They were only in third grade toiling over simple math problems when well-paid officials elsewhere in the Vallejo City Unified School District were having no luck solving seemingly impossible ones.
But unlike the errant student who peeks at a classmate’s test answers, these officials chose to cheat in a more ominous way.
The result in 2004 was a school district that not only found its pockets emptied, but with serious holes where any new cash would slip unfettered through for years to come.