The San Diego County District Attorney will be filing a criminal complaint against José Fragozo charging him with misrepresenting his domicile for purposes of being elected to the Escondido Union School District (EUSD) Board.
Fragozo will be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4. He denies any criminal wrongdoing and will defend himself in court against these false charges.
Fragozo, an elected EUSD Board member, called upon the District to stop wasting public resources on frivolous, unfounded judicial actions against him and, instead, spend money and time improving the district’s consistently abysmal academic scores.
Recent reports show that only 31 percent of Escondido elementary students are proficient in English and only 24 percent proficient in math.
“The EUSD Board majority is wasting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to date on judicial actions against me, even mailing libelous letters to 20,000 parents and staff,” Fragozo said. “Our schools are severely underperforming and failing our English learners.
“Our infrastructure is broken,” Fragozo said. “There are 491 portable buildings, some more than 20 years old as well as electrical-plumbing-safety issues that plague our students and their parents. The community is outraged by this attempt to distract parents from these severe problems facing the district.”
District administrators have harassed Fragozo with what many say are sham judicial maneuvers such as unproven allegations of threatening behavior against the district superintendent and staff, and now, the investigation into whether his district residence fully conforms to state law.
It is no coincidence that the same people initiated the temporary restraining order, the internal investigation, and the residency investigation.
Moreover, the school board majority recently has gone so far as to change the policy for selection of board officers — a policy in effect for over 20 years– such that it excluded Fragozo from becoming the first Latino Board president.
Fragozo is a long-time advocate for Escondido’s children. Before election to the school board, he was president of the EUSD Parent Advisory Committee and served on the EUSD Independent Citizens Oversight Committee regarding bond expenditures.
In 2012, Fragozo won election with over 61 percent of the vote. He is the only Latino serving on the Board. His election platform urged a renewed curriculum, one that could help English learners succeed, and a reconstruction of the District’s aging infrastructure.
Fragozo’s emphasis on accountability has hit a sore spot in what many consider to be a complacent and defensive school board and administration. He should be the 2016 Board president. However, the Board majority changed the rule so that could not happen. All of these actions prevent a duly elected official from doing his job representing his community.
During his tenure, Fragozo supported a successful school bond measure, a landmark report on district English learners, and Encuentros Leadership program for middle school students.
We need an Escondido Unified School District with seamless interface between elementary and high school district. This is part of the problem. Too much spent on administration and not enough in the classroom, on teacher salaries and school buildings.