For nearly 20 hours, the Paso Robles school board discussed that grand jury report castigating the former school board for enabling superintendent Chris Williams to fleece the district.
You may remember, former board member Joel Peterson called in to the school board. He said there was push back against superintendent Chris Williams by members of the board other than Chris Bausch. Current board member Dorian Baker recently requested evaluations of superintendent Chris Williams to ascertain if board members actually pushed back against superintendent Chris Williams. She said she was denied evaluations, but found the minutes of the closed session meeting during which Chris Williams resigned. President Joan Summers told the board during that meeting that Williams had received 9 consecutive positive evaluations from the school board. That board voted 6-1 to give Williams $250,000 cash as a parting pay-out. Chris Bausch cast the lone dissenting vote. Baker says if there were any push-back by that board against Williams, it was negligible.
Soon, the current board is going to turn over their response to the grand jury report to the district attorney’s office. Dan Dow’s investigators will decide if more criminal charges will be filed against administrators and school board members who fleeced the Paso Robles school district under the direction of Chris Williams. So far, only Culinary Arts Director has faced criminal charges. Greg Wangard convicted of five misdemeanors.
The school board will turn their response to the grand jury over to the DA after they complete it. It’s due later this month.
