Administrative Buffoonery: Superintendent David Alvarez Pulls Some Shenanigans

Not Laughing In Calexico
Down along the United States/Mexico border lies the bustling border town of Calexico, California. For the past few months, Superintendent David Alvarez of the Calexico Unified School District has been getting himself into a little hot water for some of his rather...umm...er..ah..extra curricular spending habits. (The Imperial Valley Press--easy registration may be required.)

It seems that last July 13th, the good Superintendent pocketed a check for $12,272. This was his contracted rate of pay for unused vacation.

That's fine. We here at the 'Wonks see nothing wrong with that.

Where Alvarez runs into problems is at the end of July when he charged $1417.40 on the district's credit card for some personal items. These included a vehicle from Dollar Rent A Car over in Yuma, Arizona, as well as a hotel room in, of all places, Bloomington, Minnesota.
Not only was Alvarez's use of the credit card contrary to district guidelines, he didn't bother to report the purchases.

According to the paper, "District officials noticed the misuse of the credit card at the end of August, and sent Alvarez a letter requesting $1,417.40."

Superintendent Alvarez didn't get around to paying off his bill until December 8th.

Interestingly, the paper goes on to report that the district, under Alvarez, had suspended (pending dismissal) a lower-ranking employee for the very same thing. The "lower-ranking employee" was suspended after the Superintendent's financial irregularities were discovered by "district officials."

Alvarez (not surprisingly) declined to give a statement, but the number two official in the district, Assistant Superintendent David Groesbeck said that it was "easy to mistake the district MasterCard for your personal plastic."

We here at the 'Wonks have shown once again that there is one standard of acceptable behavior for the Chiefs, and a different one for the braves in some organizations within the Educational Industry.

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