A member of the San Ysidro School Board of Trustees held a rally outside the school district offices Wednesday in opposition to an alleged scheme by two district employees.
"We were manipulated by our most trusted administrators who used their positions of authority to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from our students,” said Rodolfo Linares, a member of the San Ysidro School Board of Trustees.
Linares is calling for the immediate resignation of Interim Superintendent Arturo Sanchez-Macias and the return of all money back to the school board that he claims was illegally taken.
Linares claims that Macias and Fonseca cashed out vacation days they had not yet accrued and took the cash value of those days without authorization from the school board. In addition, the he alleges the money was used for a life term insurance policy in the employee’s contracts.
Linares added that former Superintendent Julio Fonseca was also part of the scheme.
“At a school board meeting on December 14, 2016, both Fonseca and Macias purposely confused and manipulated the board discussion to deceive the Board about their exchange of cash for the life term insurance policy,” said Linares. “The board never voted to authorize the cash-out.”
“Our focus of our dedicated teachers is the education of our kids,” said Francisco Mata, coordinator of public relations for the San Ysidro School District. “We invest in the education of our kids and prepare them for the 21st century.”
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Mata added the district would be releasing a comment regarding the allegations at a later time.
“I call on my fellow Board members to join me in putting a stop to the corruption," Linares said.
“They’re taking the money and stealing it away from our children for their future,” said Carmen Ordonez, the parent of a 4th grader at the school district. “The board doesn’t care. If they would have looked into it maybe this could have been stopped a long time ago."
