Fired California faculty chief blamed for monetary collapse sues

The ousted superintendent of a Northern California faculty district has slammed bosses after she was fired and allegedly blamed for its monetary disaster.

Misti Livingston filed a lawsuit towards Oak Run Elementary Faculty District in Shasta County Superior Courtroom claiming she was unlawfully dismissed in early 2025.

For almost 5 years, Livingston served because the superintendent, principal and particular schooling instructor for the Okay–8 district, tucked into the forested foothills east of Redding.

The lawsuit, shared by KRCR, pulls again the curtain on the district because it was pushed to the brink of insolvency.

Below California regulation, public faculty funding depends on Common Day by day Attendance (ADA), however college students with out required immunization documentation or legitimate medical exemptions can’t be counted.

Throughout faculty years between 2021 and 2023, the college over-reported the ADA.

The state of California had already disbursed funding primarily based on the unique increased numbers, which led it to impose a $825,000 fiscal penalty towards the district, the Shasta Scout reported earlier this 12 months.

For a small district working on a price range of simply $775,000, the penalty rapidly grew to become a disaster.

On December 13, 2023, the Shasta County’s Workplace of Training (SCOE) declared Oak Run was at excessive danger of insolvency and would possibly quickly be unable to satisfy payroll or vendor obligations.

In June 2024, the state’s Fiscal Disaster and Administration Help Workforce carried out a Fiscal Well being Threat Evaluation.

Oak Run scored barely 1.3 factors away from an official “Excessive Threat” classification for whole monetary failure.

In response to the lawsuit, county schooling officers and district board members pinned the blame for the fiscal collapse squarely on Livingston, claiming she submitted invalid attendance certifications and allowed monetary mismanagement.

However Livingston claims the SCOE repeatedly starved the district of obligatory administrative help, operational coaching and monetary oversight, forcing her to handle advanced state accounting, payroll and particular schooling mandates just about alone.

Amid these issues, the district’s board renewed Livingston’s contract from July of 2024 to June of 2027.

The lawsuit alleges an assigned SCOE accountant demonstrated a profound lack of fundamental data relating to financial institution reconciliations, homeless scholar funds and state price range compliance, whereas SCOE concurrently delayed funding reimbursements to the college.

Former workers members made explosive accusations towards Livingston, alleging examine fraud, theft from a dad and mom/booster membership money field and civil rights violations.

SCOE forwarded these unverified claims to the California Fee on Instructor Credentialing (CTC) in an effort to strip Livingston’s educating credentials.

A Sheriff’s Workplace investigation cleared her of all monetary theft, SCOE issued a letter confirming no public funds had been misappropriated and the CTC closed its investigation with out taking hostile motion towards her credential, A Information Cafe had reported in 2024.

In her lawsuit, Livingston claims that the exonerations confirmed that the district’s monetary catastrophe was structural and administrative — not the results of stolen funds.

Regardless of these clear exonerations — and coming off a glowing efficiency analysis and a brand-new three-year contract extension signed in July 2024 — Livingston was unexpectedly confronted in her workplace by board management on December 9, 2024, and positioned on administrative depart.

On January 21, 2025, the district formally fired her “with out trigger” by way of postal mail, reported the Shasta Scout. Livingston contends that “with out trigger” was merely a pretext. 

She alleges that the termination was a direct retaliation for her in depth paper path of protected whistleblowing, which included formal complaints despatched to the U.S. Equal Employment Alternative Fee, the California Civil Rights Division, state schooling officers, and media disclosures highlighting SCOE’s administrative failures.

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