Paso Robles School Board meets Saturday to respond to Grand Jury report
–The Paso Robles School Board to hold a meeting Saturday morning to revisit the San Luis Obispo County Grand Jury report which was critical of the district for financial mismanagement during Superintendent Chris Williams’ administration. The board held three meetings to go point-by-point through that report. The board agreed with all but a couple of elements of the jury’s findings. Now, they will discuss crafting a response to the jury, which is required by law.
PRJUSD Board President Chris Arend wrote a draft response to initiate discussion. All seven board members may meet Saturday morning at the PRJUSD District Office to write a formal response to the board.
The discussion will address the following:
1) An alleged violation of trust laws by the previous (2018) board
2) An alleged misuse of public funds ($235,000 to Chris Williams) in 2018 by previous board members including then-President Joan Summers, Joel Peterson, Tim Gearhart, Matt McClish, Dr. Kathleen Hall, and Field Gibson.
3) Other alleged violations
The meeting is scheduled to run from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the PRJUSD office on Niblick Road. People can watch it on the PRJUSD YouTube channel.
Correction: This story was updated shortly after publication, including omitting this sentence: “School Board President Chris Arend… is recommending that the board ask San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow to review the report and recent findings of the board to ascertain if there’s enough evidence to file criminal charges…” Arend says he is not recommending a criminal referral to the DA.
