Letter to the Editor:
At the School Board Meeting on September 4th Board Member Ponzer-Kamkar asked for a report that would update the Board and the community on the progress of implementing the recommendations from the FCMAT Business Services Review that the Board received in 2024.
When I heard this, I re-read the report. I re-read the 41 recommendations that FCMAT identified as opportunities for improvement. It was my assumption that Board Member Ponzer-Kamkar was asking about the progress of implementation of these recommendations. I assumed that the update would focus on the changes as they relate to the FCMAT’s description saying the Board’s role in this process is having a “higher ethical standard, fiduciary duty and responsibility to safeguard the district’s assets.”
Considering that I spent my 48-year career as a Kindergarten teacher in the district, I am much more familiar with terms like diphthongs and digraphs than the technical language in this report. I read and often re-read portions of the report; I looked up the meaning of some terms and talked with a trusted friend that owns and operates a multi-million-dollar business to gain a better understanding of the report in its entirety.
What interested me most was the section about Internal Controls. It seems to me that this gets to the heart of the challenges currently facing the Burbank Unified School District and the trustees. Internal Controls are defined as policies, procedures, and practices a district uses to protect its assets, ensure the accuracy of financial reporting, and promote operational efficiency and compliance with laws and regulations. They require that the Board understands they hold the responsibility for overseeing the entire internal control system and fostering a tone that ensures integrity and ethical behavior.
Assembly Bill 2158 requires the trustees to complete ethics training by January 1, 2026. This requirement should assist them in showing their constituents that they understand it is their job to implement the FCMAT recommendations with a goal to work toward correcting the problems that have called into question their qualifications to oversee the millions taxpayer dollars they are given and the education of Burbank’s youth.
Linda Walmsley
Burbank
