So now it’s somebody else’s fault. That’s the sorry message coming from trustees in the troubled San Mateo Union High School District. With their budgetary practices under fire, they are attempting to focus criticism on a previous business manager, Bob Arnold. Interesting. Just for the record, Arnold, on occasion, did point out that a deficit budget was on the horizon. Did the trustees act accordingly? No. They went ahead and gave the document the OK in spite of the numbers staring at them. Did Arnold stand up, stomp his feet and demand that the board members cut expenditures immediately to balance the fiscal plan? No. But the trustees knew they were getting into a potentially dangerous monetary situation. And they went ahead anyway. Blaming Arnold or ex-superintendent Sam Johnson is par for the course, of course. But none of us should be deceived. The buck stops with the trustees. They did not exercise fiduciary prudence. In the end, they are responsible. Arnold and Johnson are history. The blame game has begun. But it won’t wash. The trustees can’t skirt around the truth, no matter how much they’d like to.