In the Alum Rock School District, Superintendent Jose Manzo's wife, Irma, works as the director of fiscal services. In the nearby Mount Pleasant School District, trustee Darrell Koide's wife, Alice, is the executive assistant to the superintendent. And in the MountainView-Whisman School District, former Superintendent Maurice Ghysels stepped down months after telling the board that he had formed an intimate relationship with a district principal.
It's not unusual for school districts to employ relatives or couples — the Palo Alto Unified School District, for example, reports employing 60 couples, who make up 9 percent of the district's full-time-equivalent employees. But in a report issued last week, titled "Looking at Policies our Schools Use to Find and Place Employees," the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury pointed out that employment of relatives poses the potential for favoritism or conflicts when one supervises another or oversees hiring.
The jury launched its investigation last year after receiving a complaint about a superintendent for hiring a relative,