The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Federal Bureau of Investigation, launched a criminal investigation into Stockton Unified in April 2023, after a state audit by the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) found evidence that fraud, misappropriation of funds or other illegal fiscal practices may have occurred between July 2019 and April 2022.

The school district spent millions of dollars in federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding on a contract for COVID-19 sanitation equipment provider IAQ Distribution, Inc.  in 2021. FCMAT said the contract “should have been bid competitively,” but “the district and board ignored their own policies, procedures and past practice in order to award the contract to their preferred vendor.” IAQ wasn’t even a licensed contractor in California at the time the contract was awarded.

District employees shared concerns about the contract’s procurement process with leaders at the county education office, the audit report detailed.

And Flores’ attorneys said she provided the FBI with information about the $7.3 million contract, the Record reported. (The contract was originally awarded for $7.3 million but was amended to $6.6 million.)

She was the sole no vote against the contract, which was approved under former Superintendent John Ramirez Jr.

Although there were several leadership changes between 2019 and 2022, the period reviewed in the state audit, Ramirez and chief business officer Marcus Battle were specifically named in the report for their roles in awarding the IAQ contract and disregarding policies and procedures.

Both eventually resigned.

Three new board members took office in November 2022, two of whom defeated board members that were named in the report for their involvement in awarding the IAQ contract.

Voters reelected Flores for “standing up to corruption,” her attorney said.

Flores told the Record that her case was a distraction from law enforcement ignoring the investigation into the 2021 contract between IAQ and Stockton Unified.

“… they’re turning their eye to the bigger picture, which is the $6.6 million that was stolen from our district.”

Her Conviction