Roseland Charter Foundation Assets Jumped From $0 to $6.4M During Pandemic - Administrators Cashed Out
In 2021, the Foundation claimed to receive over $6M in assets with almost equivalent liabilities. Where are the Foundation monies going?
The Roseland Charter School Foundation in Santa Rosa, CA was established in 2014 to benefit the Roseland Charter Schools and support their educational programs.
The Form 990 filed by the Foundation for the fiscal period beginning July 1, 2018 and ending June 30, 2019 claimed that there were $0 accumulated for liabilities & assets. This was echoed for the fiscal period between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018, as well as the fiscal period between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017.
For the fiscal period between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020, the Foundation claimed to possess $193,305 in total assets with $10k in total liabilities. The prior year’s financials reflected that $0 were accumulated whatsoever.
For the fiscal period between July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, the total end of year assets were $77,732 with $10k in liabilities.
The July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022 fiscal period indicated that the end of year terminated with $6,419,432 in assets, $6,0006,343 in total liabilities, and $413,089 in net assets or fund balances. Chavan & Associates, LLP, San Jose, was hired as the paid preparer.
The Foundation’s tax-exempt status appeared to be auto-revoked on 11-15-2016 & 11-15-2019 for not filing a Form 990-series return or notice for three consecutive years with the IRS.
While school districts struggled two maintain enrollment levels during the pandemic, former Superintendent Amy Jones-Kerr created new Administrator roles with impressive salaries.
Ms. Jones-Kerr resigned in June 2021 as allegations of racism and creation of a toxic environment surfaced under her leadership. KSRO shared the following update in September, 2021:
‘An investigation into the new Healdsburg High School Principal Amy Jones-Kerr found no concerns that she fostered a toxic or unsafe environment as superintendent of Roseland Public Schools. It all stemmed from a social media thread started by a Roseland University Prep graduate asking for students and alumni of the district to share their experiences of bullying, harassment, racism and other discriminatory behaviors by staff. The then superintendent Jones-Kerr’s name was mentioned a few times, alleging that she mishandled oversight of staff who were accused of more serious offenses. However, after hiring an investigator, the Healdsburg Unified School District said that they found “absolutely nothing” inappropriate during Jones-Kerr’s time as Roseland Public Schools superintendent. Jones-Kerr resigned as superintendent last November and became Healdsburg High School Principal in July.’
Within the same month of Ms. Jones'-Kerr’s resignation, June 2021, the district opened the recruitment for a Coordinator of Community Relations with a salary range of $94,035- $136,027 based on equivalent/ similar experience. The job summary was as follows: ‘under the direct supervision of the Superintendent the Community Relations Coordinator will be mainly responsible for Charter public relations, fundraising, scholarship development, and community related school events’.
The position required an appropriate, valid CA state teaching credential and valid CA administrative credential. This would most likely place the employee in the category of Certificated Management within the district’s salary schedule developed by Human Resources.
The district eventually selected an internal high school teacher, Ms. Jennifer Del Rosario to fill the Coordinator of Community relations position as of August, 2021. The change of title came along with a generous pay raise as indicated in Transparent California. Ms. Del Rosario appears to be a long-time, close friend and colleague of Ms. Jones-Kerr.
Ms. Del Rosario’s position does not appear to be currently included within the Roseland district’s staff directory nor the salary schedule. Legally, all new job descriptions and their associated salary ranges are required to receive Board approval.
During Ms. Jones-Kerr’s leadership as Superintendent of Roseland School District, her own husband, Mr. Sean Kerr was promoted from a teaching position to an administrator role as Coordinator of College and Career / Student Services.
If Ms. Amy Jones-Kerr utilized her power as Superintendent while crafting Mr. Kerr’s position / pay, and coordinating his interview/hiring, this would constitute a violation of Gov. Code 1090. Government Code Section 1090 prohibits an officer, employee, or agency from participating in making government contracts in which the official or employee within the agency has a financial interest. Section 1090 applies to virtually all state and local officers, employees, and multimember bodies, whether elected or appointed, at both the state and local level.
Per the 2019 job description established for the College Success Coordinator, the following language was included:
Serve as the Coordinator for the Roseland Charter Scholarship Program.
Serve on the Roseland Charter Scholarship Committee.
Make all scholarship/post-secondary payments to institutions.
Provide re-entry services for students who have taken a leave from college and wish to return to their post-secondary programs.
Assist with Senior Scholarship ceremonies and events. Assist with connecting donors and scholarship recipients.
One would presume that Mr. Kerr and Ms. Del Rosario work hand-in-hand being that they oversee all student scholarships.
The Foundation Board includes: President Tim Lewallen, Secretary Vicki Groninga, Treasurer Joanna Martinez, Director Ron Meza Calloway and Director Natasha Perez.
Per the obituary for Mr. John Tillman Bar III, he appears to be the grandfather of Ms. Jennifer Del Rosario. Her father appeared to share the same name as her grandfather.
Mr. John T. Barr appears to currently be employed as the IEEE Conferences Committee, Vice-Chair. Previously, he was a Program Manager at Agilent Technologies through 2008. He was also an Engineering Manager at Hewlett Packard while employed between 1971-1999, 28 years.
Oddly, Ms. Vicki Groninga was selected to serve as Secretary for the Charter Foundation. She was employed as the HR manager at Hewlett-Packard from 1983 - 1999 and as Manager of Global Compensation for Agilent Technologies from 1999-present. IEEE provides analyses for Agilent Technologies such as program evaluation-findings and conclusions for annual Supply Chain Environmental Management.
Do Mr. Barr and Ms. Groninga know each other from their career endeavors?
Ms. Groninga’s husband, Mr. Curt Groninga, appears to be a Board Director for the Santa Rosa Junior College Foundation per his LinkedIn. He is the retired Vice President and Assistant Superintendent of the Santa Rosa Junior College.
Being that several community members have come forward to express that their students never received promised scholarship funds, what happened? Are the Charter staff and trustees truly serving our students or themselves?
“Do not steal. “ ‘Do not lie. “ ‘Do not deceive one another.”
-Leviticus 19:11