The Hart School District Governing Board and Superintendent Jaime Castellanos will order a full forensic audit of the district’s modernization construction expenditures, Castellanos reported at the district’s board meeting Wednesday night.
The investigation will be conducted by a professional audit firm with no previous connection to the district and will involve every penny spent and every decision made, Castellanos indicated. The results will be fully disclosed in a public session, as well as recommendations to avoid unreasonable cost overruns in the future.
“We will be totally honest and frank with anything we find,” Castellanos said. “The public has a right to know, and the Board has a right to know exactly what happened.”
The audit was spurred by a report to the Governing Board in June by former Assistant Superintendent of Business Rory Livingston which indicated that modernization programs underway at Arroyo Seco Junior High School and Canyon High School are running an estimated $18.6 million over budget.