Two Former Manhattan Beach School Officials Face Charges

The retired superintendent and a former school board member of the Manhattan Beach district, which has among the highest-scoring schools in the state, were charged Wednesday with misappropriating public funds, authorities said.

Gerald Frederick Davis, 58, who retired as superintendent of the Manhattan Beach Unified School District and lives in Melbourne, Fla., and Mary Agnes Rogers, 63, of Manhattan Beach, were to be arraigned Monday in South Bay Superior Court in Torrance on one felony count each, according to Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

The charges carry maximum prison terms of four years each upon conviction.

Davis, 58, who was superintendent from 1991 to 2003, is accused of taking money for travel by his wife and personal expenses. He did not return a phone message left at his home seeking comment.

A man who answered the phone at Rogers’ home said she would not be commenting. Rogers did not run for reelection in 2005 after questions were raised about her spending.The sums allegedly taken were “in the low thousands,” Gibbons said. She said she could not comment on the circumstances.

The case was investigated after the South Bay Easy Reader newspaper published articles about the expenditures in 2004, the district attorney’s office said in a statement.

For several years, the district of 6,400 students spent more than it took in and used its reserve funds, Supt. Gwen Gross said Wednesday. As a result, Gross and the district made $5 million in spending cuts that included some layoffs more than two years ago. She said about $2.5 million was raised to restore many programs.

The district’s finances are back on track, Gross said.