Fired California school chief goes scorched earth after being blamed for districts financial collapse

The ousted superintendent of a Northern California school district has slammed bosses after she was fired and allegedly blamed for its financial crisis.Misti Livingston filed a lawsuit against Oak Run Elementary School District in Shasta County Superior Court claiming she was unlawfully dismissed in early 2025.For nearly five years, Livingston served as the superintendent, principal and special education teacher for the K–8 district, tucked into the forested foothills east of Redding.The lawsuit, shared by KRCR, pulls back the curtain on the district as it was pushed to the brink of insolvency.Under California law, public school funding relies on Average Daily Attendance (ADA), but students without required immunization documentation or valid medical exemptions cannot be counted.During school years between 2021 and 2023, the school over-reported the ADA.The state of California had already disbursed funding based on the original higher numbers, which led it to impose a $825,000 fiscal penalty against the district, the Shasta Scout reported earlier this year.For a small district operating on a budget of just $775,000, the penalty quickly became a crisis.On December 13, 2023, the Shasta County’s Office of Education (SCOE) declared Oak Run was at high risk of insolvency and might soon be unable to meet payroll or vendor obligations.In June 2024, the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team conducted a Fiscal Health Risk Analysis.Oak Run scored barely 1.3 points away from an official “High Risk” classification for total financial failure.According to the lawsuit, county education officials and district board members pinned the blame for the fiscal collapse squarely on Livingston, claiming she submitted invalid attendance certifications and allowed financial mismanagement.But Livingston claims the SCOE continuously starved the district of mandatory administrative support, operational training and financial oversight, forcing her to manage complex sta...