Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania has asked the state-appointed panel that runs the troubled Chester Upland school district to resign, and called for an investigation into the district’s management.
He urged the three-member board of control to step down in the wake of a state comptroller’s report that found financial mismanagement of the 7,500-student district. He called for a probe by the district attorney, attorney general or U.S. Attorney.
All three panelists, saying they had identified the fiscal problems and begun procedures to rectify them, rejected the governor’s demand for their resignations, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Their terms expire in 2007, and state officials may not remove them without “clear and convincing evidence of malfeasance or misfeasance.” The state created the control board in 1994 during a fiscal crisis in the district. (“State-Run Pa. District Battles Host of Woes,” March 2, 2005.)