The Lesson Still Seems Unlearned

Parents of Laguna Beach schoolchildren have been suffering a kind of water torture in recent days. First came disclosure of a major budget deficit. Then the school board fired the district’s chief financial officer. Then the superintendent resigned.

The problems are especially troubling because they occurred at a time when all elected officials should have been especially sensitive to budget balancing and the dangers of money going astray. After all, Orange County declared bankruptcy less than two years ago, after more than $1.6 billion was lost in a county investment pool. Schools, including those of the Laguna Beach Unified School District, had been required to put money into the pool and suffered losses.

Before the bankruptcy, there was the criminal conviction of the former chief financial officer of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District for embezzling $3.7 million. Five years ago, the maintenance supervisor of the Orange Unified School District was convicted of misappropriating public funds.

There are no allegations of wrongdoing in Laguna Beach, but there appears to have been a lack of fiscal attentiveness. Laguna Beach officials have said the culprit was a $300,000 bookkeeping error. Not only was the error undetected, it was carried over to a new budget and expanded until it climbed toward an estimated $1 million. Those kinds of mistakes are unacceptable.

For years, Orange County’s schools have scrambled for money. They have received good assistance from parents willing to volunteer. Classrooms have been painted and grounds spruced up by parents donating their time and effort. Parent groups have also helped in numerous fund-raising events held to buy materials for strapped schools.

Now Laguna Beach faces more belt-tightening for teachers and administrators and probably cuts in programs that have made the district a good one. The newly vacated positions also must be filled, and the district must find its equilibrium. School board officials will have to explain to parents what they are doing to prevent a recurrence and set new safeguards in place. And they must defuse the parents’ understandable anger at mistakes that should not have occurred.