South County Report: Auditors Find Sloppy Record-Keeping, Poor Management at School District

State auditors last week reported wide-ranging problems in the Chula Vista Elementary School District’s business, personnel and budgeting operations following a months-long inquiry into management practices at the district. 

Auditors for a state agency that helps school districts avert or emerge from fiscal crisis found the Chula Vista district’s business and human resources departments for years have kept sloppy budget numbers, exerted weak control over payroll and hiring and failed to keep track of key employee information, with staffers often entering personnel data into three different incompatible computer systems. 

“Budget development is unorganized, with accountants working independently, inconsistently and receiving little to no direction,” auditors wrote in a 41-page report completed in September and made public at last week’s Board of Trustees meeting. 

“The lack of integration and standardized procedures within the district’s systems increases the risk of errors, overpayments and fraud,” auditors wrote. 

The district requested the audit in April at the urging of School Board Trustee Delia Dominguez Cervantes. District officials said they have drawn up plans to address the audit’s findings and pledged to streamline and modernize the district’s financial and personnel operations. 

“Many longstanding district practices that have been in place for decades were in need of updating to ensure our operations effectively meet the evolving needs of students and staff,” district spokesperson Giovanna Castro wrote in an email. “CVESD looks forward to making these improvements to enhance our operations.” 

Cervantes said she urged district leaders to request the audit amid an ongoing budget deficit and significant employee turnover in top ranks of the district’s business services and human resources departments. 

The district’s chief business officer, payroll manager and other key fiscal and human resources staff are new to the district following a recent wave of departures within the past year. 

Last week, the district placed its longtime assistant superintendent for human resources, Jason Romero, on administrative leave for unspecified reasons. Castro said the move was not related to the audit unveiled last week. 

Romero did not respond to a request for comment. 

School Board trustees at last week’s board meeting said they were glad the audit finally provided details about issues they have been inquiring about for years. 

“Thank you,” said Trustee Francisco Tamayo to a representative from the state agency that conducted the audit. “We’ve been talking about [duplication in personnel computer systems] for two years. I’ve been asking, ‘What is the plan?’” 

Tamayo said just one of those systems, FileMaker Pro, costs the district $100,000 per year. 

“I’m looking forward to the district doing better,” he said. 

Water Provider Says County Sewer Agency Sent Sewage into Reservoir

Sweetwater Authority, which provides drinking water to National City, Bonita and most of the city of Chula Vista, recently sued the San Diego County Sanitation District, alleging in a July 21 lawsuit that the district allowed 11,025 gallons of raw sewage to flow into Sweetwater Reservoir, one of the authority’s main water sources. 

The lawsuit, filed in San Diego County Superior Court, alleges a poorly maintained portion of the sanitation district’s sewer system failed in January 2024, sending raw sewage bursting out of a sewer main in Spring Valley and down a hill to the 960-acre reservoir. 

The suit says the spill forced the authority to shut down the reservoir for a week until levels of E.coli and other bacteria subsided. 

When the authority sought to recover more than $223,000 in shutdown-related costs from the district, “the district refused to reimburse the authority,” the suit says, even though the district later accepted responsibility for the spill in a July 2, 2025, settlement with state regulators. 

The lawsuit marks the second time this year that the Sweetwater Authority clapped back at a larger, more powerful countywide agency. 

Last month, authority governing board members voted unanimously to begin exploring a proposal to build a new groundwater desalination operation that would help the authority reduce its reliance on costly imported water delivered by the San Diego County Water Authority. 

Both moves come as other local jurisdictions also voice mounting frustration with various county agencies that city officials say are too costly or unresponsive to local needs. 

After complaining for years about a lack of county-provided services for homeless people in South San Diego County, Chula Vista city officials recently began crafting a strategic plan to tackle the problem themselves. 

National City officials have been engaged in an ongoing dispute with the Port of San Diego over claims the port is short-changing the city for fire and police services and foisting unwanted industrial developments on port-adjacent neighborhoods. 

Sweetwater Authority governing board members declined to comment on the sanitation lawsuit, citing ongoing litigation. A county spokesperson also declined to comment. 

In a previous interview about the groundwater project, board member Steve Castaneda said when a larger agency such as the County Water Authority imposes rising costs on water ratepayers, local water managers would be imprudent not to respond. 

“It makes good business sense for the district and our customers to go around them,” Castaneda said. 

Lincoln Acres Gets Its Say 

For years, residents of the tiny unincorporated community of Lincoln Acres near the southeastern border of National City have felt overlooked and sat on by their bigger city neighbors. 

On Thursday evening, community members planned to celebrate with chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream at a local community center after the San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday voted unanimously to establish a five-member Lincoln Acres planning group that will give the area’s roughly 2,000 residents a say in county zoning and land-use decisions. 

“We’ll have a voice now,” said longtime Lincoln Acres resident Alisha Morrison, who pushed for establishment of the planning group in an effort to give her beloved community greater control over development projects and other initiatives that she said often trample on the wishes of local residents. 

“We’ll be able to have a direct link to the county and have a voice when it comes to planning and zoning,” Morrison said. 

South County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre sponsored the proposal to establish the planning group. Morrison said she and other Lincoln Acres residents planned to sign a thank-you card for Aguirre at the Thursday evening celebration. 

In a statement following Wednesday’s vote, Aguirre said the planning group would help to preserve Lincoln Acres’ “unique community character while improving public safety, infrastructure and access to county services. This community has a voice that needs to be heard, and today, we are giving it a formal seat at the table.” 

County Supervisors will appoint members of the group – officially called a Community Sponsor Group – to four-year terms, with two of the members initially serving two-year terms. 

Morrison, who frequently attends meetings at local public agencies to lobby on behalf of her community, said she would serve on the planning group if asked. 

“I would be more than happy to represent the community of Lincoln Acres,” she said while driving to pick up a tub of ice cream for the community celebration from Niederfrank’s Ice Cream, a local institution in neighboring National City. “The wheel is rolling now.” 

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