THE BOARD VICE PRESIDENT of an East San Jose school district will give back thousands of dollars in health care premiums after the district overpaid him, due to an administrative error.
Andres Quintero, board vice president of the Alum Rock Union School District, will be required to reimburse the district $4,527.90 in insurance premiums. The board of trustees on Aug. 28 unanimously approved an 18-month repayment plan, with Quintero recusing himself. Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Teresa DeCelles said she communicated with the district’s attorney at the end of April or early May, and he contacted Quintero and drafted the agreement. DeCelles sent a letter to Quintero on July 3 notifying him of the repayment schedule.
“The district confirms the overpayment of board Vice President Quintero’s health benefits was due to an administrative oversight,” DeCelles said at the meeting. “Vice President Quintero was not at fault. He fully cooperated once he was notified and has agreed to this repayment. The district has implemented new procedures to ensure proper invoicing going forward.”
Attention on the district’s overpayment stems from the board’s firing of former Superintendent German Cerda earlier this year. Cerda said he was fired for raising concerns that the district reimbursed Quintero more than $27,000 for an online doctorate program, in addition to the health benefit premiums. The board said Quintero’s reimbursement requests for coursework were approved by a previous superintendent or district business services staff.
Following Cerda’s claims, the Santa Clara County Office of Education requested an audit of the district’s expenditures and reimbursements.
“Mr. Cerda … claimed that I wasn’t paying my required 15% share of health benefit premiums — an assertion that is not only misleading but directly contradicted by statements issued by his own administration at the time,” Quintero told San José Spotlight.
Board leaders seek transparency
Board President Linda Chavez and Trustee Corina Herrera-Loera said more transparency is needed on district expenses, especially after Cerda said questionable expenses were billed to the district. In addition to his claims about Quintero, Cerda said several trustees owed the district hundreds of dollars for fundraising tickets.
Chavez protested board members being blamed for district errors.
“How often is this going to happen to board trustees?” Chavez said at the meeting. “People will jump and assume. To rake somebody through the coals without them even given a chance to look into everything. Or me, as board president, not know everything that was going on, either because it wasn’t transparent or the truth wasn’t told … that’s bad. I hope that this never happens to another trustee again. It doesn’t look good if these errors keep occurring over and over. We need tighter controls.”
“The optics don’t look good when we have some serious allegations. If there’s any questions on any one of us … we can clear (it) up and then also bulletproof our district so we don’t end up here again.” Trustee Corina Herrera-Loera
Herrera-Loera said she previously requested a list of the board’s itemized reimbursements. She wants the board’s actions to be ethical as well as legal, she said, adding the board needs term limits.
“The optics don’t look good when we have some serious allegations,” Herrera-Loera said at the meeting. “If there’s any questions on any one of us … we can clear (it) up and then also bulletproof our district so we don’t end up here again.”
Acting Superintendent Sandra Garcia said the district is trying to restore the community’s trust.
“We will look into these things,” she said, “and we will put those controls in place to not have this happen again.”
Contact Lorraine Gabbert at lorrainegabbertsjspotlight@gmail.com.
This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.