.0 Measure B promised the voters the new district would have a streamlined
administration and the cost savings would allow for more dollars for students in the
classrooms. When compared to other large school districts in Sacramento County, the
grand jury has found Twin Rivers has a higher number of administrators.
Recommendation 1.1 Twin Rivers must immediately reduce the number and
expense of top level administrators and put the savings into classrooms.
Finding 2.0 Measure B promised the voters the district would have an articulated pre K–
12 curriculum. After three years, some curriculum has been aligned using existing
materials from the four districts and is fragmented at best, with little or no social studies
or science being taught in elementary schools.
Recommendation 2.1 Twin Rivers must immediately develop, fund and
implement a comprehensive pre K–12 articulated curriculum plan for all core
subjects, including social studies and science.
Finding 3.0 The decision to hire a superintendent without unification experience, without
secondary school leadership experience and without construction management experience
has impeded the unification goals of Twin Rivers.
Recommendation 3.1 Prior to the contract expiration of the present
superintendent, a nationwide search should be conducted for a superintendent
with the qualifications that include experience in unification, secondary school
leadership and construction management.
Recommendation 3.2 Representatives from various ethnic groups,
representatives from the seven voting districts and community leaders must be on
the search and selection committee for a new superintendent.
Finding 4.0 The history of unification attempts and testimony to the grand jury clearly
shows animosity and negativity towards the former Grant district and its employees.
Recommendation 4.1 The Twin Rivers Board and superintendent must take
responsibility for creating a more diverse group of key personnel from all four of
the unifying districts, including Grant.
Recommendation 4.2 The Twin Rivers Board and superintendent must take
every opportunity to have constructive relationship building activities with
personnel and community alike.
Finding 5.0 The Board of Trustees has acquired additional property for its district office,
in the form of a 99 year lease and at a cost of $14M, despite the availability of existing
district property.
Recommendation 5.1 The Board of Trustees must better utilize existing
buildings, and be more judicious in the spending of scarce district funds.
Finding 6.0 The Board of Trustees voted to stop the ENEC project resulting in
approximately a $60M closure cost.
Recommendation 6.1 Twin Rivers must immediately develop and implement a
short and long term plan for the use of ENEC, as well as a timeline and budget for
the project.
Finding 7.0 As of April 1, 2011, the storage and insurance costs for some building
materials is $132,000 and continues at $3,000 per month. The security and utility bill for
the closed ENEC project is $12,500 per month. This does not include unknown amounts
for storage costs of building materials in Texas.
Recommendation 7.1 The Board of Trustees should be informed of the ongoing
storage costs and must immediately work to resolve this financial drain on the
district.
Finding 8.0 After almost three years as a unified school district, the district has not
merged equipment inventories nor has it completed a physical inventory of the four
unifying districts.
Recommendation 8.1 The district must immediately complete a comprehensive
physical inventory and merge equipment inventories from the four unifying
districts.
Finding 9.0 In the opinion of the grand jury, the use of outside counsel hired by the Twin
Rivers Board of Trustees has consumed too much general fund money.
Recommendation 9.1 The Board of Trustees must analyze and evaluate the costs
of using outside counsel in comparison to the cost of hiring in-house legal staff.
Recommendation 9.2 If outside counsel is contracted to be general counsel, an
annual cap or limit on legal fees must be imposed.
Finding 10.0 Twin Rivers Board of Trustees’ decision to file four lawsuits against former
Grant district personnel and companies that have done business with the Grant district,
led to the spending of nearly $1M of general fund money to date.
Recommendation 10.1 The Board of Trustees must conduct a monthly review of
the status and costs of each lawsuit involving Twin Rivers.
Recommendation 10.2 To promote public disclosure, the Board of Trustees must
direct the business services department to develop line items in the district budget
to report legal fees and costs.
Recommendation 10.3 The Board of Trustees should direct its general counsel to
explore submitting cases currently being litigated to binding arbitration or at least
mediation for expedited resolution.
Recommendation 10.4 Before the Board of Trustees decides to initiate litigation,
it must require legal counsel to submit a detailed, projected budget of legal fees
and costs.
Finding 11.0 The Sacramento County Grand Jury questions whether it is illegal or, at
best, ill-advised for Fund 24 bond money to be used in the litigation against a party that is
not engaged in construction projects.
Recommendation 11.1 The Board of Trustees must stop using Fund 24 bond
money as a source of funds for Twin Rivers v. CFS, et al.
Finding 12.0 According to witness testimony to the grand jury, geographic and ethnic
communities are not being adequately represented by board members who are elected at
large by the entire district.
Recommendation 12.1 A more equitable election process would provide that the
trustees be elected directly from their individual districts rather than at large.
Finding 13.0 Many sixth grade students transitioning to middle school have not been
afforded the opportunity to select from the various middle school options, because the
district office has limited the invitations to special programs.
Recommendation 13.1 The Board of Trustees, using a wide variety of strategies
and resources, must insure that parents of all students are made aware of all
programs offered to students by the district, including those programs offered by
dependent charter schools.
Recommendation 13.2 The Board of Trustees must insure all students receive
fair access to all programs offered by Twin Rivers, including those programs
offered by dependent charter schools.
Finding 14.0 Some community members from various ethnic groups do not believe they
are respected by the Board of Trustees and the Twin Rivers Superintendent. These
community members have stated that the needs and concerns they have repeatedly
expressed continue to be disregarded.
Recommendation 14.1 The Board of Trustees and the Twin Rivers
Superintendent should engage in active listening and consistent responsive
communications, and encourage the involvement of all members of the Twin
Rivers communities.
Recommendation 14.2 All parents should be informed that translators are
available to parents. Teachers, administrators and other staff should use this
service when scheduling appointments, meetings and conferences with non-
English speaking or limited-English speaking parents.
Recommendation 14.3 Meetings, using translators, should be held throughout the
district with non-English, limited-English and bilingual groups of parents to give
information on how they share concerns, needs and suggestions with school
personnel and board members.
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