2025-122 Riverside STEM Education Center Project

Audit Recommendations Disclosure

When an audit is completed and a report is issued, auditees must provide the State Auditor with information regarding their progress in implementing recommendations from our reports at three intervals from the release of the report: 60 days, six months, and one year. Additionally, Senate Bill 1452 (Chapter 452, Statutes of 2006), requires auditees who have not implemented recommendations after one year, to report to us and to the Legislature why they have not implemented them or to state when they intend to implement them. Below is a listing of each recommendation the State Auditor made in the report referenced and a link to the most recent response from the auditee addressing their progress in implementing the recommendation and the State Auditor’s assessment of auditee’s response based on our review of the supporting documentation.

After reviewing our draft report, the district and UC Riverside issued a public statement on May 22, 2026 stating that they are no longer seeking to build the STEM Center on the UC Riverside campus. Because it already made this decision public, we no longer make recommendations to UC Riverside and the district specifically related to the STEM Center project. Our recommendations to the district related to budgets and reporting commitments are still applicable.
Riverside Unified School District

Recommendations to Riverside Unified School District

To ensure clear communication with the board and public, the district should, by December 2026, develop a written policy that requires it to maintain and follow a consistent methodology for presenting budgets for board review. That methodology should require the district to do the following:

• Ensure budgets include soft costs, possible increases in project scope, and cost escalation. The policy should also ensure that cost escalation estimates are updated no less than annually.
• Review previously established budgets to identify any major changes to maintenance, repair, replacement, and new construction needs for facilities projects, as needed. When it identifies such changes, the district should adjust expected costs and present those estimates publicly to the board

To ensure accurate and transparent reporting of funding commitments, the district should, by December 2026, adopt a policy to require staff to document and verify whether the board approved allocations and contracts before spending those funds. The policy should also specify standardized definitions for allocations and commitments, which should be shared with any external agencies working with the district, including private auditors, consultants, and financial advisors.

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