A federal review confirms serious complaints of mismanagement at a federally funded school program in Santa Clara County that’s supposed to help families in need. Hilda Gutierrez reports.
A federal review confirms serious complaints of mismanagement at a federally-funded school program in Santa Clara County that’s supposed to help families in need.
The review by Federal Head Start monitors found the Santa Clara County Office of Education misused Head Start funds, delayed actions to correct the problem, and rejected oversight among other things.
Allegations of the misuse of funds intended for the Head Start program, which helps at-risk and low-income children, have been brewing since last Spring.
“Finding misuse of funds for staff that wasn’t even a part of the Head Start Program were being paid,” SCCOE Head Start Policy Council Chair Yadira Orozco said.
Triggered by a whistleblower complaint, NBC Bay Area's Investigative Unit broke the story and was there when federal auditors arrived at the Santa Clara County Office of Education.
The results of their visit are detailed in a report by the Administration for Children and Families. It highlights five areas of noncompliance in the Office of Education’s Head Start Program in the program’s management, eligibility, and selection criteria.
“There’s a lot of relieve, I think to finally see it in black and white kind of is no longer conjecture, it’s kind of like substantiated with evidence,” said Mercedes Hill with the SCCOE Head Start Program.
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Hill, who is an office specialist for the program, said she first started sounding the alarm when a non-Head Start manager requested an order from her.
More than $135,000 in Head Start funds were used to pay for a non-Head Start staff and credit card expenses, according to the review.
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“Head Start was essentially used as like an ATM so because it has a lot of money,” Hill said.
The review also found Administrators waited three months to address the misappropriation after it was brought to their attention.
And the review found SCCOE failed to establish selection criteria that prioritized participants based on the community needs, like low income or special education.
“It’s shocking, it’s heartbreaking because they were prioritizing another sites which is EduCare, prioritizing other families, other students based off of zip codes which for us was like ‘wow!’” said Stephanie Gomez, Head Start Policy Council Member.
According to the review, they were ignored. Gomez said the misappropriated funds could’ve gone to school supplies that teachers so desperately need.
In a news release, the Office of Education’s new Interim Superintendent Dr. Charles Hinman said, “We remain committed to completing our own investigations so we can fully understand how these things happened and ensure they never happen again.”
The review is giving the office 120 days to correct the problem. In their release, the Santa Clara County Office of Education also said it’s taking immediate action to address the findings and ensure complete compliance with all federal regulations moving forward.
Part 1: Exclusive: Santa Clara Co. Office of Education under review over misuse of Head Start funds
Part 2: Santa Clara County Office of Ed faces staff retaliation claims amid federal review
Part 3: Santa Clara County education board fires schools superintendent without cause
Part 4: Community calls for transparency over recent firing of Santa Clara County superintendent
Part 5: New Santa Clara Co. Office of Ed official launching misuse of public funds investigations
Part 6: Federal report says Santa Clara County Office of Education misused funds
