Stockton Unified School District names new board president, ending Flores's run
AngelAnn Flores is out as Stockton Unified School District's board president, but will keep her seat and her vote.
Flores, who has been under fire recently for potentially misusing the district's credit card, was voted from her leadership role at the Board of Trustees' last regularly scheduled meeting of the year. The role is mostly ceremonial and is used to call meetings to order.
The law requires an annual vote on board leadership, typically assigning new roles in a rotation, including president, vice president and clerk. School boards typically hold these votes in December. The San Joaquin Delta College Board of Trustees also selected a new board president Tuesday night.
Kennetha Stevens will take over the role of board president, essentially making her the spokeswoman for the board. Sofia Colón will serve as vice president. They will serve until this time next year.
Board trustees walked out shortly after 5:45 p.m. Tuesday when Stevens called the meeting back into open session for the first time as president.
The annual vote comes a month after Flores' home was tossed by deputies who were contacted by former district leadership about Flores refusing to hand over receipts for credit card transactions.
The Record received a copy of the search warrant while it was briefly unsealed, ahead of other media sites, and the 209 Times, which incorrectly reported that The Record "lied" about the document being unsealed. Sheriff's officials have said they're looking into why the documents were unsealed before handing it over to the county clerk for recording.
It is not uncommon for deputies to forget to seal documents. The search warrant had no cover page declaring it sealed. The sheriff's department urged The Record not to report additional information from the search warrant in fear that it may hinder their investigation into others linked to the complaint.
The Record has declined giving a copy of the search warrant to the misinformation site, 209 Times, and Stocktonia, a nonprofit news site. The Record also declined to give a copy to Motecuzoma Sanchez, a founder of the misinformation site and former political operative.
Flores said Tuesday during the board meeting she will never resign and will fight “all the way to the courtrooms,” if needed.
The search
Around 8 a.m. on Nov. 14, about 10 deputies knocked on the door of Flores’ south Stockton home, the former president said.
Deputies combed Flores’ home and vehicles for several hours.
Deputies seized two iPhones, an iPad, a MacBook Air laptop and documents belonging to Flores, the warrant states. Detectives also asked Google and Meta (owner of Facebook) for access to Flores' online accounts.
A USB drive with information related to Flores' district credit card was also seized from Stockton Unified’s downtown headquarters, the briefly unsealed warrant shows.
The investigation was conducted by Art Harty, captain of the sheriff’s Special Services Division, it shows. Det. Rocky Bulen of the Agriculture Gang Narcotics Enforcement Team authored the warrant request.
The then-board president was questioned at the sheriff’s office, she said. Flores was dismissed around 1:40 p.m., she said.
Flores denies misusing district money.
"It's very simple on my end," she said. "They gave (the card) to me for district business, I used it for district business."
No charges had been filed against Flores.
Record reporter Hannah Workman covers news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at hworkman@recordnet.com or on Twitter @byhannahworkman.
Record reporter Aaron Leathley covers public safety. She can be reached at aleathley@recordnet.com or on Twitter @LeathleyAaron. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Stockton Unified names new president, ending Flores's run
