Discrepancies Found in School District Finances

An audit of the Centinela Valley Union High School District in the Hawthorne area shows a number of financial and personnel irregularities that have resulted in one administrator being fired and another quitting.

The district, with nearly 6,000 students, includes Leuzinger High School and Hawthorne High School.

The $42,000 audit, commissioned in April 1995 by district Supt. Joe Carrillo and recently made public, shows that Don Imel, a buyer specialist, was paid for the 160 miles he commuted every day from his home in Moreno Valley.

During the first six months of the 1994-95 school year, he received $9,492.40 in reimbursed mileage payments. In 1993-94, he received $5,485.72. Imel was fired in April.

The audit also shows that William Fowler, a former assistant superintendent of business services, used school district credit cards to buy $463.84 in gas for his personal cars even though he was given a $550 monthly car allowance.

Furthermore, Fowler’s wife used the district credit card to pay an automobile car repair bill for $488.48.

Fowler reimbursed the school district last summer for both bills and resigned in September after receiving a $34,000 buyout.

According to the audit, three account clerks were given $1.95 an hour raises last June without approval from the school board.

The raises were approved by Fowler, Darlene Daniel, assistant superintendent of human resources and Anne O’Brien, an administrator in fiscal services.

Those raises were retracted in September when the superintendent and school board learned about them.

The three account clerks paid back their salaries increases.

Daniel and O’Brien have taken leaves of absence, Carrillo said.