Members of the Board,

I want to provide you information on an internal investigation that has been going
on for approximately two weeks at Kazen MS. A member of the board called me last
night to inquire about the investigation since she had received phone calls from
members of the community and this morning I was informed by our Public
Information Officer, Ms. Hernandez, that a KENS5 reporter inquired about the
investigation.
At the start of this school year, we centralized the renting or leasing of school
facilities. The new procedures require that any individual or group that wants to use
our facilities must submit a request and complete an application through Jenny
Arredondo's office. This assures that all applicants are vetted appropriately and
everyone pays the same fees. Previously this was done through each individual
principal. In some cases outside groups were charged and in other cases they were
not. In addition, we found that the district did not have a uniform rate schedule for
renting our facilities. All principals and appropriate staff (club sponsors and
secretaries) were informed of the new procedures at the beginning of the school
year.
On April 20, Ms. Arredondo received a complaint from an organization that rents our
facilities, stating that a different organization was renting the Kazen MS gym directly
from one of the coaches an paying a reduced rate. On April 22, Ms. Arredondo and
Ms. Lopez (HR Director), interviewed the coach and she confirmed that she indeed
had rented the gym to an outside organization. I also met and questioned the
coach the next day (4/23) and she admitted that she was renting the gym directly
to an outside organization at a reduced rate in order to do fundraising for her girls'
sports program at Kazen. She said she had rented the gym directly to this outside
group about 11 or 12 times and had turned in the money to the school secretary.
On 4/28, Ms. Arredondo, Ms. Lopez and I questioned the secretary and she informed
us that only 3 deposits on the gym rentals had been made by the coach. She said
she knew nothing about the other 8 or 9 times the gym was rented. On the same
day, I decided to put the coach on administrative leave pending completion of an
investigation. Based on information the coach provided, I also decided to place the
secretary on administrative leave two days later on 4/30. I directed Dr. Juarez to
conduct an audit of the handling of school activity money at Kazen and I anticipate
that the audit will be completed in the next few days.
The investigation remains open and I will make decisions pertaining to these two
employees once the audit and investigation are complete. Please feel free to call
me if you have any questions.
Abelardo Saavedra, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools
South San ISD