Lynn Walsh

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

HISD looking for math tutors; job offers $20K annually
Fri Jun 25 16:46:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

The Houston Independent School District is on the lookout for math tutors — almost 300 of them.

The Apollo 20 Math Fellowship is a tutoring program for nine middle and high schools in the district that are part of the bigger Apollo 20 school improvement program the district will begin in the 2010-11 school year.

According to press releases and various social media tools, Houston ISD is looking for 270 recent college graduates to tutor students during the school day; the Houston district will pay the tutors $20,000 a year plus benefits. The positions also include opportunities for “performance and attendance based bonuses of up to $5,000.”

On its website, the Houston Independent School District compares the fellowships to Teach for America, a teacher recruiting program to bring teachers to urban districts nationwide:

“The program is similar to Teach For America in that we seek people who were outstanding college students and who have a passion for helping the neediest children succeed and thrive. The program is different in that the commitment is only one year, not two, and the work emphasizes depth (working closely with a few students) rather than breadth (teaching several sections of 20 or more students).”

HISD trustees approved a new contract with Teach for America earlier this month, adding more than 200 Teach for America positions to the Houston district.

The Apollo 20 program includes 20 high schools, middle schools and elementary schools that HISD has identified as under-performing. Part of Apollo could also include paying students to attend tutoring sessions.

Lee, Kashmere, Sharpstown and Jones high schools, and Fondren, Key, Ryan, Attucks and Dowling middle schools will be included in the Apollo plan for the 2010-11 school year. According to Superintendent Terry Grier, 11 to-be-determined HISD elementary schools will be added sometime before the 2011-12 school year begins.

Contact Lynn Walsh at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org. Lynn writes about the Houston Independent School District. Find all her reports on Twitter by following @texaswatchdog within #HISD.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

HISD trustees approve $1.6 billion budget
Fri Jun 25 13:49:41 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Houston Independent School District trustees unanimously approved a $1.6 billion budget for next year Thursday. Trustees Harvin Moore and Larry Marshall were not at the meeting.

The budget for next year, $1.61 billion, represents almost a one percent decrease from last year’s budget of $1.62 billion.

Before the vote, the public had an opportunity to share their opinions with HISD trustees and Superintendent Terry Grier at the public hearing, which was held immediately before trustees voted to adopt the 2010-11 budget. More on this topic, and salary increases, on School Zone, a Houston Chronicle blog.

Contact Lynn Walsh at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

Former HISD employees accused of wrongdoing in E-Rate technology program named
Thu Jun 24 20:30:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

William Edwards, Steve Kim and Laura Palmer.
These former Houston Independent School District employees’ identities have been closely guarded by the school district. HISD administrator Richard Patton, who is in charge of compliance with certain ethics rules that federal officials accused the trio of employees of violating, named them Thursday in an interview with Texas Watchdog.

The information technology workers were accused of taking meals and gifts from vendors under the federal technology program called E-Rate, violating ethics rules that spurred a federal investigation and halted funding to HISD under E-Rate in 2006. The district has lost millions of dollars, and earlier this year settled a lawsuit brought by the federal government. Neither HISD nor any of its employees admitted to any wrongdoing, according to the settlement documents.
The employees were named after Texas Watchdog filed a public information request in March for details surrounding the employees involved with the E-Rate scandal. E-Rate is a federally funded program that brings cut-rate telecommunications services to public schools, nonprofit private schools and libraries.

Texas Watchdog was unable to reach the former employees immediately Thursday afternoon. We’ll keep trying, and we’ll update our site if we are able to reach them.

Within months of the federal government’s freezing of HISD’s E-Rate funding in 2006, Palmer got a 45 percent pay increase and promotion, according to HISD salary records acquired by Texas Watchdog through a Texas Public Information Act request. Employee Laura M. Palmer was listed as an assistant superintendent for technology and information systems as of September 2006, earning more than $122,000, a big boost over her previous salary of about $84,000 in 2005. She was earning more than $126,000 in fall 2007, and had worked with the district since 1994.

Palmer retired as of October 2007, according to an HISD database of retirees since 2005. Edwards and Kim, however, do not show up in the same retiree database, and it is unclear precisely when they stopped working for the school system.

Employee William L. Edwards worked in the Technology and Information department, earning more than $132,000 as an assistant superintendent in the Technology and Information Systems Department as of 2004, salary records show. He was hired in 1993.

Steve K. Kim worked as a manager of network operations in the networking department and as of 2006 he earned more than $89,000 annually. He had worked for HISD since 1997.

Edwards, Kim and Palmer do not show up in the salary databases Texas Watchdog has obtained from HISD in 2008 or 2009. Thursday, Patton said he believed that all three employees resigned from the Houston district, though other HISD officials have previously described their departures as firings.

After Texas Watchdog’s public information request for the employee names, HISD asked the Texas Attorney General to allow the names to remain secret. The AG disagreed and said in a letter that the information must be released.

Texas Watchdog is still waiting on those documents to be made public.

The Federal Communications Commission filed a lawsuit against the district in 2006. More than three years later, the district paid $850,000 to settle the suit, and is receiving money again under the program.

The subsequent compliance agreement required HISD to hire an E-Rate compliance officer, who makes $150,000 annually. HISD hired Patton in February using a headhunting firm that reportedly charged $67,200.

Patton has spent hours training employees and board members on stricter ethics rules to avoid a repeat of the earlier problems. He has recommended HISD spend an additional $10,000 a year on monitoring software.

Freezing the funding under the E-Rate technology program has caused the district to lose $105 million in federal funding.

A voicemail message left for a Steve Kim in Sugar Land was not returned. Texas Watchdog was not able to immediately find a phone number for Edwards and Palmer.

As recently as a few months ago, an HISD press official said the investigation by federal officials was still open. Thursday, Patton said, “the investigation is over.”

Contact Lynn Walsh at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org.

A story written and produced for Texas Watchdog:

Video: Back Story with Lynn Walsh on HISD travel
Thu Jun 24 16:20:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Last-minute flight purchases, travel agent fees and a toothless travel policy: that is what Texas Watchdog’s investigation into Houston Independent School District spending on air travel uncovered. But how did we get there?

In this episode of Back Story, reporter Lynn Walsh explains how the investigation developed from a request for public information:

Links mentioned in the video:

Texas Watchdog: HISD travel records show wasted taxpayer dollars, poor planning, toothless travel rules

Texas Watchdog: Houston Independent School District issues credit cards to employees with bankruptcies

Attorney General of Texas

Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas

Texas Watchdog: HISD to review travel policy; Superintendent Terry Grier: ‘Any kind of issues with travel you have, we will look at’

Video:HISD Superintendent Terry Grier doesn’t have time to answer ?s about HISD travel

Back Story is an occasional video series by Texas Watchdog. We take readers and viewers behind the stories we produce and provide insight into how we put them together with interviews and public records.

Contact Lynn Walsh at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

Back Story: HISD’s travel records show wasted taxpayer dollars, poor planning, toothless travel rules
Thu Jun 24 10:42:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Texas Watchdog is still digging into records to illuminate HISD’s travel practices and the money it spends on airfare. 

We reported a few weeks ago on the poor planning that led to pricey fares and the toothless travel policy that allows for such waste. The school district says it is updating its travel policy prior to the start of school this fall.

But you may be wondering, how was Texas Watchdog able to uncover
 Houston ISD’s travel expenses in the first place?



Don’t think too hard. We are going to tell you! Tune into Back Story at 11 a.m. today and watch where the story began and how it developed, starting with a simple request under the Texas Public Information Act.



I will be broadcasting live from the video player on our home page.
You can also watch via our Ustream account.



Have questions or comments? Contact me now or during the broadcast, 
lynn@texaswatchdog.org or via Twitter: @lwalsh.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

HISD budget up for vote Thursday; follow @texaswatchdog for updates on Twitter
Wed Jun 23 21:24:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

HISD’s proposed $1.6 billion budget for the 2011 fiscal year is up for approval by trustees Thursday.
Before the vote, the public is welcome to voice their opinions in a public hearing, beginning at 5 p.m. at the Hattie Mae Center, 4400 West 18th St., Houston.

As promised, the proposed budget can be viewed online, here.

With the vote occurring immediately after the public hearing, Texas Watchdog earlier this month questioned whether it would it make a difference to speak out at the hearing. In any case, now is your chance to view the budget and come prepared to rant, rave, question or comment on it.

Texas Watchdog will be live tweeting from the meeting and hearing Thursday. Follow us on Twitter, @TexasWatchdog for immediate updates. You can also search for #HISD to comment, raise questions and join in the conversation.

The trustees will be all yours Thursday, but if something in the proposed budget catches your eye beforehand you can contact them here.

Feel free to contact me as well, 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org. On Twitter: @lwalsh.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

Texas Watchdog’s Lynn Walsh reflects on broadcast training at the Poynter Institute
Mon Jun 21 16:48:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Multimedia seems to be the key word in the world of journalism right now — whether it is “tweeting” or livestreaming on the web.
Working for an online news organization I use multimedia on a daily basis, but I learned at a recent conference sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists that multimedia convergence has become the norm at TV stations across the country. I joined a group of journalists last week for SPJ’s Broadcast Reporters Institute, at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla.

cellphone camera
TV reporters and anchors are not just encouraged but expected to add to the news they are covering by uploading scene photos, sharing links, recording web extras…the list goes on and on.

To me, one of the most exciting multimedia components I learned about is the use of mobile communication tools in the news industry. A video can be recorded, edited and uploaded in minutes, and all that is needed is a phone — something that can be carried around in your pocket.
The Missouri School of Journalism uses iPhone video and audio for stories in its newscasts on a daily basis. The students are editing, uploading and creating entire video stories from the palm of their hand.

New technologies provide publishing opportunities for the public, beyond traditional newsrooms. With the right equipment, anyone can create a video in minutes, upload it and share with the entire world. Exhibit A: Rabbi David F. Nesenoff and his flipcam.

Mobile video uploading and editing can make citizen journalists more powerful while bringing more watchful eyes to the streets. As an advocate for government transparency and accountability, I say, “the more the merrier.”

Texas Watchdog is always trying to use the most relevant, powerful technologies to reach our readers and viewers. If there is a technology you want to see used more or less, let us know at news@texaswatchdog.org.
If you shoot video you think we may want to see, send it my way. I’m on Twitter, @Lwalsh. E-mail lynn@texaswatchdog.org. Call 713-228-2850.

An investigation for Texas Watchdog:

HISD travel records show wasted taxpayer dollars, poor planning, toothless travel rules
Fri Jun 11 19:05:00 2010 CST
By Steve Miller and Lynn Walsh

The educators conference was announced about a year in advance. It was in Columbus, Ohio, in October 2008. Plenty of lead time to make travel arrangements, nailing down cheap flights.

Instead, teachers and administrators from the Houston Independent School District waited until the last minute to buy plane tickets to Ohio, choosing fares that ballooned to nearly $1,000 per ticket the week before the conference.

The poor planning and HISD’s lenient travel policy cost taxpayers $16,736 for the 22 staff members’ flights, or an average of $760.72 per person. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars could have been saved for travel to the Battelle for Kids National Value-Added conference.

Less costly flights were suggested for the attendees by one of the district’s two in-house travel representatives, including some on Southwest Airlines that cost $475.50 round-trip. The district could have saved $6,000 if all staff members had opted for a flight in that price range.

Pamela Cunningham, education program manager for the district’s east region office, made a case for the higher fares on Continental Airlines in an e-mail to a secretary: “This was the best flight for all of us given times and plane size.”

The expense involved in getting to the Ohio conference is an example of how HISD has racked up large travel bills, a Texas Watchdog review of three years of flight records shows.

Poor planning, a preference for costlier direct flights, disregard of the district’s policy that favors driving to destinations within 200 miles, and the use of a travel agency that tacks $30 onto each plane ticket have cost the district dearly — even as it wrestles with a massive budget deficit and eliminates teaching jobs.

A Texas Watchdog review of flight vouchers and travel plans for HISD staffers from January 2007 to February 2010 this year has found other questionable practices in place.

These include:

* Short-notice purchase of tickets for events that have been announced months before, driving up the price of tickets.

* The use of a travel agency, Advantage Travel, that adds $30 to every ticket issued by the district. At the same time, the district has two employees, paid $50,750 each, devoted full-time to making travel arrangements for the district.

* A preference for nonstop flights. While a convenience, this almost always results in a pricier ticket.

* Foregoing cheaper flights for pricier ones that are more convenient or allow teachers and administrators to fly together.

* Allowing taxpayers to cover the cost of checked luggage. One e-mail reminded travelers to save their check tickets for reimbursement.

The findings come as HISD continues to pare away at a budget it has sought to balance for months. In February, district Chief Financial Officer Melinda Garrett projected a budget shortfall of $57 million. A district reorganization plan was put into place soon after her announcement, eliminating more than 200 positions at an estimated savings of $8 million and ultimately helping the district balance the proposed $1.5 billion budget.

E-mails obtained by Texas Watchdog show a district that caters to the travel whims of its teachers and administrators. The district’s travel policy is simply a rough guideline for travel, not a dictate.

Explained in the district’s travel policy:

Employees are encouraged to plan business travel at least 21 days in advance, whenever possible, to take advantage of reduced airfares. The amount paid for airline fares cannot exceed the rate the District would pay for fourteen (14)-day advance fare unless the travel is for essential business travel as defined under the travel policy (section 914). … Personnel traveling on official District business shall select the most rapid and economical transportation available. Economic and convenient travel will depend on the distance and services available in a particular locale. Generally, air travel is preferred for distances of 200 miles or more, while trips of less distance should be made by other transportation means.

Flights to Austin, 161 miles away, are common, taken 188 times since 2007. Staffers flew to San Antonio 84 times in the same period.

Some plane trips defy logic in terms of time commitment, often taking as long as a drive would.

One staffer was flown to Austin for three days from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, leaving at 4 p.m. from Hobby Airport to Austin-Bergstrom International, a 45-minute flight. The return on Oct. 2 departed at 6:55 p.m. and arrived back at Hobby at 7:45 p.m.

The flight, booked one day in advance on Southwest Airlines, cost $281.50 plus a $30 fee to Advantage Travel. The travel records do not include transportation from Bergstrom or other local travel costs.

Had the traveler driven, the mileage reimbursement would have cost $177.10, and the time commitment about the same as the flight required, since Austin is a three-hour drive from much of Houston.

In January, the school district flew eight staffers to Austin for the day, 161 miles away, at a cost of $97.70 a person, plus a $30 booking fee per ticket. Total cost of the tickets came to $1,021.60.

Carpooling, even with two to a car, would have come to $708.40.

Travel records reviewed showed numerous flights to San Antonio, 196 miles away, and Austin. HISD travelers also frequented Corpus Christi, which at 216 miles away is just over the district’s suggested cutoff point for flights.

These flights arrive in airports that require a cab or car rental to get to places of business. Costs billed to the district were typically double what they would have been if employees had carpooled and sought mileage reimbursement. Savings of even $200 per trip would add up to tens of thousands of dollars for the district.

Superintendent of School Support Services Martha Salazar Zamora on Monday, Feb. 8, learned she had to be in Corpus Christi in three days for an event. Rather than drive the 220 miles, the district purchased a $305.90 flight and rented a car for the 24 hours she was in town.

Her return flight ensured she was home by 6:12 the following evening. The 5 p.m. departure from Corpus meant that she likely had to be back at the airport to return the car at around 3:30 p.m. Had she driven her own car, she could have driven back and arrived in Houston by the same time, less the car rental cost.

Zamora declined to comment.

The district says it has no cars for employee use among its fleet of vans, school buses and sedans. And it has never formally pondered the savings that might be achieved by doing so.

“We do not have district cars for employees to take,” said Garrett, chief financial officer. “That is a whole other administrative upkeep, between mileage reimbursements, repairs. … We just have not ever done that and have not done a study on what the cost would be if we did have cars.”

Employees “have their own schedules” when they attend conferences and events, she said. “People have different needs when traveling to a conference. Some stay the whole week. Some just stay a day.”

District pays travel agency $30 per ticket

In a period between Jan. 15 and Feb. 16 this year, the district spent $45,048.95 on airfares for district employees. Of that amount, $1,970, or around 4 percent, was spent solely on agent fees to Advantage Travel, despite the use of district employees Claudette Vernon and Lynne Lyman as travel services reps.

Records show both are paid $50,572 annually by HISD.

Vernon is part of the Procard and Travel team, according to the HISD directory which also lists another travel specialist, Tara Haire.

District “procards,” or procurement cards, are the credit cards provided to 1,200 of its employees. HISD policy prohibits rank-and-file employees for using procards for district travel costs such as airfares. A district card in Garrett’s name is used to pay for flights.

The two-person team handles travel requests from the various schools and offices, but the airfare reservations themselves are handled by Advantage Travel.

These requests include travel for student groups, individual administrators and teachers and various other employees.

Antoinette Meliti, president of Advantage Travel, did not return calls this week. The district refused to make Vernon available for questions, and Lyman is on leave. Vernon referred Texas Watchdog to Chalita Cyprian, who heads the district’s Procard and Travel team. Cyprian did not return repeated calls this week.

But Garrett wondered why anyone with the travel needs of HISD would not use a travel agency.

“Wouldn’t you use a travel agency?” Garrett asked a reporter when questioned about the use – and cost – of an outside travel agency. “Well, we don’t own a [ticket] issuing company, you have to be a travel agent to issue tickets, someone has to issue the tickets. The two employees take a request of who is traveling and go over and secure tickets.”

She said that travel on Southwest is booked by the HISD employees themselves, but said she wasn’t sure why reservations with that carrier are handled differently.

“We thought about opening a ticket issuing company, but there is a lot that goes into that,” Garrett said.

And in fact Advantage has booked flights for HISD with Southwest, adding in its $30 service fee.

Part Two:

For several years, Susan Tanzman booked flights for personnel at the Los Angeles Unified School District. As owner of Martin’s Travel and Tours in L.A., hers was one of five agencies in the area that staffers could call to arrange flights. Like Houston ISD, the district was charged a $30 service fee per ticket.

“And for that, the school district saved money on fares, because we knew how to negotiate,” Tanzman said. “We save 30 to 50 percent for our corporate clients.”

The agencies were given strict orders as far as booking flights for teachers and administrators who called: “Get them from point A to point B for the cheapest fare,” Tanzman said.

“And if they wanted a flight that left an hour later or earlier that cost more, or they didn’t want a flight where they changed planes, that was too bad. We couldn’t do that. The district’s travel policy manual said we didn’t have that discretion. We were hired to save money.”

L.A.’s school district had no staffers for arranging travel, she added.

“It makes no sense to pay someone at the district and then pay a service fee to an agency,” Tanzman said. “There is no sense in paying a middle man.”

At HISD, the district’s travel clerks often present flight options for travelers, who opt for more expensive flights that are nonstop, records show.

In October 2008, Alan Summers, principal of Scarborough High School, was given a choice of travel options for a trip to Portland, Ore., Southwest had a flight with a connection in Albuquerque for $342, and Continental had a $474 direct flight.

“I wanted you to know that you don’t have to change planes,” Lynne Lyman, an HISD travel coordinator, advised Summers in an e-mail.

“I prefer the Continental option,” Summers said in his reply.

Summers declined to comment for this story.

A biology teacher from Scarborough, Caresha Scales, and Tina Elzy, dean of instruction, were also scheduled to take the Portland trip and received the same e-mail from Lyman.

Both instructed Lyman to get them the more expensive Continental flight.

Staffers on many occasions take the cheaper flights, but it is not always out of a desire to save taxpayer dollars.

One staffer, presented with two fares for a flight to San Diego in July 2009, opted for the cheaper fare from Southwest with a stopover “because it is from Hobby [airport.]” She did not indicate by e-mail that cost was her prevailing concern.

That same trip was marked by a communications delay and other travelers opting for more expensive, direct fares.

According to e-mails, the purchase process was begun July 15 for a July 26 flight, which at that time was $747.70 on Continental, which eight staffers preferred. But because of delays in the approval process, the price jumped $300 to $1,047.70 by the time it was booked on July 20, costing taxpayers $2,400 more than in would have at the $747.70 price. Price tag for the trip for those eight staffers was $8,381.60.

Larry Swerdlin books travel for a large school district on the East Coast, where staffers who need to travel contact him, get the lowest price quote, and then take it back to one designated district staffer for approval. There is no wiggle room for time or airline preferences, and advance notice is enforced, said Swerdlin, who works for Burton Travel in Owings Mills, Md.

“Everything is price-driven,” he said.

Word to the wise: Book at least two weeks out

Zamora, the school support superintendent, led a contingent to Greensboro, N.C., in September to visit the Guilford County Schools Middle College, a school in Superintendent Terry Grier’s former district. The trip, which ran from Sept. 27-29, was booked on Sept. 25, making Zamora’s ticket $601.41, including the travel agency fee.

Fares for her three companions were around the same and the total came to $2,346.82. Hundreds of dollars could have been saved by planning farther in advance.

“You save a lot when you book 14 to 21 days out,” said Tanzman, the former travel agent for the Los Angeles school district. “We are not talking months in advance.”

Garrett acknowledged frustration among those charged with booking travel at the district. But there is nothing that prohibits such poor, costly planning decisions.

“You know I have had staff complain about last-minute trips,” Garrett said. “Our current policy does not have anything. It’s been talked about.

“We are making a new policy, though, and it should be finished in 30 days, and that is something we may look at.”

She could also look to Rebecca Flores, director of government relations for the district, who practically sighed in print when she received a quote of $503.70 for a flight last year to Baltimore.

“If this is the cheapest ticket we can find … yes,” she said in an e-mail.

Flores acknowledged to Texas Watchdog that she is “cheap.”

In her five years as the district’s governmental liaison, she has flown to Austin once.

“All the many other times I have driven,” Flores said.

Contact Steve Miller at 832-303-9420 or stevemiller@texaswatchdog.org. Contact Lynn Walsh at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org.

An investigation for Texas Watchdog:

HISD to review travel policy; Superintendent Terry Grier: ‘Any kind of issues with travel you have, we will look at’
Fri Jun 18 06:51:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh and Steve Miller

The school district says travel rules will be updated in time for the start of school this fall. Texas Watchdog’s recent reporting on district flights shows poor planning and wasted taxpayer dollars.

HOUSTON — Houston Independent School District officials say a new travel policy will be in place by the start of the new school year, following a reorganization of district employees that began in March.

The district statement follows a Texas Watchdog report that documented thousands of taxpayer dollars squandered on pricey travel.

“As a result of the new organizational change and elimination of the regional offices, many policies and administrative regulations are being reviewed,” the district’s Chief Financial Officer Melinda Garrett said in a written response to questions posed by Texas Watchdog, which has been examining district travel records. “The district will have updated travel guidelines ready for schools and departments prior to the start of school.”

A Texas Watchdog story Friday highlighted instances of poor planning, flights taken for short distances and a $30 surcharge on each airline ticket purchased through a travel agency despite the district’s employment of two full-time travel clerks.

Texas Watchdog posed several questions to the district last Tuesday, pertaining to its travel spending and policy.

In a written response the district e-mailed to Texas Watchdog Wednesday, Garrett said:

* The district uses rebates from a credit card used for travel that enable it to employ two people to assist with travel rather than one.

“A second position was critical if the district was going to start purchasing tickets via the Internet,” Garrett said. “At the same time, the district made the decision to have tickets purchased directly through the Internet and to start reducing the services the district uses with Advantage Travel.” That second person has been employed by the district since at least 2008, records show.

* The use of a travel agency is required when booking group flights because online booking is not “user friendly” for such travel. She also said a travel agency has better access to a computer system “that show[s] multiple destinations, various airlines and the best pricing for the most expedient routes.”

In an interview with Texas Watchdog Thursday, Garrett said that the district is not getting rid of its travel services through Advantage Travel.

“There are still situations when using a travel agent is easier for us,” Garrett said. “When large groups are traveling or when students are involved (Advantage Travel) can look at everything that is out there for us. … And international flights, we will always use a travel agent for.”

For the last three years, though, most of the fees paid to Advantage have been for individual fares, records show.

* Schools are allowed to travel in accordance with their own needs, and “the role of the Finance Office is not to second-guess the plans made by schools but to oversee trends and look for potential items that do not seem justified,” Garrett said in her e-mailed response.

Texas Watchdog’s review of the district’s travel records showed that the free rein given to each school has the potential to trigger unnecessary expense. In one e-mail, a staffer said a more expensive fare was an option simply because the money was available.

“Due to the available funds our school Principal Monico Rivas would be traveling to Falls Church, Virginia with an airfare ticket in the amount of $1,314.50,” a staffer at Liberty High School said by e-mail to travel clerk Lynne Lyman in May 2008. Flights at the same price were purchased for two other staffers. It wasn’t apparent from the flight records what event they were attending.

In a continuing review of more than 2,000 pages of flight-related documents, Texas Watchdog also found that on July 6, 2009, the district paid $2,200.33 for a July 9 plane ticket to send Ted Williams, a middle years coordinator at Lamar High School, to Quebec for a conference that had been planned months in advance.

Most of the extravagant costs uncovered by Texas Watchdog’s records review were incurred through last-minute purchases like the ticket for Williams.

Garrett dismissed the notion of better planning, citing the importance of time for traveling employees.

“It is not as easy as you may think. People have different schedules, and when you use connecting flights, you have to factor in time. And sometimes their time could be better spent doing something else instead of paid to do nothing,” she said. “You have to be considerate of people’s time.”

But should employees be allowed to take last-minute flights or have the freedom to select fares that tack hundreds of dollars onto a fare?

Garrett declined to answer the question and said she was “not going to speak to the past.”

Garrett said the new travel policy will be discussed in administrative meetings over the summer. Among the items to be addressed: Paying for the luggage for traveling teachers and administrators. She’s for it.

“I think it is ridiculous for people who are traveling on some of their own time for business to pay those fees,” she said.

Superintendent Terry Grier refused Thursday to grant an interview to Texas Watchdog regarding its findings on HISD travel.

“Our staff tells me that they have answered your stories and answered your questions,” Grier said Thursday after a meeting of the HISD trustees. “And so that’s all I have to say. Any kind of issues with travel you have, we will look at, we will look at it carefully. And that’s all there is to say about it, so thank you.”

A story produced for Texas Watchdog:

HISD talks transparency, strategic plan
Fri Jun 18 14:52:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Community members, teachers and parents have weighed in, and their message to HISD is that it needs to focus on accountability and transparency, Chief of Staff Michele Pola told trustees Thursday.

Pola presented that idea to Houston Independent School District trustees as part of a discussion of the district’s strategic plan. The Strategic Direction presentation included college graduation statistics that were highlighted Thursday by the Houston Press and the Houston Chronicle.
Consultants with Apollo Consulting Group asked parents, community members, employees and others for feedback on how the district should move forward. Key areas of feedback included the importance of effective teachers and principals, data-driven accountability and clear implementation of changes or new programs in the district.

As an organization that works toward greater government transparency, Texas Watchdog is glad to see others joining the fight.

But how is HISD going to push for greater transparency? Some details are forthcoming, but administrators and trustees seemed focused on the goal.

“I have received a few subtle messages that we may need to get better at communicating,” said Aggie Alvez, HISD’s newly appointed communications chief. Alvez said HISD will do that through informational videos and websites that are offered in different languages.

Video, Alvez said, will allow HISD to send out messages that “are not filtered,” in that the message wouldn’t get muddied by the various layers of bureaucracy between trustee and Joe Q. Public.

Texas Watchdog wonders, if the message is crafted by the HISD communications department, isn’t it still filtered? What do you think? Will more video from HISD help you understand policy changes, new programs, etc.? Or will it be just another public relations tool?

Alvez also said HISD should use a wide range of media, from newsletters to phone calls. What medium of communication would you like HISD to use more of? Less of? None of?

We want to hear from you. Contact us via Twitter @lwalsh or e-mail lynn@texaswatchdog.org, call 713-228-2850 or send good old snail mail to 945 McKinney St., #221, Houston, TX 77002. Let us know how HISD can be held accountable and be more transparent for you.
You can also message trustees and administrators. Superintendent Terry Grier’s contact information is here. E-mail HISDSuperintendent@houstonisd.org. School Board President Greg Meyers’ is here. E-mail gmeyers@houstonisd.org

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