Management of PV Schools Cleared by State Auditor

A report by state auditors has found no fault with the Palos Verdes Peninsula school district’s overall management of its financial and enrollment problems, but advises school officials to take another look at its system for collecting developer fees.

The report also disclosed that Supt. Jack Price used a postdated check to pay $6,727 in developer fees on a home he is building in Palos Verdes Estates. The district held the check for about two months, and Price paid interest on the money, a district spokeswoman said.

The report from the state auditor general, based on a three-month investigation, finds no fault with the district’s controversial decision to close Miraleste High School at the end of this school year. It states that the school board based the unanimous decision last November on “improvement in (educational) programs, the grade-level groupings at the schools and the relocation of students.”

Future Undecided

The high school’s future is up in the air pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed by a group of Miraleste parents. The group wants to secede and form its own district on the east side of the Peninsula.

The exception from the generally favorable state report was the district’s use of unwritten criteria in granting exemptions from developer fees, a practice that auditors said could lead to an “inconsistent application” of the rules and a possible loss of fees.

Price, at a special meeting of the school board Thursday morning, offered no explanation for submitting a postdated check to meet a deadline for paying his fees. But he said trustees were not aware of the postdated check and did not condone delays in depositing payments to the district.

District spokeswoman Nancy Mahr said Price’s check was held for about two months and that the superintendent had voluntarily paid interest on the check amount for the period in which it was held.

Trustees, in response to recommendations from the auditors, directed the administration to draft written policies on granting exemptions to developer fees and to take measures to ensure that all checks are deposited promptly with the county treasurer.

District Cleared

Board President Marlys Kinnel expressed pleasure with the state report, which had been requested by Assemblyman Gerald N. Felando (R-San Pedro). Kinnel said it cleared the district of charges that it had acted improperly in choosing Miraleste for closure. She also pointed out that the report found nothing unusual in the district’s management of expenses and assets.

Robert Lyon, a spokesman for the Miraleste group, said the “generally neutral” report “does not in any way endorse the board’s decision to close Miraleste.”

He said the auditors did not review all of the options that were open to the school board in deciding how to deal with rapidly declining enrollment and a subsequent loss of state aid based on average daily attendance.

“We hold to the view that the board made a politically popular decision” and did not give “fair and equitable” consideration to the needs of the east side and its children, he said.