| The nation's 1st & only daily conservative public education commentary - Dispelling Fear - Offering Solutions |
| P E Y T O N W O L C O T T |
How we take back our children's education: one person, one question, one school at a time. |
| FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of education issues vital to a republic. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C., Chapter 1, Section 107 which states: the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright," the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use" you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. |
| ATTENTION EDUCATORS AND ADMINISTRATORS: Every attempt possible has been made to verify all sources and information. In the event you feel an error has been made, please contact us immediately. Thank you. |
| Copyright 1999-2008 Peyton Wolcott |
"Walk softly and carry a big stick." -- Teddy Roosevelt "Trust but verify." -- Ronald Reagan |
| Just because you can doesn't mean you should. |
| H o w w e t a k e b a c k o u r c h i l d r e n ' s e d u c a t i o n: o n e p e r s o n , o n e q u e s t i o n , o n e s c h o o l a t a t i m e. |
| FAQ's ARCHIVES CONFUSED? FOLLOW THE MONEY SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM STATE & LOCAL GOVERNANCE VENDOR LOBBYING |
| School News Links Commentaries Reviews: 2007 2006 |
| Edu-Monopoly Education,Inc Financial Exigency ERDI Technology TX supe travel/meals Credit cards Edu-Conferences TASA MidWinter Vendor golf 1 2 3 |
| Ask questions Set goals/organize Curriculum Check registers: TX US Board ethics pledges Angry victim? Watchdog? Activist Alert PR |
C o m m e n t a r i e s - O c t o b e r 2 0 0 8
ERDI supe Alton Frailey v. public freedoms
| What was Alton Frailey thinking? By Peyton Wolcott Tuesday, June 24, 2008 - 3:52 p.m. |
| What could have been going through this veteran respected Katy ISD superinten- dent's mind when he included limiting his community's access to information regard- ing how he's spending their tax dollars and educating their schoolchildren on the agenda for last night's board meeting? |
| Alton Frailey |
| Surprising that he'd consider this, given that they made such strides last year by voluntarily posting the district's check register online, but here's the agenda item: |
| AGENDA - REGULAR BOARD MEETING KATY INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT / BOARD OF TRUSTEES EDUCATION SUPPORT COMPLEX BOARD ROOM/6301 SOUTH STADIUM LANE KATY, TEXAS MONDAY, JUNE 23, 2008 IX. Action 2. Consider Board approval of the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) Advocacy Resolutions. |
| Oh, you don't see the reported 18 TASB resolutions on Katy ISD's board agenda above? Oops! Neither could I. Somehow they weren't included in the agenda supplied to the public. Look for yourself here (scroll down to "Regular Meeting" on the right, then "June 23, 2008"). Well, we can all be thankful that Helen Eriksen and Jennifer Ratcliffe were on hand to tell us about it in this morning's Houston Chronicle: |
| The Katy school board on Monday backed off a plan to propose a law requiring those who want access to public records to first explain why the information's release would benefit the community. Katy officials say they're trying to stymie a flood of what they consider frivolous requests for open records. To that end, the school board intended to ask the Texas Association of School Boards to push for a new law to make information requestors justify themselves. But they canceled the vote just a few hours before the meeting because administrators said they don't want school board members to be criticized as being anti-open government. "I don't want our board to be conflicted and misconstrued and misrepresented as trying to thwart public information," superintendent Alton Frailey said. "I don't want this on the backs of the Katy board alone. I'm not wanting to carry the water, but I have put the bucket in the well." A draft of Katy's proposed resolution reads: "There is a growing trend where private citizens use provisions of this act to retaliate, harass and hold hostage the public school district when there clearly is no public interest being served." In May, Frailey told the school board that Katy was being terrorized by [493] public information requests. |
| Owning up to it here Friends, at least one of those 493 requests may have been considered by Alton to have been from me. Let's back up. Even though I don't live in Katy ISD, according to TEA's most recent PEIMS actual financials for KISD, the district received $17.4 million in federal funds for the most recently reported period, and as a federal taxpayer this gives me a lively interest in where Alton was on Friday afternoon, April 18 -- the first day of the TAS/MUS spring conference at Horseshoe Bay Resort. |
| First They Came First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a communist; Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a socialist; Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a trade unionist; Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak out for me. -- Pastor Martin Niemoeller |
| Given that Alton is a TAS/MUS director, it seemed likely that he might have been golfing with the other administrators and vendors on some of Texas' finest links. But was he doing so -- if he was doing so -- at taxpayer expense? Sorry, Alton and his PR staff have not yet answered phone and email queries so you'll have to file a public records request to find out. Here's a friendly idea. Make it easier for them: Mark your request "Public Information Request #494." In the meantime, our friends in print didn't speak out very loudly last year when TASA/TASB made newspapers exempt from the onerous fees HB 2564 imposed on parents and taxpayers for public records. Here's hoping this new move by TASA/TASB will encourage the press association to speak up during this next Lege. |
| Texas superintendents golfing with vendors at Horseshoe Bay Resort on Friday, April 18, 2008 |
Two ERDI-tied execs' exits announced same
week in July 2008: Billy Cannady (VA DOE);
Hector Montenegro (TX) from Arlington ISD.
week in July 2008: Billy Cannady (VA DOE);
Hector Montenegro (TX) from Arlington ISD.
BILL HARRISON: Cumberland schools
foundation executive claims her boss the
supe's ERDI award is proof of his leadership
ability.
foundation executive claims her boss the
supe's ERDI award is proof of his leadership
ability.
| Gloria from Luling on sidewalk outside Walsh Anderson party at Austin's Iron Cactus with unnamed man who was shy about revealing his name (TASA Mid Winter, 2007 ) |
| ERDI supes in the news |
HECTOR MONTENEGRO: Arlington asks
HOPE for info, wants $240,000 back; hats
off to the AISD board! Dallas News says
new law was Hector's undoing:
HOPE for info, wants $240,000 back; hats
off to the AISD board! Dallas News says
new law was Hector's undoing:
| All that plane-hopping might have flown with his school board had he not run afoul of a new, tougher state law that forbids superintendents to take money – including speaking fees – from groups and companies that do business with their districts. |
CONNIE NEALE's Elgin, Illinois "rich" pay,
$100,000 more annually than comps
....community outrage over $750,000 buyout;
look at timeline re her unnamed 'illness,'
negotiations, timing of her Missouri house
purchase.
$100,000 more annually than comps
....community outrage over $750,000 buyout;
look at timeline re her unnamed 'illness,'
negotiations, timing of her Missouri house
purchase.
| Key to accountability: voluntary ethics pledges (school boards & candidates) Education News & Human Events |
KEN BURNLEY: Detroit PS trustees: Where's
$1.6 mil in art he and William Coleman bought
from Sherry Washington Gallery; is it lost?
DPS is as of Fall 2008 $408 million in the hole
and they can't provide an inventory of the art.
09.21.08 UPDATE: I'm emailing Ken this
morning to ask him if he recalls the names
and/or locations of any of the art he bought.
$1.6 mil in art he and William Coleman bought
from Sherry Washington Gallery; is it lost?
DPS is as of Fall 2008 $408 million in the hole
and they can't provide an inventory of the art.
09.21.08 UPDATE: I'm emailing Ken this
morning to ask him if he recalls the names
and/or locations of any of the art he bought.
CAROL JOHNSON: Memphis schools
scandal follows her to Boston -- along with
FBI?
scandal follows her to Boston -- along with
FBI?
GEORGE GARCIA: Retired as Boulder supe
after HS sex'n'drugs panel leads to Bill
O'Reilly (Fox News) reporter on his doorstep.
after HS sex'n'drugs panel leads to Bill
O'Reilly (Fox News) reporter on his doorstep.
JOSEPH WISE: Edu-hopskotch up and
down the East Cost, from Disney to
Christina in Delaware to Duval in Florida
to edu-vendor Edison Schools in Feb.
2008.
down the East Cost, from Disney to
Christina in Delaware to Duval in Florida
to edu-vendor Edison Schools in Feb.
2008.
| Soghra Najafpour (L) was sentenced to death at age 13 for the first time in Iran; she's now 31 -- more here. Did principal Robin E. Lowe (L) mention Soghra during her 'Islam 101' day May 22 at Friendswood JH? Will she mention Soghra at her new gig running Houston ISD's Pershing MS? Wouldn't that be a step towards "raising [her students'] awareness of the culture" -- of the true culture -- in Iran? That perhaps Robin's invited speakers from CAIR might have forgotten to mention? Oops? |
IRAN: Execution Danger Alert
| The American Superintendent (Leonard Merrell) as Allan Ramsay's King George III (Mixed-media collage by Peyton Wolcott, Copyright 2008) |
Wolcott
Peyton
| September 2008 commentaries here |
Here's GISD supe Lynne
Cleveland pitching in to
help sweep water from the
first floor of Ball High
School, the water the
aftermath of Hurricane Ike.
Here's hoping other super-
intendents faced with
similar challenges also
understand the value of
symbolic meaningful action
in a time of crisis; the
leadership this conveys is
worth more to residents
and students than any
number of fluffy PR pieces.
"One picture is worth a
thousand words." (PHOTO--
Jennifer Reynolds/Galveston News)
Cleveland pitching in to
help sweep water from the
first floor of Ball High
School, the water the
aftermath of Hurricane Ike.
Here's hoping other super-
intendents faced with
similar challenges also
understand the value of
symbolic meaningful action
in a time of crisis; the
leadership this conveys is
worth more to residents
and students than any
number of fluffy PR pieces.
"One picture is worth a
thousand words." (PHOTO--
Jennifer Reynolds/Galveston News)
| HURRICANE IKE CLEANUP |
| Hats off to Lynne Cleveland Galveston ISD (TX) Leadership in Action |
| 1. End discretionary spending. Set an example for your staff; let them know you mean business about running a tighter ship: No trips, no conferences, no meals, no credit cards. If you want to learn more about something, use Google. Do a webinar. Read a newsletter. No golf games with vendors, ever. No chauffeurs, no rental cars. Stay home, do your work and keep your nose clean. 2. Reduce administrative costs. Go through your administrative staff roster and cut every other job, starting with getting rid of all PR and marketing. No advisors, no consultants. Learn how to really read a budget. Put your check register and all wire transfers online. 3. Ethics. No nepotism. Let your wife and kids earn a living in a field other than education. No board members' spouses working in the district. Conduct all discussions with vendors and potential vendors in the open; invite your public to watch and ask questions. Throw away your contract and work year by year. Move your chair off the dais at board meetings. You're not a team member with your elected trustees. You're not equal to them. They're your boss. 4. No construction. If you're the rare district truly experiencing sufficient growth to justify building new schools, splinter off that population and let them start their own new school district or charter school. They might be able to take over an abandoned church or office building for much less than the Taj Mahal you had in mind. 5. Back-to-basics curriculum. Math table (1st grade: add, 2nd grade: subtract, 3rd grade multiply, 4th grade divide) daily drill. You made sure your own kids learned the basics at home or with tutors; why shouldn't all children have that same opportunity? Ditto for phonics. Classical literature. History, not social studies. No more block scheduling. Daily P.E. for all. Emphasize individual effort and accomplishment. 6. Attitude. You're a public servant, not a Third World dictator. Practice humility and gratitude. Remember when your employees laugh at your jokes or tell you you're cool or vendors marvel at your every utterance that they're all sucking up to you. Remember why you got into education to begin with. Sell your house in the gated community and buy one in the middle of a real subdivision like your average parents and taxpayers can afford. Let yourself be driven not by the latest platitude you picked up at the latest education conference but by the same wonderful noble desire to educate kids that got you into this field. |
| nation & 49 states |
| Texas |
ARLENE ACKERMAN insisted on a $375,000
be friendly clause in her San Francisco USD
employment contract, then insisted on her
trustees' paying it to her -- after footing her
$45,000 (for one year) Diners Club tab -- as
part of her exit. Deeply tied to Eli Broad,
Arlene has landed in Philadelphia.
be friendly clause in her San Francisco USD
employment contract, then insisted on her
trustees' paying it to her -- after footing her
$45,000 (for one year) Diners Club tab -- as
part of her exit. Deeply tied to Eli Broad,
Arlene has landed in Philadelphia.
b e s t
p r a c t i c e s
p r a c t i c e s
s c h o o l n e w s
q u i c k l i n k s
q u i c k l i n k s
| Friends, it's time to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the national grassroots check register project I started with the purpose of introducing financial transparency to American public schools. From our first roster 10.01.06, with 3 names, all in Texas, I've added more one by one, in many cases working with people in those districts. As of today, we now have ____ in 15 states, with $50 billion in annual transparency. Many thanks to all of you, and may God bless America. |
| DALLAS ISD (TX) Financial exigency 101 By Peyton Wolcott - Wednesday, October 2, 2008 /10:00 a.m. |
| What it means; what's included; what can and can't be done |
| Although most folks aren't exactly sure what it means for a school district to declare a state of "financial exigency," we don't have to be a CPA to know it was not good news when Dallas ISD superintendent Mike Hinojosa declared a state of financial exigency on September 19 after having discovered he'd overspent by $64 million; that he said the declaration enabled him to start firing teachers then soon afterwards the disclosed over- spend jumped to $84 million then $148 million made the situation even more troubling. |
| Most public school superintendents would rather eat glass than admit they'd mismanaged so much money, likely because of the more extreme examples that come to mind. At least two districts which have declared financial exigencies have been shut down completely by the Texas Education Agency in the past three years: Mirando City and Dallas ISD's former neighbor, Wilmer-Hutchins; not only did Wilmer-Hutchins' super- intendent Charles Matthews eventually declare the exigency in October 2004 but also later that same month he was indicted on a felony charge and again a few months later on a second felony charge -- this despite Matthews having been named TASB superintendent of the year in 1991. His prior work experience included stints in Dallas ISD (as "Wellness Programs" director from 1996 to 1998) and Houston's North Forest ISD, another district which has declared financial exigency with resulting increasingly serious steps of state intervention |
| Dallas ISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa (R) enjoying rosier times at his 2005 "State of the District" report to the Chamber of Commerce; (L) more recently |
| Not all declarations of financial exigency end so badly, and some districts are able to pull themselves out of their troubles and replenish their financial reserves such that they're no longer teetering on the brink. Port Arthur ISD, hit hard by Hurricane Rita, has ended its exigency and TEA has sent home the conservator it appointed. (SOURCE--Business Wire) |
| My own district, Llano ISD, has recovered sufficiently that Dennis Hill was a 2008 TASB superintendent of the year finalist; more below. Still, for a Texas public school district to declare a state of financial exigency is a rare and serious enough occurrence that a Google search this morning for "financial exigency" and "ISD" only yielded 533 reports, a couple of hundred of them about Dallas ISD. |
| More "Best Practices" here. |
Read more about "Financial Exigency" here. |
| DALLAS ISD (TX) Is it time for TEA to intervene in Dallas ISD, the district that can't keep track of our dollars? By Peyton Wolcott - Monday, October 6, 2008 /1:45 a.m. - Updated Monday, October 6, 2008 / 8:56 a.m. |
| U.S. FEDERAL TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO DISD 2000-2007 2000-2001 $ 121,951,145 2001-2002 $ 137,745,786 2002-2003 $ 169,103,740 2003-2004 $ 188,618,903 2004-2005 $ 188,838,330 2005-2006 $ 215,068,567 2006-2007 $ 217,970,686 TOTAL $1,239,297,157 |
| TEXAS TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO DISD 2000-2007 2000-2001 $ 204,116,731 2001-2002 $ 180,097,229 2002-2003 $ 254,465,426 2003-2004 $ 199,905,502 2004-2005 $ 199,940,243 2005-2006 $ 198,907,113 2006-2007 $ 305,839,277 TOTAL $1,543,271,521 |
| One of the most troubling things I've ever heard at a school board meeting was a statement by the district's tech officer. When asked how much the program he was proposing would cost, the tech officer uttered the nine new scariest words in the American English language: "It won't cost us anything. It's a federal grant." Why I bring this up: There's been a general sentiment that Dallas ISD's financial problems belong to Dallas and don't much affect the rest of us, kind of like when you're stopped at a light and you watch two cars collide in front of you and you say to yourself, "Whew, thank God that wasn't me." But Dallas ISD's financial mismanagement is our car wreck, too. Look at the two charts above which don't suggest or indicate that perhaps Dallas ISD might be receiving a lot of money from state and federal taxpayers. No, these two charts clearly list amounts and years. |
| During the last two reported years alone, Texas taxpayers sent Dallas ISD a half-billion dollars, and federal -- that's you and me and the other 49 states -- taxpayers sent DISD almost that much. If Mike Hinojosa and Dallas ISD school board president Jack Lowe can't find $148 million of the dollars we sent them, Dallas ISD's problem is even more our problem. To continue sending them money under such sloppy stewardship without placing strong internal controls in place reminds me of parents who, oblivious to their teenagers' |
| Bill Ratliff's so-called 1995 education reforms There's another factor which you've read about here before: the rewrite of the Texas Education Code in 1995 spearheaded by then-state senator Bill Ratliff which took power away from our elected trustees and gave it to their employee the superintendent. We were told to view the resulting hybrid as a "Team of Eight," or, with Dallas and Houston with nine board members, the "Team of Ten." This was thought to be a more orderly system than the often-unruly specter of trustees arguing among themselves at board meetings. |
| Bill Ratliff (PHOTO--Austin American-Statesman) |
| set policy, hire and fire a superintendent, and buy and sell property. Everything else, including keeping close tabs on the financials, is the sole domain of the superintendent. Trustees are expected to approve budgets based on pie charts and smiles. Which brings us to the trend this past decade for public school superintendents to want to call themselves CEO's. While it's true that in most counties in America the superintendent is running the largest single budget in that county, it's also equally true that the superintendent has almost always next to no business acumen. "I'm not a numbers person," they tell me cheerfully. They're so likeable it's hard not to smile and nod in response. Many of our superintendents are, like Mike Hinojosa, former coaches. Their people skills are a wonder to behold, but their financial skills are almost non-existent, and they bring all the oversight of a Little League bake sale to complex multi-million dollar budgets. The team approach must stop at the front door of Dallas ISD's accounting office and wherever else money is handled. DISD must find a way of managing its -- our -- tax dollars better, all of them, from all sources, and that includes a superintendent capable of running rather than running away from the budget.. |
| Dallas ISD board chair Jack Lowe (L); DISD supe Mike Hinojosa (PHOTO--Aldia TX Com.) |
| How Dallas ISD got itself into this fix While Mike Hinojosa told us recently that Dallas ISD's bookkeeping may have been sloppy and/or in arrears for as much as the past 10 or even the past 20 years, the above figures only go back 7 years because that's as far back as TEA's online PEIMS financial records go. Still, these numbers show us a pattern. In addition to the revenue streams trustees enjoy such as board president Jack Lowe's $7 million to his company, TD Industries, there's another factor which might have kept trustees from speaking up more energetically or asking more substantive questions about Mike Hinojosa's financial presentations. |
| Lake Travis ISD's "Team of Eight." |
| Shhh! Quiet! Trustees since 1995 who asked too many or too pointed questions were either pulled aside and had some 'splaining done to them, or, for the more recalcitrant, TEA's board governance unit would swoop down from Austin and do A Serious Investigation, all designed to quell opposition to the superintendent. At the school board trainings elected trustees attend, whether it's the Texas Association of School Boards or Bob |
| One of the most painful experiences at board meetings is to watch a trustee who may not be keeping up with his Shakespeare -- God bless them for serving -- stumble over a cold reading of the polysyllabic prepared remarks handed to him before the meeting by someone in the administration's employ, the remarks designed to make it appear the trustee's paying attention and also to further the illusion that no rubberstamping is going on. I'm not making this up, folks. |
| Having sat through too many relatively silent board meetings where the trustees might at most fixate on something relatively inconsequential, at this point I say give me a big noisy boisterous board meeting any day of the week. Such meetings tell me representational self-government is alive and well. Good for Dallas ISD trustee Ron Price for speaking up about at cutting consultants before cutting school teachers. |
| Whatever became of Bill Ratliff? After orchestrating the 1995 Education Code changes, Bill Ratliff left the Texas Senate to become a lobbyist for the Texas Association of School Boards which sells a great many team building trainings, a move not unlike Sandy Kress being credited with being the architect of No Child Left Behind and also working as lobbyist for Pearson, one of NCLB's chief big-dollar beneficiaries. Bill eventually left TASB to work as a lobbyist for "Raise Your Hand," another group wanting ever more tax dollars for public schools. |
| Thompson's Superintendent Academy out of Lamar University or some similar, they are told -- generally by retired double-dipping superintendents -- that as trustees they are basically "powerless," as one frustrated friend put it, and all that they may legally do is |
| Unless TEA steps in, Texas and U.S. taxpayers will likely continue picking up the financial slack -- like we've been doing: a half-billion dollars to Dallas ISD from us during 2006-07 . |
| drug and alcohol problems, continue sending them out the door with $50 and $100 bills. State intervention is never a welcome or pretty sight: As a conservative it troubles me to have outside controls come into a local school district. It's also expensive in terms of salaries and other costs to taxpayers for the intervention. Here are some of the reforms that I hope TEA will consider bringing to Dallas ISD: |
2. Reduce administrative costs. Go through DISD's administrative staff roster and cut at least every other job, starting with the highest-salaried. Get rid of all PR and marketing. No advisors, no education consultants. No multi-year contracts for any DISD employees. Someone at TEA teach Mike Hinojosa and his "cabinet" how to read a budget, then dissolve the cabinet. Put all checks and all wire transfers online. Say goodbye to the "Road to Broad," dissolve the Learning Centers, the athletic centers and Dallas Achieves. 3. Ethics. No nepotism. Where there are couples earning a combined total of more than $125,000 per year, the higher-paid one leaves the employ of the district. No board members' family members or known friends may work in the district. Conduct all discussions with vendors and potential vendors in the open; invite your public to watch and ask questions. Move the supe's chair off the dais at board meetings. He's not a team member with his elected trustees nor is Mike equal to them. They're his boss. No revenue stream to any board member of any kind from Dallas ISD; recusal is not enough. 4. No construction. Dallas ISD is losing students. Minimal repairs this year only. Kansas City showed us that Taj Mahals do not lure students. 5. Back-to-basics curriculum. Math table (1st grade: add, 2nd grade: subtract, 3rd grade multiply, 4th grade divide) daily drill. DISD administrators have made sure their own kids learned the basics at home or with tutors; why shouldn't all children have that same opportunity? Ditto for phonics. Classical literature. History, not social studies. No more block scheduling. Daily P.E. for all. Emphasize individual effort and accomplishment. While the above are all quantitative reforms, this next one's qualitative. 6. Attitude. Administrators are public servants, not Third World despots and dictators. Practice humility and gratitude. Remember when your employees laugh at your jokes or tell you you're cool or vendors marvel at your every utterance that they're all sucking up to you. Remember why you got into education to begin with. Sell your houses in the gated community and buy one in the middle of a real subdivision like your average parents and taxpayers can afford. Let yourself be driven not by the latest platitude you picked up at the latest education conference but by the same wonderful noble desire to educate kids that got you into this field. |
| 6 SIMPLE GUIDELINES FOR DALLAS ISD 1. No discretionary spending for the remainder of 2008-2009. No trips, no conferences, no meals, no credit cards. You've been enthusiastic about kids learning via technology; you can learn online also. Google in lieu of travel. Do webinars. Read |
| newsletters and magazines, the ones we've been paying for. No golf games with vendors or potential vendors, ever. Reassign Mike Hinojosa's chauffeur to something useful like driving a school bus. (Mike's chauffeur has been a real sticking point in online blog entries, especially for employees worried about losing their jobs.) No rental cars. No traveling to Austin to lobby the Lege for more money. Stay home, do your work and keep your nose clean. |
| Finally, this current fiasco should disallow any efforts by Dallas ISD to lobby our upcoming Lege with the claim that they need more money. DISD needs to better manage the monies already entrusted to them. The time for resting on laurels and titles is over. The time for true leadership is here. |
| MIAMI-DADE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS (FL) Do superintendents' private lives matter? By Peyton Wolcott - Tuesday, October 7, 2008 / 3:43 p.m. |
| For most of us, what our public school administrators do in their private lives appropriately remains private until and unless their conduct breeches the levels of acceptability such that they land on the front page of their local paper -- especially when the breeches involve taxpayer dollars or serious ethics issues. When Roslyn, New York superintendent Frank Tassone got a facelift, nobody much noticed or cared -- until the community learned they'd paid for it as part of an $11.2 million swindle by him and others. And when Lee County, North Carolina supe James McCormick's alleged two-year affair with a married principal made headlines after her husband sued the supe for alienation of affection, it was time for McCormick to resign. Tassone's still in prison. |
| Can new Miami supe Alberto Carvalho survive the current storm caused by the latest crop of Tania deLuzuriaga emails to surface? The M-DCPS board is set to vote his contract Friday . . . |
| Tania deLuzuriaga (inset); Alberto Carvalho (PHOTO--John VanBeekum/Miami Herald) |
| Ripples While The Miami Herald continues to self-investigate, yesterday's story about the new emails was written by the Associated Press rather than Herald reporters. DeLuzuriaga has already left the Boston Globe, and last week it was announced that Matthew Pinzur, deLuzuriaga's predecessor at the Herald, has resigned "for a $115,000-per-year job as special assistant to Miami-Dade County Manager George Burgess," reports Francisco Alvarado of The New Miami Times. "The move has caused outrage in the Herald newsroom, prompted head-scratching in the halls of power, and raised questions about coverage of the annual $7.4 billion local government budget, which is larger than that of many states." Here's hoping the Herald will also take a good look at stories they declined to report during both deLuzuriaga's and Pinzur's runs. Perla's hasty chickens coming home to roost The speed with which board vice-chair Perla Hantman pushed through Carvalho's hiring last month appears to be coming into play again. Charles Viscito, a parent with children in Miami public schools, has filed a complaint alleging that Perla's five-member (of nine) majority violated state open-meetings laws when it appointed Carvalho, and last week an ethics committee which oversees the Miami-Dade school system advised the board to delay approval of Carvalho's contract. (Ibid.) |
| The Miami Herald For years now Miami residents have complained that public school dissident voices or even questioners couldn't get a fair shake from the venerable Miami Herald which seemed to function as then-supe Rudy Crew's unofficial public relations arm. This changed somewhat when the community started totaling up the M-DCPS checks Rudy had written to the Herald for advertising -- currently $2 million and counting. It appeared the dollars explained all. But not quite all, it turns out. When a series of suggestive emails surfaced last month purporting to be between Rudy's replacement Alberto Carvalho and Tania deLuzuriaga, the Miami Herald education reporter from October 2006 to September 2007 (when she left for a new job at The Boston Globe), Carvalho, who is married, at first denied the emails' veracity, then went into a kinda sorta maybe mode where he admitted that he enjoyed a "playful" and "jovial" relationship with deLuzuriaga. More emails turned up this week.. |
| The e-mails also raise questions about the objectivity of The Herald's schools coverage last year. The Herald's ethics policy prohibits reporters from having a ''close personal relationship'' with people they cover, and con- flicts of interest must be disclosed to editors. ''There are long-standing and very clear standards when it comes to relationships with the people we cover,'' Herald Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal said. ``If these e-mails are real, this violates some of the most basic rules of our profession. The paper will report most aggressively on this case and determine exactly what hap- pened,'' he said. The newspaper is reviewing deLuzuriaga's school board coverage from last year -- including at least 24 stories in which Carvalho was quoted or named. (SOURCE-Carol Miller, Michael Sallah & Scott Hiaasen/Miami Herald) |
| Herald admits schools coverage now in question This must have been a difficult decision for The Miami Herald to have made, to disclose that their Miami schools reporting may have been less than objective after all: |
| Perla Hantman |
| Earlier today, the Miami school board was scheduled to discuss the district's contracting process but canceled the meeting at the last minute when it failed to reach a quorum. "The meeting had been scheduled at a crucial time for the board: Members will take up new superintendent Alberto Carvalho's $275,000 contract on Friday. Five board members promised to attend Tuesday's meeting, chairman Agustín Barrera said... [but] Hantman got delayed at another...meeting." (SOURCE--Kathleen McGrory/Miami Herald) |
Al Carvalho must be wondering tonight how many of his five votes will show up Friday.
| 10.09.09: New Miami-Dade schools ethics panel update; no surprises. Question: How many votes of his original 5 will Alberto Carvalho still have by tomorrow's meeting re his contract? |
Heads up, America's public school leaders!
By Peyton Wolcott - Friday, October 10, 2008 / 3:02 a.m.
By Peyton Wolcott - Friday, October 10, 2008 / 3:02 a.m.
$84 million deficit: Miami-Dade County Public Schools make a big
decision today about their next new supe's contract--a fellow who was hired
in haste last month and over whose character and reputation a cloud
generated by a series of emails has hovered since his hiring.
$148 million deficit and counting: Dallas ISD's superintendent has been
under fire for being clueless about the 2-year deficit until a few weeks ago,
and now a TV station's serious questions about a grading scandal the supe
self-investigated and announced over he has now reopened.
$408 million deficit: Detroit Public Schools is being investigated by the FBI,
and the supe still hasn't found the $1.6 million it purchased in original art.
decision today about their next new supe's contract--a fellow who was hired
in haste last month and over whose character and reputation a cloud
generated by a series of emails has hovered since his hiring.
$148 million deficit and counting: Dallas ISD's superintendent has been
under fire for being clueless about the 2-year deficit until a few weeks ago,
and now a TV station's serious questions about a grading scandal the supe
self-investigated and announced over he has now reopened.
$408 million deficit: Detroit Public Schools is being investigated by the FBI,
and the supe still hasn't found the $1.6 million it purchased in original art.
| It seems right now as our great nation is under enormous pressures on so many fronts the least our administrators can do is step to and do their part, with a display of urgency. Yet so many continue to dillydally, preoccupied with self-aggrandizement and avoidable distractions -- to the detriment of their primary charges, teaching our children and keeping our schools solvent. Look at these beautiful young faces: |
| Starting today, please remember your students, the ones we say our public schools are all about. Starting today, please keep their well-being first and foremost in your decision making. Starting today, please pay attention, skip the Rotary/Chamber luncheon, work at your desk, fire your chauffeur, balance the district's checkbook and make sure our kids are taught a basic core curriculum. These three districts are a small sampling of the various messes our leadership has by its own actions created: |
| All student images are from the three districts at right. |
| GREAT BEND (KS) PTA moms' questions helped bring their elementary school principal to justice By Peyton Wolcott Saturday, October 11, 2008 - 8:47 a.m. |
| Then Jefferson Elementary school principal Don Atkinson (L) with Jefferson Elementary PTA president Pamela Kurtz |
| Parents and taxpayers: Trust your sniffers -- that mysterious something that makes your nose twitch or causes you to lean back and say to yourself, "What's going on here? Something's off. This doesn't feel quite right." |
| Even though Jefferson Elementary School principal Don Atkinson was a long-time Great Bend USD employee and also president of the local education foundation for many years, new PTA president Pamela Kurtz thought something seemed off about his cash-handling practices. Don would tell PTA officers which item the school needed next and they'd raise the money, then -- |
| Don Atkinson's 10.10.08 mug shot (PHOTO-Barton County Sheriff) |
| rather than buying the thing needed themselves and presenting it to the school -- at Don's request/suggestion the PTA would instead give the cash to Don because Don told them that if they gave him the cash rather than the thing he could use district's purchasing power to cut a better deal. |
| Don's self-dealing Turns out the better deals Don was cutting were for himself. Allegedly, on at least 63 occasions from 2002 to 2007 -- that's as far back as Great Bend USD's records go, and Don worked for the district 28 years -- Don pocketed the cash, then purchased items as Jefferson Elementary School's principal out of his school budget. For example, as a hypothetical: Don would tell the PTA moms the third grade needed, say, a new television, which cost $500. Elementary kids would sell 50-cent lollipops and eventually the PTA would raise the $500, which the PTA |
| would give to Don in cash. Don would then pocket the $500 cash and turn around and order a $500 TV for the third-grade classroom as a routine Jefferson Elementary School taxpayer-funded expense. Parents would see the new TV in the third grade classroom and assume naturally enough that it was purchased with their donations, when in fact they had paid for it twice: both as taxpayers and as fund raisers. |
| PTA leadership steps up to the plate When Laura Kaiser, Kansas PTA then-president, and VP Patty Jurich -- both volunteers -- visited western Kansas during the fall of 2006, they gave Pamela Kurtz and local school district administrators "Principals and PTA," a booklet which describes good cash-handling procedures and confirmed Pamela Kurtz's questions about Don's practices. Two other |
| Jefferson Elementary School Great Bend, Kansas |
| Jefferson PTA moms persisted with asking questions along with Kurtz: Dixie Divis and Sheryl Peak, a good lesson for Lone Rangers out there to remember. To pursue truth and justice for your kids' schools, you really must band together effectively with others of like minds. In this case, it helped a great deal that all three had already put in serious time and effort as community leaders and volunteers. Bottom line Every school in America should be so lucky to have a Pamela Kurtz. Jefferson Elementary is her kids' school and Great Bend, Kansas is her community and where her family's roots are. By contrast, even though Don Atkinson and his wife Patti, also a veteran district educator, earned good salaries from Great Bend schools where they were respected long-time residents -- remember, he was also president of the education foundation for many years -- once trouble hit, the Atkinson's sold their house and moved out of state, to Colorado. It's fair to say that Don would not be celebrating his second day (of 60) in jail today, with two years' probation to follow after admitting to 3 felony and 3 misdemeanor counts, had the PTA moms, all of them caring community leaders, not persisted, and nicely, with their questions. |
| If you're looking for more information, as of today KAKE.com is the only other place you'll find any coverage of Don's sentencing. Hats off to KAKE. |
| More here New page: KANSAS |
| EANES ISD (TX): BREAKING NEWS! This is huge! Eanes ISD has voluntarily posted its check register online! By Peyton Wolcott - Tuesday, October 14, 2008 - 8:10 p.m. |
| All things are truly possible, friends. Eanes ISD's voluntarily posting its check register online represents a sea change in Texas public education, and a commendable shift in thinking and attitude on behalf of Eanes ISD superintendent Nola Wellman and her trustees; this was after all the district which introduced anti-sunshine legislation during 2005. Eanes ISD checks (January-August 2008) here. |
| Eanes ISD board room |
| EANES ISD QUICK FACTS: Student population: 7,216 Most recently reported total receipts/all funds: $196,551,936, or $27,238 per student. (SOURCE--PEIMS actuals, 2006-07) |
| 10.22.08: Congratulations to Austin American-Statesman for publishing on this yesterday. |
| Tuesday Nov. 4, 2008 Is your school district's check register online yet? ----- WHAT'S NEW Kansas Financial Exigency and Maryland |
| 384 Broads to Brownsville & another ERDI supe in the news By Peyton Wolcott - Thursday, October 23, 2008 / 4:32 p.m. |
| Perhaps your proclamation and mine and everybody else's got lost in the mail. If you haven't received your framed proclamation yet, send your name and address with zip code to Brownsville Mayor Patricio M. Ahumada, Jr. at P.O Box 911, Brownsville, Texas 78522. Specify whether you prefer a teak, glossy black or oiled walnut frame, and be |
| Hey! Did you receive your proclamation yet from Brownsville? Me neither. Nor has anyone else I've checked with. You'd think as quick-moving as Brownsville's mayor and commissioner were to award framed proclamations last week to Brownsville ISD's board for receiving the $1 million 2008 Broad Prize that the state and federal taxpayers who sent BISD the equivalent of 384* Broad Prizes during 2006-07 would have gotten at least a thank you from them by now. |
| * SOURCE: PEIMS Actual Financials (2006-07), Texas Education Agency. |
| Brownsville ISD supe & board with proclamations from Brownsville mayor and city commissioners. |
| "Yah," Carrollton-Farmers Branch supe -- and ERDI consultant -- Annette Griffin arrested for driving while intoxicated |
| While this afternoon's report in the Dallas Morning News didn't visibly connect any dots between Annette Griffin's arrest in August at an airport for driving while intoxicated and the paid leave of absence the CFBISD school board granted her on October 9, the anonymous public did not hesitate; here's a sampling of 39 comments posted within the story's first 3 hours: |
| Annette Griffin (R) with Crystal Award recipient John Reap, president & CEO of Town North Bank at ceremony in April. |
| She has lost her role model status....$285,000 a year and she doesn't have to go to work. Yeah, she's really paying for this DWI ..... When will the wasteful spending end????.... Nice to see that the public school system continues to have top-notch leaders! Our tax dollars are now supporting Dr. Griffin's leave of absence?.... Public education in TX is horrible .... At least she didn't misplace $85 million dollars ... More waste of tax dollars by yet another school district. And people wonder why education is going down the tubes. Very sad. |
| Here's from Annette's arrest record: |
| sure to spell your name correctly and include your zip code. |
| What are our kids being taught about recent history? By Peyton Wolcott - Monday, October 27, 2008 / 6:04 p.m. |
| This bumper sticker at left forwarded by patriotic Cuban-born friends in Miami prompts my question. What are our kids learning in their history -- oops, social studies -- textbooks about change for the sake of change? About Fidel Castro in Cuba? Hugo Chavez in Venezuela? I'm going to look for myself next time I'm in town. |
| PEOPLE WATCHING Who's measuring the drapes, & where By Peyton Wolcott - Wed., Oct.29, 2008 / 12:25 a.m. - Updated 10:08 a.m. |
| Looks like the next few months are going to be chock full of those "interesting times" referred to in that ancient Chinese curse. "May you live in interesting times," it goes. Starting at the top, the only draperies Mar- garet Spellings (below) is likely measuring these days are those saris she brought home from that trip to New Delhi, to turn them into curtains for her Texas digs. |
| In the event Barrack Obama wins next week, Williams Ayers and Rudy Crew are among those most likely to be toting their tape measures to the US DOE for measuring the drapes for their new corner office as Edu-Czar. Of course, in the case of Ayers, the Secret Service might also have to routinely inspect his toolbox coming and going for incendiary devices. "Morning, Mr. Secretary. Bring any bombs today?" |
| Margaret Spellings, New Delhi(PHOTO--AP) |
| Lorenzo Garcia/El Paso ISD (L); Mike Hinojosa/Dallas ISD |
| Much as some of us would like to see all federal involvement in public education go away as quickly and suddenly and completely as it descended on us in the first place, Mr. Ayers' incendiary devices are not the way to achieve that goal. That would be change for the sake of change; even if it's the change we feel we need, and hope to have some day, bombing government buildings is not the way to bring it about. |
| Besides, even if Ayers the unrepentant radical were |
| appointed, wouldn't it be "interesting" if he wound up being so seduced by the piles of money to be made at the top levels in education that he, too, would readily ring up the decorators to come measure the drapes (pattern: "Radical Chic Plaid") for his corner suite at the US DOE. |
| Hope you do, too. Change for the sake of change is a singularly immature impulse. |
| William Ayers (L) 1968 mug shot; Rudy Crew |
| Which brings us to Dallas ISD, and the matter not only of whom Dallas Achieves et al might be sneaking in during the dead of night to measure the drapes in Mike Hinojosa's corner office, but also how quickly -- too quickly, some might say -- they may be installed. Here's hoping Dallas doesn't repeat Miami's scenario wherein Rudy -- yes, that same Rudy -- was ousted one afternoon last month only a few hours before M-DCPS associate supe Alberto Carvalho was installed as his replacement, before the community had a chance to vet Alberto in the top spot. Best not rush into anything, guys, especially anything ad hoc. Smart people learn from others' mistakes. Even in interesting times, continuity need not be seamless to be effective. |
| DEVELOPING: Update on Lorenzo Garcia; awaiting a response from his office. |
Texas and U.S. taxpayers have sent almost $3 billion
to Dallas ISD since 2000
to Dallas ISD since 2000
 |