Exclusive: Documents destroyed at Rialto Unified, interim superintendent says

March 28--Rialto -- After Judith Marie Oakes was arrested Aug. 7 on suspicion of embezzling more than a million dollars in lunch money, no one in Rialto Unified mentioned it in an email, a memo or even a Post-It Note, according to district officials.

And over the course of Oakes' entire 25-year career with the district, no one, either before or after Oakes' August arrest, ever questioned her work or expressed any concerns regarding the handling of district monies or finances.

At least, not in any writing that district officials can find.

Interim Superintendent Mohammad Z. Islam explains: "Rialto Unified has poor record-keeping."

Both Islam and business services consultant Sherryl Avitabile also acknowledge that documents have been destroyed or purged by former administrators in the district's risk management and business services departments.

According to a letter written by Avitabile, a consultant hired by the district to run the business services department after Islam took over for retiring Superintendent Harold Cebrun, "various files were purged from this office" between June 2010 and Sept. 2012, when Islam became associate superintendent.

"No additional information has come forward to support any claims of potential fraud investigations that may or may not have occurred during or prior to this time frame," her letter concludes.

In addition, a previous director of risk management for the district destroyed all of the department's documents upon her retirement.

"I discovered when I asked for a certain document what happened," Islam said.

Islam on Thursday vowed to conduct an investigation into the destruction of district records.

The destruction or purging of district documents might explain why Rialto Unified has, over the past six months, struggled to comply with public records requests made by the Los Angeles News Group on Sept. 30, requesting "any and all communications, whether print or electronic, including emails or memoranda related to the employment of Judith Oakes at Rialto Unified, including, but not limited to, her resume, employment application, evaluations, any disciplinary documents, complaints or allegations related to her job performance or potential conflicts of interest."

A second request, submitted to the district on the same day, sought documents "related to district monies or finances and concerns or complaints raised relating to oversight and handling of district monies and finances, including allegations of conflict of interest."

While the district did produce Oakes' application, evaluation, resignation, and the audit conducted on behalf of the district by Rancho Cucamonga-based Stewart Investigative Services, district officials claim they have not been able to find any other relevant documents.

Since Oct. 9, Oakes has been jailed in Glen Helen Rehabilitation Center in Devore, awaiting trial on eight counts of embezzlement by a public or private officer and eight counts of a public officer crime. She's accused of embezzling $1.8 million over eight years, allegedly stealing money three out of every four days she worked, and apparently carrying the money out in her bra on at least two occasions. If convicted of all charges, she faces up to 11 years in state prison.

Cebrun, who retires Monday, never used email and only signed the records "he was forced to sign," according to Islam.

Islam was appointed acting superintendent in September, when Cebrun was placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the Oakes investigation.

Islam noted that documents also might have been lost due to limited storage capacity for electronic documents.

To save money on server costs, the district asks employees to delete non-essential emails after 60 days.

"We're keeping 60 days, because we don't have the server (space)," Islam said. "This is a weakness of the Rialto Unified School District."

In some cases, emails are kept longer, in accordance with state law, but for the most part, employees are asked to manually delete their emails every two months.

"If you need to retain a copy, you have to retain it on a thumb drive or a CD," he said.

District officials did not examine any such off-line storage devices in response to the Los Angeles News Group's documents requests.

"If somebody has a flash drive, I don't have access to those," said district Chief Technology Officer Beth Ann Scantlebury.

And not everyone went along with the district's email deletion rules: On Jan. 10, an attorney representing the Rialto Unified school board sent The Sun a set of 11 photographs and emails saved on Oakes' work computer, depicting Oakes and Cebrun at district sports events and other social occasions. They were all sent to Oakes between 2010 and 2011, well outside the 60-day deletion deadline, by Deputy Superintendent James Wallace, who had been placed on administrative leave with Cebrun back on Sept. 12. Wallace and other district employees appear in some of the pictures.

The computers of the district's more than 2,000 employees were also not examined for documents that might contain information regarding Oakes or allegations of financial mismanagement, Scantlebury said.

Islam vows that things will change and has promised to improve the district's record keeping.

"When interim superintendent Mr. Islam stepped into this position, he immediately began questioning and revisiting procedures, record keeping, protocols, reviewing documents and retention and maintaining certain records. He wanted to make sure that we are serving our community in the best possible way," district spokeswoman Syeda Jafri said Thursday. "Taking direction from the board, after the investigation, we are reevaluating how we do business. In some areas, it is important to note that Rialto Unified is growing and making magnificent strides, but our focus is also on what is lacking, and how we can we take corrective measures for the betterment of the District's students, whom we serve. The bottom line is that we must own it, fix it, and restore the public's trust."

Islam is working on moving the district to a digital record-keeping archive.

"When you ask me for a record, I should be able to go out, call for a record, print the record, scan the record and email it to you," he said. Instead, providing transcripts for former students currently takes months, rather than days. "That's not the way you run a business."

But finding the money to move the district to such a system won't be easy:

"You're not talking about getting a $60 printer; you're talking about millions of dollars."

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