July 14, 2005

SCHOOL SCENEin Almaden Valley

Almaden Country School celebrates 20th graduating class

By Steve Haydon
Special to the Times

Almaden Country School recently honored its 20th class of graduating eighth graders. The ceremony, held at the LDS Chapel on Camden Avenue, celebrated the students and many of the teachers who contributed to their learning.

With 42 graduates, the class of 2005 is the largest Almaden Country School has had.

“If we stand tall, it is because we walk on the shoulders of those who have gone before us,” observed keynote speaker, Janet States. States, who taught at ACS for 15 years and who now lives in Washington, returned to pay tribute to those whose early sacrifices and vision brought Almaden Country School into being. “What started as one mother’s hope for her own children, has now blessed hundreds of other families,” said States, referring to school founder, Nan Hunter.

This was a particularly meaningful ceremony for Mrs. Hunter. “Three of my own children graduated from Almaden Country School. Today, I marvel as my first grandchild now graduates,” noted Mrs. Hunter, referring to her grandson, Sam Hayden, who has been at Almaden Country School since preschool and who will be attending Bellarmine College Prep.

Mrs. Hunter also commented on the school’s growth. “As you can see, Almaden Country School has grown over the last 23 years, and so have I,” joked Mrs. Hunter as she held up the red dress she wore on the first day of school in 1982. Mrs. Hunter recognized those who helped move her dream from kitchen table conversations to a fully accredited school, including Jean Delwiche, who has served as principal for most of the school’s 23 years.

Clearly, though, the highlight of the evening was hearing from each of the 42 graduates. Class valedictorian Megan Cronan led the remarks with an inspiring call to the continued pursuit of excellence, citizenship, and friendship. With humor, gratitude, and a few tears, each graduate then shared memories of his or her favorite teacher.

“It was really special to hear from every student, to see their confidence and their gratitude to those who have taught them,” observed visiting grandparent Doug Huckaby.

With 42 graduates, the class of 2005 is the largest Almaden Country School has had. “My son, now a middle school vice principle himself, was one of the 14 who graduated in that first class in 1985,” recalls kindergarten teacher June Chapman. Graduates will be attending a variety of high schools, including Harker, Leland, Bellarmine, Presentation, Notre Dame, Archbishop Mitty, and St. Francis.

Steve Haydon is the ACS Managing Director.

Bret Harte former secretary arraigned on theft charges

Pleads not guilty; settlement conference set for Aug. 29

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

A former Bret Harte Middle School secretary accused of embezzling nearly $500,000 from a student activity account pleaded not guilty last week to charges that she pocketed the money.

Barbara Jo Price

On July 7, Barbara Jo Price, 44, was formally arraigned on two felony counts—one for misappropriation of public funds by a public employee and one for grand theft.

If convicted, she could serve up to six years in prison, the punishment for one count as she can’t be punished for both, explained Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney John Chase.

During Price’s arraignment, her attorney, Stephen P. Naratil, appeared before Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Jerome Nadler and the case was set for a discussion hearing or an early settlement conference between the prosecution and the defense on Aug. 29. The judge is expected to hear each side’s version of the facts.

At that time Nadler will decide what Price’s punishment would be if she were to plead guilty. If the case can’t be resolved then a preliminary hearing will be scheduled on Sept. 12.

Price’s attorney postponed her arraignment hearing on June 13, as is usually done, to provide more time to investigate the charges. Once a plea is entered the defendant’s time starts running for a preliminary examination within 10 days, Chase said.

Naratil, with the Crime Attorneys nationwide law firm, said, “Things will work through the court process.” He said Price has gone through “a very traumatic time in her personal life” during the past six years.

A felony complaint against Price accuses her of committing the alleged crimes between July 6, 1999 and Jan. 28 of this year while being employed by the San Jose Unified School District and being given the responsibility over receipts, safekeeping, transfer and disbursement of public money, which prosecutors alleged she did without authority and used for her own use.

Prosecutors allege she stole $483,000 from the school’s Associated Student Body account by completing fraudulent invoices and writing checks to non-existent businesses by forging Bret Harte Middle School Principal Donald McCloskey’s signature and then cashing them herself and paying her personal credit cards.

“This is the type of case that should be settled,” Chase said. “The evidence is pretty strong, it just depends on whether she can accept what the judge decides.”

Chase said the judge would probably sentence Price to serve between two and three years in jail and ask for restitution of the alleged stolen funds.

Prosecutors also allege in the complaint that in the commission of the alleged offenses, Price damaged and destroyed property of a value exceeding $150,000. It’s further alleged that where the amount of the theft exceeds $100,000, probation will not be granted except in an unusual case where the interests of justice would be best served, according to the complaint.

On June 11, Price surrendered to police without incident after being a fugitive for approximately three months. She remains incarcerated at the Elmwood Correctional Center for Women in Milpitas on a $500,000 bail.

In March, police began searching for Price who was believed to have been fleeing authorities and staying with relatives in Texas.

Police say Price apparently skipped town with her husband after an official criminal investigation began in January of this year. In April, Price sold her home in the 600 block of Chynoweth Avenue in San Jose.

During her court appearance in June, the judge increased Price’s original bail amount from $300,000 to $500,000 because at the time the original warrant for her arrest was secured prosecutors had miscalculated the amount they allege she embezzled.

Chase also said the bail increase was requested because she’s considered a flight risk as she purportedly sent a 14-page letter to him and other involved parties in the case, after leaving the state, indicating that she would not turn herself until certain conditions were met, such as promising she would receive counseling and no time in prison, said Chase.

Price’s daughter, Brandi Price, told the San Jose Mercury News, that her mother suffered from depression and experienced several nervous breakdowns since her son’s accidental death in a dentist’s chair in 1999.

Brandi Price also told the San Jose Mercury News that her mother was doing things other people were telling her to do for them at the school. “There are issues of cover-up from within the school,” she’s quoted in the Mercury News as saying.

San Jose Unified School District spokeswoman Karen Fuqua has denied any cover-up and has stressed that police investigators have only implicated Price in the case.

According to San Jose Police Detective Chris Wilson, of the department’s fraud unit, an investigation into the missing funds began when district officials began questioning Price in January of this year after an auditor discovered the discrepancies in the account.

The district hired Price in 1993, when she began working as a campus assistant at the school. She was then employed as a student body clerk and then as a school secretary. She was the only person responsible for the ASB account, according to Fuqua. In 1997, district officials believe she began the alleged illegal transactions, which were discovered in January.

Fuqua has said that Florence Eng, the district’s internal auditor, discovered the alleged illegal transactions after an invoice came into the district’s general fund for reimbursement—money from the school’s student body account is not part of the general fund.

When district officials conducted a site-field audit, many errors were discovered which were reported to district police officers and to the San Jose Police Department, according to Fuqua.

After the district placed Price on administrative leave in January, pending the outcome of the criminal investigation, she sold her home and her whereabouts were unknown, police say. Fuqua said this week the district terminated Price’s employment in March.

Since the incident, Fuqua said the district has implemented additional security procedures to tighten control of public funds against theft and fraud. Random audits will be conducted of all student body accounts at all district middle schools and high schools from now on and the district will continue to conduct its annual audit of student body funds.

Fuqua said the district would begin requiring more than one person to manage the student body funds, instead of just one, to increase oversight.

Fuqua said the funds are recoverable under the district’s insurance policy against theft. She said the money would equally follow the students it was supposed to benefit as they advance to district high schools. “These are not Bret Harte funds, they’re student funds,” Fuqua said. “These funds will go to the schools where they will attend.”

Anyone with information on the case is urged to call Detective Chris Wilson of the San Jose Police Department’s Fraud Unit at (408) 277-4521. Persons wishing to remain anonymous may call Crime Stoppers at (408) 947-STOP.

Leland students spend summer in UC Davis laboratories

Two Leland High School seniors, Patrick Lam and Diana Liu, are among a select group of students attending the UC Davis Young Scholars Program this summer.

The advanced science program, hosted by the School of Education, introduces up to 40 high achieving high school sophomores and juniors to the world of original research in the biological, agricultural, and environmental sciences.

Participants work one on one with research faculty in state-of-the art laboratories for six weeks. Each student works on an individual project and prepares a journal quality paper and presentation about his or her work.

Lam, working in the department of plant sciences, is testing an alternate way to irrigate plants that is believed to be more efficient than the traditional way. This modified method will conserve water, especially for irrigation.
Liu, working in the field of microbiology, is performing various experiments on the soil bacterium, Myxococcus xanthus, known to be useful pollution indicators, antibiotics and antifungal compounds.

The program, which kicked off this year on June 19, immerses students in the entire college experience. During the first two weeks of the program, participants attend lectures focusing on recent developments in the biological sciences in the mornings and conduct lab science every afternoon. During the last four weeks of the program, students work full time in their labs. Students live in campus dormitories and take field trips every weekend.

“Our intention is to provide the students with the entire college-going experience,” said Rick Pomeroy, program director and lecturer in the School of Education at UC Davis. “They work under the direction of real-world researchers, and their findings could make a significant contribution to the field they are working in.”

To qualify for the program, students must have a strong academic record, have taken biology and two years of college preparatory mathematics, and recommendations from teachers. In addition, applicants must write a personal essay.

“All of the participants are highly qualified academically, take honors or advanced placement courses in high school and have high GPAs,” said Pomeroy. “Most importantly, though, they have all demonstrated a desire and ability to conduct original scientific research and have the potential to contribute significantly to the field.”

The program ends on July 30.

Leland teacher delays entering plea again; next court appearance is Aug. 1

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

Earl Thomas Roske, the Leland High School chemistry teacher accused of having sex with at least three minor female students, once again has delayed entering a plea until Aug. 1.

Roske’s attorney, Christopher Schumb, who is not speaking to reporters, asked the judge on June 30 to continue the case once again as he did on May 31 to further investigate the evidence against his client.

Deputy District Attorney Steve Fein refused to reveal whether more students have come forward to accuse the former chemistry teacher of having inappropriate relations with them.

Earl Thomas Roske

Fein explained Roske would either have to change his plea to guilty or fight the charges against him. If he fights the charges, the case will go to a preliminary hearing and after enough evidence is found the case would be set for a jury trial.

Roske remains in custody at the Santa Clara County jail on $1 million bail.

“It’s just a matter of going through the evidence,” Fein said. “We’re waiting for some of that and then a decision will be made once we have all that.”

Roske, 41, was arrested May 6 and arraigned May 9 on seven felony charges for allegedly committing various sex crimes against minors including one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, two counts of oral copulation with a minor, two counts of using a minor to produce child pornography and two counts of sending harmful matter to a minor.

If Roske is convicted on all counts, he could face a minimum of 16 months to seven years in prison.

San Jose Unified School District’s Department of Human Resources turned over Roske’s personnel files to the police under subpoena orders last month. The files, one kept at the school and one kept at district headquarters, could include several complaints parents allege the school and the district received when went unanswered.

Police reports about Roske’s alleged sex crimes reveal that detectives learned school officials knew as early as August of 2002 of complaints against him.

San Jose police officers began investigating the teacher in April of 2004 when former Leland High School Principal Susan Votaw contacted officers working with the School Safety Liaison Unit and alerted them that she had received an anonymous letter that year alleging Roske was having consensual and sexual relations with current and former students.

Detectives presented the evidence to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office, which could not prosecute the case due to insufficient evidence. During that investigation officers also learned that another anonymous letter had been sent in August of 2002. Those letters are expected to be in his personnel files confiscated by the police.

Many Leland High School parents are demanding to know what’s in Roske’s files as they suspect they contain the complaints that went unheeded and that would show the district failed to appropriately respond to the warning letters.

Anyone with information on the case is urged to call San Jose police detective Robert Dillon at (408) 277-4102.

Persons wishing to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (408) 947-STOP (7867).