Letter to the Editor:
BUSD business staff provided contracts and invoices in response to a public records request for the consulting contracts and payments to Dr. Jan Britz. You may recall Dr. Britz is a retired former BUSSD Superintendent. We asked for this information because recent warrant reports showed this consultant was paid over $33,000 to mentor former superintendent Paramo and administrators, with only two principals acknowledging speaking with her.
The documents BUSD provided point to another example of failed fiscal controls. This failure lands squarely on the desk of the person in charge of all fiscal matters, Assistant Superintendent Cantwell.
To put this in proper context, back on January 16, 2025, at a board meeting, Dr. Abdelhamid, then a director and recently promoted Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, with Mr. Cantwell supporting her, spoke for over 40 minutes about her extensive work in response to the Fiscal Crisis Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) recommendations from February 2024. She told us about her efforts to hire knowledgeable and experienced personnel. She reported then her department was fully staffed.
Most importantly she described new systems she had put in place including a google drive and google forms. No more paper invoices would be accepted from consultants. She told us these measures were created to help expedite payments and prevent fraud.
In that light, with these new systems in place, here are questions the public needs answered:
- Why was Dr. Britz paid $10,000 in advance of doing any work, without an invoice? Did the new google drive system cause this to happen? If not, who approved this?
- Why are school principals asked to sign meaningless invoices months after payment?
- How does the new system allow $33,575 to be paid when only $30,000 worth of NOT TO EXCEED contracts were in place? Is the new system not capable of flagging overpayments?
- Which leads us to ask the most important question, how many other consultants have received overpayments?
These are not abstract nitpicking questions. Every dollar overpaid is a dollar taken from classrooms, from teachers, and from students.
In the most recent financial Unaudited Actuals report staff shows a slide with the words “Next steps; Culture of fiscal mindfulness: transparency, accountability, and collaboration.”
In that spirit, we have appealed to the Board to immediately take three actionable steps:
- First, mandate that no consultant payment be made above the contract amount until a change order receives Board approval.
- Second, mandate internal controls be put in place so no consultant can be paid in advance, and no payment can be made without properly itemized consultant-generated invoices with verified approved time sheets.
- Third, request an audit of all consultant agreements and payments over the past two years, with findings shared publicly. Yes, this is an expense, but it is a prudent business expense the Board owes the public.
School Board members must show the community their commitment to “fiscal mindfulness” is not just an empty slogan.
Jef Vander Borght
Burbank
