Shasta Supervisors Probing County Education Office Funding Irregularities
Written by Katie E. Gorman
Shasta County Board of Supervisors will begin probing into funding irregularities associated their Community Connect grant partnership with the Shasta County Office of Education (SCOE) at a board meeting on Tuesday.
County of Shasta Board Chairman Kevin Crye in September pulled a funding request from the Board consent calendar for the county to pay for a portion of the Community Connect initiative cost that promised to link students to local services.
Chairman Crye stated that he was not aware of the program and wondered how the much of the funds would directly serve all K-12 students in Shasta County. Crye was reassured by SCOE Superintendent Freeman that Community Connect would help County Social Services “reduce adverse childhood experiences.”
The Shasta Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to support Community Connect based on the reassurance from SCOE, subject to Chairman Crye’s requirement that signing authority for Community Connect be retained by the Board of Supervisors.
Following Mountain Top Times’ series of reports on parent concerns regarding Community Schools, Chairman Crye on February 27, 2025, directed staff to investigate the operative details regarding the county’s agreement with SCOE and report back to the Board on March 18th.
Mountain Top Times reported on March 13th that Anderson Union High School District at a raucous Trustee meeting, voted 4-1 to boot the California Community Schools and “become the first California public school district to refuse a big cash infusion to sell-out parents’ rights to make their child’s healthcare decisions.”
The Mountain Top Times believes that Shasta County staff may have discovered that SCOE, unbeknownst to the Board of Supervisors, apparently included Community Connect cash as a “match” in their highly controversial Community Schools grant.
The move would have effectively used County funds to bolster SCOE’s position within the state’s grant framework. The maneuver may mean Shasta County taxpayer dollars were leveraged to qualify SCOE for additional Community School state funding without Shasta County Board of Supervisors knowledge or consent.
The Mountain Top Times will continue to provide regular updates on the Community Schools controversy. The local community is invited to attend the Tuesday Board of Supervisors’ meeting at 9 am, at 1450 Court St #308B in Redding, California.