Articles
INLAND VALLEY NEWS - 7/20/05
CHINO SCHOOL OFFICIAL PUT ON LEAVE
By Mason Stockstill,
Staff Writer
CHINO - An administrator at the Chino Valley United School District has been placed on leave after raising concerns about a possible conflict of interest involving the president of the board of education.
Sergio Sanchez, The district's associate superintendent of business/operations, wrote a memo to the superintendent in May that questioned a purchasing agreement the district had with office supply retailer OfficeMax, where school board President Bobby Grizzle is a sales manager.
In the memo, Sanchez said OfficeMax was "exerting a tremendous amount of pressure" on the district to buy more office supplies from the company.
"I strongly believe that this type of pressure is highly irregular, unwanted and could be construed by many as unethical, "Sanchez wrote.
He also wrote that in the past, board members have been involved in the vendor contract negotiations - behavior he termed "unacceptable."
In the weeks following the memo, Sanchez was subjected to a series of negative performance evaluations and was asked to resign, said his lawyer, Toni Jaramilla.
"The timing is very startling, " Jaramilla said "Right after (he wrote the memo), a few days later, he was reprimanded under the guise of something else."
Neither Grizzle nor interim Superintendent Michael Rossi returned calls seeking comment
Grizzle, who was first elected to the Chino Valley School board in 2000, has remained largely unscathed by the various scandals that plagued the district in recent years.
Other current and former board members weathered complaints of sexual harassment and charges that their involvement in the district's day-to-day operations jeopardized CVUSD's financial health. Grizzle has faced accusations that he has a district contractor perform work on his home, but nothing improper was ever proved.
The district has purchased thousands of dollars' worth of office supplies from OfficeMax during Grizzle's tenure and Grizzle rescues himself from voting on board agenda items relating to that.
"I've not seen it as an issue," said CVUSD board member Michael Balta. "Ethically or legally, I have not witnessed any violations at all."
Calta noted that the board recently approved a contract to purchase printer paper from Office Depot - not OfficeMax, which had also submitted a bid for the contract. Grizzle abstained from voting on that item.
"Never did he call me and say, 'Hey Mike, you gotta help me, vote for OfficeMax,'" Calta said. "He's always conducted himself very professionally with me."
Sanchez, who was hired by the district in December, has no immediate plans to take legal action, Jaramilla said.
"At this point, he's considering his options," she said. "Those are serious issues that we want to resolve."
