The financially strapped Val Verde Unified School District in Riverside County may be docked more than $53 million in state school construction money after it allegedly failed to disclose some of the special bonds it issued while the state was paying for the district's new schools, according to state officials.
Officials from the district, which includes parts of Perris, Moreno Valley and the Mead Valley area, have told state officials the bonds were used to cover both past and expected construction overruns. The bond money also was needed because state funding was "woefully inadequate" and did not allow the 19,000-student district to build suitable facilities, district officials said in correspondence to the state.
However, according to a draft report by the state's Office of Public School Construction, millions of dollars in cost-overruns were caused by the district spending money on elaborate additions at some of its facilities, including a 5,000-square-foot weight room at Citrus Hills High School in Perris, a bell tower and a stainless-steel whirlpool bath in a high school locker room.
The district also failed to collect more than $30 million in developer fees from two new housing projects, according to the report. A draft of the report was provided to members of the State Allocation Board, which makes decisions about how to parcel out state school bond funds.
Officials with the Office of Public School Construction are investigating the school district's accounting methods and trying to determine why the developer fees were never collected.
Val Verde School District officials declined to comment about the draft report's findings Friday. The bonds in question were approved by the school board and did not require voter approval.
The district is also facing scrutiny from the Riverside County Board of Education, which sent a letter to Val Verde officials last week restricting the district's ability to issue additional bonds that have not been approved by voters.
Riverside County Deputy Supt. of Schools Kenn Young said he agreed that state funding for new schools has been inadequate -- in part because of rising construction costs. However, county education officials are concerned about Val Verde's growing bond debt, even though he thinks the district has the revenue to pay it off.
"It's just a disproportionately high amount of debt for the size of the district. We're asking them to consult with the county office of education before they issue any more debt."
