PSJA ISD forensic audit: $5.4 million for two parks?

By Gregg Wendorf
Advance News Journal

As a follow-up to last week’s front-page story about PSJA ISD’s forensic audit and some of the funky stuff it uncovered, The Advance dug deeper into it over the past week, looking at some of the bigger issues, which are hard to decipher, no matter how hard you scratch your head.

Such as the two outdoor learning centers at Alamo Middle School and Cesar Chavez Elementary, which cost district taxpayers a cool $5.4 million for the construction of what are basically parks, with walking trails, and a big shaded area under a blue tarp.

The two outdoor learning centers are essentially clones of one another, built on approximately 4 acres each. The one in Alamo, however, comes without parking, leaving one to park on the side of the road, up in the grass, while the one at Cesar Chavez has access to campus parking. The Advance has filed public information requests with the district to get a copy of the contract it inked with Celso Gonzalez Construction, Inc., which is the company that built the parks (outdoor learning centers). Earlier this week, this newspaper tried to contact someone at the company for comment.

Tuesday, someone at the office answered and then hung up. A second call brought with it a voice who said she would leave a message with the owner, please call about a job the company did at PSJA.

Question is: What cost so much money to basically build two outdoor parks, AKA, learning centers?

Keep in mind, this forensic audit covers the period, 2020 through 2023. At the time, Jorge Arredondo was superintendent, working under the board majority led by trustees Jesus and Jorge Zambrano, Jesse Vela, Rick Pedraza, and George Palacios.

The school board election last November changed the board’s make up. Pedraza and Palacios were replaced with Diana Serna and Yolanda Castillo, respectively.

The superintendent, Jorge Arredondo, was replaced by Dr. Alejandro Elias, Ed.D, and the board called for a forensic audit, which uncovered more than a few oddities, some of which were described in last week’s story.

Here is where you can find our previous story about the audit: www.anjournal.com/news/psja-isd-audit-forensics-uncovers-some-funky-stuff

One of the bigticked oddities had to do with two outdoor learning centers.

A Big Bump in $$$

According to the forensic audit, conducted by Ft. Worth-based Weaver and Tidwell L.L.P., the two outdoor learning centers were originally going to cost the district $4.4 million total.

Actually, three centers were being proposed at the time.

So, $4.4 million for three outdoor learning centers. The third one, which later got booted from the plan, was going to be at Cantu/Reed Mock, but since the district only received one bid for that park (AKA, outdoor learning center), it decided to shelve it and only construct two outdoor learning centers: Alamo Middle School and Cesar Chavez Elementary.

With one school no longer part of the plan, the district filled out a fed app form so it could use part of the ESSER III grant program monies to build the park.

ESSER III funds are part of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, which was created by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. ESSER III funds are available to states and school districts to help schools recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and provide students with a safe-and-supportive learning environment.

Like any government grant, the money can only be spent on select things. Improved infrastructure is one of them. Question is, does that include an outdoor learning space, AKA, an outdoor park?

After advertising for competitive sealed bids, PSJA ISD received two. One from Celso Gonzalez Construction, Inc. (Celso), and the other from G&G Contractors.

The district had had a previous relationship with Celso Gonzalez, but it hadn’t gone well. A sub claimed that Celso hadn’t paid him what he was due, and subsequently filed suit.

In an email sent May 8, 2020, Arredondo wrote: “this contractor (Celso) should probably never work for us again until he (Celso) demonstrates more than what I have seen thus far.”

Two years later, Arredondo was back before the board, apparently OK with the evaluation committee’s recommendation that Celso get the job for the two outdoor learning centers, because he recommended Celso to the board as well.

In February 2022, the district issued a bid invitation, and by April 25, 2022, the board majority rubber stamped the administration’s recommendation that Celso get the job.

Both Celso and its only competitor, G&G Contractors, turned in their respective bids at the 11th hour, 16 minutes before deadline, only a minute apart.

Two other companies had bid on this job but withdrew their proposals at some point. The audit doesn’t say why.

The year prior, 2021, PSJA ISD had submitted a federal application for the two outdoor learning centers, but on that application, the total cost to build the two outdoor learning centers was approximately $2.8 million.

A year later, the district paid Celso $5.3 million to build the same two centers, $2.64 million for Alamo Middle School and $2.83 for Cesar Chavez.

But wait. Some other so-called funky stuff was afoot besides the 90-percent price increase from one year to the next.

According to the audit: “We identified updates to PO (Purchase Order) 00762232, which appear to show that the cost to complete the project increased. For example, PO 00762232-1 prepared in January 2023 shows a total authorized amount of $8,470,453, which is over $3 million higher than the authorized contract amount of $5,350,600.140.”

So how is this PO more than $3 million over the $5.3 amount, which was already double the original amount of $2.8 million?

Here’s what the forensic audit has to say: “However, the payment applications submitted by Celso through April 2023 do not indicate that any change orders have been submitted. In addition, we have not identified any Board approvals for cost increases for the construction of the Outdoor Learning Centers.

“Based on discussions with personnel from the District’s Finance Department, PO 007622321 incorrectly added the remaining balance of the contract to the original contract amount, which resulted in an inflated total of $8,470,453. It is our understanding that the Finance Department has corrected the issue and PO 00762232 now reflects that correct total amount of $5,350,600, which is the amount authorized by the District under their contract with Celso.”

So at the time, the district didn’t notice an approximate $3-million discrepancy on a PO that favored the vendor?

Apparently not, but at least the bogus amount never got paid.