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School district votes to conduct financial investigation of previous leadership 

School board members Chris Bausch and Tim Gearhart.

–Tuesday night, the Paso Robles School District Trustees voted to hire Eide Bailly accounting firm to conduct a fraud investigation into the dealings of the previous school superintendent, his staff and his school board. The board voted 5-2, with trustees Stephanie Ulibarri and Joan Summers casting the dissenting votes. They argued that the district cannot afford to spend up to $50,000 on the investigation.

Eide Bailly specializes in fraud investigations. County accountant Diane Larsen said, “The more information we can show them, the less expensive the investigation will be.” If the board finds one count of fraud, then the investigation can be turned over to state officials and they will take it over.

During Superintendent Chris Williams four year tenure, the school board approved expenditures that exhausted most of the $7.5 million dollar reserve fund. When Superintendent Kathy McNamara left office, the district reserve fund was 10% of the annual operating budget of $75 million dollars. By the end of Williams’ tenure, that had dropped to under 1%, about $750,000. The state requires districts the size of PRJUSD to maintain a reserve that is at least 3%. Williams and his school board trustees, including Field Gibson and Matt McLish, also exhausted the $5 million FEMA payment for the damage done to Flamson Middle School by the San Simeon Earthquake.

School board members Joan Summers and Christopher Arend.

During those four years, Trustee Chris Bausch was Williams only consistent critic. During that term, in March 2017, Bausch was censured for violating board policies by the school board. Last night, the new school board voted 4-3 against rescinding that censure.

Superintendent Curt Dubost reviewed his goals for the school board. He said the district remains “administratively top-heavy.” He said, “We have to cut some administration.”

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The news staff of the Paso Robles Daily News wrote or edited this story from local contributors and press releases. The news staff can be reached at info@pasoroblesdailynews.com.