FBI Asked to Investigate San Francisco Schools’ Financial Practices

After years of complaints from parents about San Francisco’s crowded, ill-equipped and run-down schools, the FBI has been called in to find out whether the mess is more than just a matter of bad management.

City and school authorities asked the bureau earlier this spring to determine whether the mishandling of millions of dollars was criminal.

“This is a very broken school system,” said Arlene Ackerman, who has been superintendent for less than a year. “The infrastructure and finances are very broken.”

The FBI would not comment. But City Atty. Louise Renne said her office is working with the bureau in an investigation of current or former school staff members.

In 1990 and 1997, San Francisco residents voted for school improvement and construction bonds totaling $90 million for the district, which has more than 66,000 students and an annual budget of about $500 million.

The money was to cover earthquake-related repairs, fire and safety improvements, building renovations and construction.

But $27 million went to other projects and needs without Board of Education approval, an audit by an accounting firm found. Some of it went to salaries of new staff in an administration Ackerman has called bloated.

In addition, $14.6 million in state grant money to be used for new construction and modernization is unaccounted for.

“That’s just a complete waste of money that’s out there that the district could be soliciting or putting to use,” said Maricela Valencia, who has a daughter in sixth grade.

Valencia said she is putting her daughter back in private school after a one-year trial of the public system.

“It disappointed me the most in that the number of children in the classroom is too much for the teacher to deal with,” she said. “The students are out of control.”

Ackerman said the school district needs “tight accountability systems.” She refused to blame directly any previous superintendents or board members, saying only that her job is to fix things.

Some parents and some district employees say the breakdowns in management and accounting came during the tenure of the previous schools chief, Bill Rojas. Rojas left to become superintendent of the Dallas system but was fired less than a year later after clashing with its board.