Oakland (CA) schools paying for administrator's errors

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by Chip Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle

It's one thing for Oakland school administrators to miscalculate district finances and be penalized with the loss of authority, which is exactly what happened in 2003 when the district received a $100 million state bailout and was put in the hands of a state-appointed administrator.

It's quite another matter for that administrator to amass more than $25 million in fines and other charges from the state Controller's Office for fiscal mismanagement - and then expect the district to foot the bill.

Yet that is exactly what the state is trying to do.

Those fines and charges were racked up by Randy Ward, the state administrator who led the school district from 2003 to 2006 as part of the state takeover.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/14/BA9O1J0VHA.DTL