2005-2006 Final Report

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(a): Staff certification in either CPR or FA has not been done.

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Not every cafeteria and kitchen in the targeted schools has received an annual inspection and passing grade.

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NVUSD SEMS designated staff have not completed FA and CPR certification, which continues to compromise the presence and availability of qualified trained staff on each campus.

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No documentation of Credentialed/licensed nurses conducting annual in- servicing for health clerks on storage and dispensing of medications was provided.

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(a): NVUSD continues to accumulate uncollected accounts receivables, while attempting to resolve their large past debts with simplistic processes.

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providing each kitchen with more than the one (1) legally mandated staff certified in food safety.

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implementing federal guidelines for serving healthy food choices in advance of the required timeline. • The District utilizes a payment system, like a debit card, for student food purchases to ensure non-discrimination for students on subsidized food program, as well as quick and easy accounting. 38 When card funds get low, money can be added to the card online to enable easy ‘recharging’ the card. Campus Safety During the Grand Jury’s site inspections of each school, and the interviews of district and school staff, the following are noted concerns for student health and safety: • Primary School:

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Reported, repeated campus vandalism by after school community use of the grounds, especially by skateboarders

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Reported, repeated bathroom vandalism of broken fixtures and body waste outside of toilets • Middle School:

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The Safe Bus Operations policy (AR3543) is outstanding,. It addresses safety in an area of student life often left out of safety plans.

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The District has a very good working relationship with the St. Helena Police Department, with officers frequently on campus to develop relationships with the students and at District events to support both the students and the District. Responses to 1-8 Findings and Recommendations: SHUSD Board of Trustees SHUSD Superintendent

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The administrative staff is very stretched, managing increasing student populations and rising disciplinary actions, which are further impacted by the insufficient Campus Supervisor staffing levels and minimal SRO hours.

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Campus Staffing There are two (2) staff positions which work predominately to manage student behavior, action and interaction issues, and to ensuring a cohesive, safe campus. These are the Campus Supervisor and the high school Dean. The current Grand Jury agrees with the 2004-05 Grand Jury Report’s recommendation: “NVUSD must commit to an appropriate ratio of campus supervisors to student population at all secondary schools. The Dean of Students position must not be compromised by requiring added teaching duties.” 50 The 2004-05 Grand Jury Report supported the need both for more Campus Supervisors and the full attention of the High School Dean by reporting significant increase in the target school’s student suspensions and expulsions. However the NVUSD ’05 Response regarding school suspension and expulsion statistics: • Did not focus on the Grand Jury’s targeted schools and their student population. Instead it used data that included all NVUSD schools from 1995 through 2005. It presented graph charts showing statistical change in total percentages not actual numbers. Whereas, the 2004-2005 Grand Jury Report used District records to compare stats only between two (2) school years, 2003-’04 and 2004-’05. The actual numbers, not percentages, were reported, and the data used involved only the targeted middle and high schools. The District ’05 Response did not address the focus of the 2004-’05 Grand Jury Report. • The NVUSD ’05 Response stated: “Please note that some of the suspensions and ordered expulsions reflect the administrators doing the suspensions and expulsions. In earlier years, some infractions were handled with counseling at the school in lieu of suspension and expulsion. It could be also argued that more disciplinary activity is the result of better campus policing in which student behavior is more effectively monitored and addressed rather than the result of a deficiency” in supervision. The Grand Jury rebuts with the following interpretation and evaluation:

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The Grand Jury’s deficiency concern is not in “policing”, as stated in the District ’05 Response, but rather in reduced supervision, and the subsequent lack of supportive services. 51

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Additionally the GJ is concerned that the actual infractions, leading to student suspension or expulsion, have increased in frequency and severity as documented in the 2004-’05 Grand Jury Report. The District ‘06 Document provided the NVUSD Campus Supervisor staffing records: ASSIGNED HOURS for CAMPUS SUPERVISORS School Initial Hours/Year Added Hours/Year American Canyon Middle 2 hours in 1998 + 2 hours/’01; +2 hours/’02 Harvest Middle 4 ¾ hours in 2003 +4 hours/’04 Redwood Middle 9 hours in 1997 +4 hours/’01; +1 hour/’02 Silverado Middle 8.8 hours in 1997 (none) Napa High 24 hours in 1997 (none) Vintage High 27 hours in 1997 (none) New Technology High 4 hours in 2005 The significance of this information is: • regardless of yearly increasing student census, three (3) schools have not had an increase in Campus Supervisor hours in nine (9) years; one (1) school has never had any hours until this year; and it has been four (4) years since two (2) other schools added hours. • In 1997, NVUSD’s staffing records show that it determined the student population at Silverado Middle School needed 8.8 hours, Napa High needed 24 hours, and Vintage High needed 27 hours of Campus Supervisors. Yet the District currently justifies the same Campus Supervisor staffing levels, nine (9) years later, while reporting over capacity student census and increased student management problems. 52 Finding 3 (a): The Campus Supervisor Study, to evaluate staffing levels, has not been accomplished.

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the lack of Financial Department Director leadership during this school year. Finding 14 (a): NVUSD continues to accumulate uncollected accounts receivables, while attempting to resolve their large past debts with simplistic processes.

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began providing New Technology High with some Campus Supervisor hours.

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did not assign additional responsibilities to the Dean of Vintage High and a minimum of less than 1 hour per week of supervision, beginning in February, to the Dean of Napa High.

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Fire Safety Fire safety inspections and availability of appropriate standard safety equipment is considered a basic provision in every school and classroom. In the 2004-05 Grand Jury Report, major deficiencies, such as annual fire inspections, annual fire extinguisher recharging, missing classroom safety equipment and defective school emergency alarms, were revealed. Last year the Grand Jury recommended immediate fire inspections be completed, and a tracking system be developed to insure timely future 55 inspections. The NVUSD ’05 Response stated “a plan was put in place to inspect the schools by Sept 1, 2005”. The District ’06 Documentation included the District’s Fire Inspection Log used to self-track fire inspections, and copies of the target schools latest fire inspection reports. The review of these records showed continued compliance problems with obtaining timely, cleared annual fire inspections. • The NVUSD Fire Inspection Log simply lists each school, with a date of inspection column and a re-inspection column. The form was not completely filled out and had dates entered incorrectly. The log does not document whether a school was “cleared” by the Fire Inspector, nor flag that further inspections are needed. The control procedure for the district’s Fire Inspection Log calls for: “monthly the secretary is responsible for monitoring the control log to be sure that all schools have been inspected within the previous 12 months”. The procedure misses the crucial point of each school needing to be cleared by the Fire Inspector and does not provide for follow up until all schools have received cleared status. • The actual fire inspection reports show that, as of April 2006, Harvest Middle School has not received clearance status. NVUSD remains deficient in school fire inspection clearance, and continues to demonstrate the lack of management, oversight and accountability by district administrative staff. Fire Inspection Reports need to be read immediately, with infractions noted and the corresponding work completed as quickly as possible. Timely re-inspections need to be done until clearance is received and accurately recorded. Finding 6: The District’s Fire Inspection Control Log is inadequate to identify which schools require re-inspections and which are “cleared”. The inadequate procedures do not enable district staff to ensure the timely fire inspection clearance of each school, creating unsafe conditions for students and staff. 56

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the potential use of a collection agency.

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Staffing for Student Health Services The 2004-05 Grand Jury reported a lack of assurance that a staff member, certified in First Aid (FA) and Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), is available on each school campus at all times when students are present, which is a potential risk to student health and safety. However, with the implementation of the mandated SEMS emergency and disaster program, designated additional campus staff will be certified in both FA and CPR, which will increase the assurance of trained staff readily available to respond to student health issues at all times. Additional concern centers around the number of students, with individual medically compromised health, many of whom need to be monitored and 62 may need treatment assistance. The District’s ’06 Documentation reported there are over 3000 such students within the total district census. It additionally stated that “credentialed nurses provide training for each of the health staff on an annual and ongoing basis…. (and are) available by phone or pager.” Finding 12: NVUSD SEMS designated staff have not completed FA and CPR certification, which continues to compromise the presence and availability of qualified trained staff on each campus.

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Medications Management, storage and dispensing of medications to students, requires detailed specific procedures to ensure safety. According to the NVUSD medications policy, “designated personnel,” without specific required training, can “assist students in taking medication”. In addressing this concern the 2004-05 Grand Jury recommended: • annual training of health clerks and designated staff to store and dispense student medication safely; • documentation of all required training be maintained in district records and in the individual employee files. NVUSD ’05 Response stated: “The credentialed/licensed school nurse will provide annual training for health clerks and any designated staff on the proper storage and dispensing of medication, with the training to be completed by end of November, 2005.” The District medication administration policy only requires training in the use of “auto-injectors” (Epi-pens for anaphylactic reactions) and for all staff to receive annual training in the recognition of signs and symptoms of anaphylactic reactions. Evidence of the latter training was not available last year. In the District ’06 Documentation, the Epi-Pen (auto-injector) 63 training was documented as completed, listing specific staff at each school. Finding 13: No documentation of Credentialed/licensed nurses conducting annual in- servicing for health clerks on storage and dispensing of medications was provided.

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The description continues with a 30, 60, 90 day past due notice process, and the use of color coded paper and a spindle for filing unpaid invoices. “The District’s Internal Auditor and Accounting Supervisor are reviewing and collecting the older debts, with the possibility of the district contracting with a collection agency.” 65 The District has reported active work and progress on clearing up the volume of past uncollected monies, but the Grand Jury is concerned about:

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The Acting director and staff of the NCDC deserve recognition that the facility passed the November, 2005 Correctional Standards Authority Biennial Inspection. The Corrections Standards Authority inspectors stated their satisfaction with the facility in their report dated November 15, 2005. Inmate Welfare and Trust Fund: When inmates are booked into the jail, procedures are in place to secure and maintain their personal property until they are discharged. The secured monies are kept in the Inmate Welfare and Trust Fund. If inmates fail to claim the secured monies at the time of their release, the abandoned monies remain in the fund, which also contains income from other sources such as inmate canteen sales and commissions from pay telephones. State law requires that this fund be used for the benefit of the prison population. The 2004/2005 Grand Jury report stated that $520,000 was being held in the fund. The County’s response to the report corrected that amount to be $691,000, and listed a variety of ways the fund is currently being used for the inmates. 80 “The current expenditure of funds is for programs to aid the rehabilitation of inmates, furthering their education, helping them locate and apply correctly for employment, teaching life skills which will aid them in taking care of their family, employing persons connected to these programs and the commissary store operated in the jail under this authority. We have also used this fund to enhance programs that assist inmates and have helped inmates to get transportation t their home counties. Anger management programs and substance abuse programs offer…are paid from this fund.” However the current Grand Jury determined the fund balance has increased to approximately $720,000. The NCDC decided not to implement any programs utilizing these funds pending the appointment of a permanent Director. It does use approximately $50,000 of this fund annually for drug and alcohol counseling and vocational guidance training. Finding 1: Napa County holds approximately $720,000 in the Inmate Welfare Trust Fund and is waiting to implement inmate programs until a permanent NCDC Director is appointed. Recommendation 1: The Interim Director needs to immediately begin using the Inmate Welfare and Trust Fund for various inmate programs. Response: Napa County Board of Supervisors Napa County Department of Corrections, Director Glossary: NCDC-----Napa County Department of Corrections 81 2004-2005 Grand Jury Response Report Summary The 2004-2005 Grand Jury reviewed all organization or official responses required to last year’s Grand Jury Report. The Grand Jury received all required responses within the statute-mandated timeline. If the responses needed further clarification, the Grand Jury further investigated and collected information from the appropriate persons/organizations.

Commendations 24

No Responses Found 1