Santa Clara County Grand Jury • 2008-2009

SEP U 8 2009 September 2, 2009 David H. YAMASChief Executive Officer/ Don Kawashima, Foreperson Superior Court of CA*

Published: September 02, 2009 3 pages Consolidated Report

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⚠️ Aviso de traducción: Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.

⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.

Note: Missing finding numbers detected: F5, F6

Findings 5 findings

Community colleges and K-12 boards of trustees are responsible for inventory control. However, after interviewing ALL board of trustee presidents it was evident they were unaware of their obligations under the law. All K-8 and K-12 and Community College Districts

No trustees or superintendents/chancellors have been trained in inventory control. Inventory control training for board members and superintendents is not mandated by the State, resulting in a lack of familiarity and inconsistent application of inventory requirements by many districts. All K-8 and K-12 and community college districts

All district superintendents, chancellors and district staff report incomplete inventory information to their boards. This results in lack of knowledge about the value and size of their inventory. All K-8 and K-12 and community college districts

With the exception of Santa Clara Unified and Los Gatos Unified School Districts, all K-12 districts fail to understand the need to reconcile inventories from previous years to the latest inventory update. Without reconciliation, the opportunity to: identify lost, missing or stolen items, take preventive measures, and obtain timely reimbursement may be lost. All K-8 and K-12 Boards of Trustees (except Santa Clara Unified and Los Gatos Unified)

There is a potential for abuse in K-8 and K-12 districts when those who report to superintendents approve credit card transactions and purchase orders made by their superintendent. All K-8 and K-12 School Districts

Recommendations 5

R1

Trustees should review and be knowledgeable of Education Code §35168 for K-12 and Education Code §81600 for community colleges to ensure complete implementation. All K-8 and K-12 and Community College District Boards of Trustees Agree – Perform through Board Presentation on August 20, 2009
R2

All Santa Clara County school board trustees and superintendents/chancellors should be required to review and understand Education Code §35168 and §81600 and BAM requirements for inventory control. For K-12 districts, the COE should take the lead in providing comprehensive training on inventory control, in conjunction with the release of the new inventory tracking module within Quintessential Software Systems spearheaded by the COE. For community colleges, the CC Board should investigate additional training in the area of inventory control offered through organizations such as the American Association of Community Colleges and the Community College League of California. · All K-8 and K-12 and Community College District Boards of Trustees
R3

All Boards of Trustees should require a presentation on the results of their districts' biennial inventory, including total value, variances resulting from reconciliation between past and current inventories and a proposed plan to resolve discrepancies. All K-8 and K-12 & Community College District Boards of Trustees Agree – Sunnyvale School District inventory control provides a report to the Sunnyvale School District school board on a yearly basis. l Sunnyvale School District 9/2/2009 Responses to the Grand Jury Report: Santa Clara County Schools Inventory Practices
R4

All K-12 school districts should reconcile the most current, full inventory with prior inventories, to identify missing items and potential losses/thefts. The results will enable the districts to implement safeguards to prevent future losses. All K-8 and K-12 Boards of Trustees (except Santa Clara Unified and Los Gatos Unified) Agree – Process at Sunnyvale School District is currently underway and reconciliation is performed by the business department.
R7

To strengthen internal controls and ensure fiscal accountability, purchases made by the K-8 and K-12 Superintendents should be approved by the Boards of Trustees prior to purchase. In the event an immediate purchase is required, post-approval by the Board would ensure no conflicts of interest or abuses occur. Expenditures should be presented separately from the Board's consent calendar to ensure proper scrutiny. Credit card statements and a listing of disbursements should be provided to the Board for approval. All K-8 and K-12 District Boards of Trustees Agree – Process will be added to board policy concerning inventory control

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.