Lynn Walsh

An investigation for Texas Watchdog:

Wife of Houston ISD trustees president Paula Harris’ campaign manager does $75K in no-bid consulting for HISD
Tuesday, Jun 28, 2011, 08:55AM CST
By Lynn Walsh and Jennifer Peebles

The Houston school system has paid the wife of the school board president’s campaign treasurer $75,000 in no-bid work over the last two years as a consultant, arranging classes and after-school programs on subjects including CPR, English as a second language, jazz dance and parenting.

Demetra C. Jones, the wife of prominent Houston lawyer Franklin D.R. “Frank” Jones Jr., and her businesses have been paid $78,110 by the Houston Independent School District since 2009, records released by the school system show.

Frank Jones is the campaign treasurer for Paula Harris, who was elected to the HISD trustees in 2007 and who became the trustees’ president in January. Frank Jones has also done legal work for the Houston schools, including serving as lead negotiator for the school district when it hired current Superintendent Terry Grier away from the San Diego, Calif., schools two years ago.

Demetra Jones is the former longtime head of human resources and risk management for Harris County Precinct One, working under County Commissioner El Franco Lee for two decades. She previously served as office manager in City Hall for state Sen. Rodney Ellis when he was a Houston city councilman some 20 years ago, and was public affairs manager for Ellis’ Houston investment bank, Apex Securities, according to two resumes available online.

(continue reading…)

An investigation for Texas Watchdog:

Houston ISD tech vendors spent ‘significant funds’ to entertain trustees Larry Marshall, Manuel Rodriguez, court filing alleges
Thursday, Jun 23, 2011, 09:08AM CST
By Lynn Walsh and Jennifer Peebles

Vendors selling computer equipment to the Houston public schools spent “significant funds” to entertain school trustees Larry Marshall and Manuel Rodriguez, attorneys representing whistleblowers and the federal government allege in court documents, calling the payments “unlawful” and “designed to secure business from” the Houston schools.

Meanwhile, the court documents also allege that one of the Houston Independent School District’s top officials in the early part of the last decade, Cathy Mincberg, had an extramarital affair with a consultant whom the school district paid more than $5 million — a consultant she was reported by the local press to have had a hand in hiring.

The federal government has taken over as lead plantiff in the lawsuit, and court filings do not elaborate in court filings on what, specifically, the “significant funds” included or how much money was involved. Calls for comment to the plantiff’s lawyers were not returned.

The revelations come on the heels of reports that a Houston schools vendor, insurance agent and state Rep. Borris Miles, offered to arrange all-expenses-paid trips to Costa Rica to most of the school system’s trustees last year — and that Marshall went on two of the trips. It also follows reporting by Texas Watchdog that school trustees president Paula Harris voted on $28 million in contracts that included work for a company owned and run by one of her closest friends.

(continue reading…)

An investigation for Texas Watchdog:

Houston ISD trustees president Paula Harris voted on millions of dollars in contracts involving close friend’s firms
Thursday, Jun 09, 2011, 06:07AM CST
By Lynn Walsh

When the Houston Independent School District has a problem, it increasingly looks to Nicole West to solve it.

Need schools painted or fences installed? HISD hired Nicole West’s firm Westco. Need security cameras and burglar alarms installed at schools? It hired Westco. Need drapes dry cleaned for a school auditorium? It paid Westco to do it.

Need elementary school students tutored in reading? HISD paid Nicole West to tutor them. Need a high school decorated for a rededication ceremony? It paid Nicole West. Need an ambulance on standby for a high school football game? It hired another of West’s firms, a small, private ambulance service.

And when the nation’s seventh-largest school district wanted to hire a private investigations firm to track down truant high-schoolers, it didn’t pick any of the big PI firms in Houston, some of whom have dozens of investigators and have been in business for decades. It instead hired a small firm, only a few years old, owned and run by Nicole West. With two licensed investigators today, the firm’s current legal address with the state is West’s residence in Pearland.

(continue reading…)

A story produced for Texas Watchdog:

Paula Harris defends friendships with HISD contractors; Larry Marshall says he’ll go on more Latin American trips: Featured videos
Monday, Jun 27, 2011, 03:40PM CST
By Lynn Walsh and Jennifer Peebles

The president of the Houston schools trustees defended her friendships with people doing business with the school district at last week’s school board meeting, while another trustee defended going on all-expenses-paid trips to Costa Rica arranged by the school district’s flood insurance agent — and said he planned to go on more such trips.

Paula Harris, president of the Houston Independent School District trustees, said she had many friends doing work with the school district.

Her comments came after a presentation at Thursday night’s school board meeting that she said was dedicated to all of HISD’s teachers, principals, partners and vendors, “all of the folks that provide a great service and provide great added value to the Houston Independent School District. And I’m not ashamed ever to say that I’m friends with some of them.” She pointed out a couple of them in the audience by name, volunteers with the nonprofit Project GRAD.

(continue reading…)

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

Houston ISD leaders won’t criticize trustees president Paula Harris for voting on contracts that included work for close friend’s firm
Thursday, Jun 16, 2011, 09:30AM CST
By Lynn Walsh

The leadership of the Houston Independent School District hasn’t said in so many words that it’s entirely appropriate for HISD trustees president Paula Harris to vote on contracts that included work for a company owned and run by one of Harris’ closest friends.

But they certainly aren’t condemning her for it.

(See the orignal Texas Watchdog story by clicking here.)

Trustee Carol Mims Galloway said she didn’t know whether the votes presented a conflict of interest. Trustee Manuel Rodriguez said it was a personal decision, Greg Meyers said it was “up to the individual board member,” and Harvin Moore said it was a “judgment call.” HISD Superintendent Terry Grier said through a spokesman that he would not voice an opinion on the matter. And the school system’s spokesman criticized Texas Watchdog for characterizing Harris’ votes as a potential conflict of interest.

(continue reading…)

A story produced for Texas Watchdog:

Some Houston ISD trustees question cost of proposed ‘career academies’
Friday, May 20, 2011, 10:56AM CST
By Lynn Walsh

Some Houston school district trustees are questioning whether the time is right to spend $1.6 million on proposed “career academies” at four high schools that would allow students to earn both their high school diploma and an associate’s degree in just five years.

As the Houston Independent School District prepares to lose $160 million in state funding next year, the school district is also proposing to launch the career academies at Furr, Sterling, Kashmere and Scarborough high schools through a partnership with Houston Community College.

(continue reading…)

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

4 HISD schools to be closed; view trustees’ comments in video here
Friday, May 13, 2011, 06:12PM CST
By Lynn Walsh

This will be the last school year for Rhoads, Grimes, Stevenson and McDade elementaries now that Houston school district trustees have voted to close those campuses.

The closures will save the Houston Independent School District close to $700,000 next year and $1.8 million the following year, the head of the district’s financial department, Melinda Garrett, said during the Thursday board meeting.

Trustee Carol Galloway voted against the closure of all four schools. Trustee Juliet Stipeche voted against the closure of Rhoads, Grimes and Stevenson elementaries but not McDade Elementary School. Trustee Manuel Rodriguez was absent for the votes, but present during other parts of the meeting. The other six trustees approved the closures.

(continue reading…)

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

Neighbors fear ‘eyesores’ if HISD closes four schools; old Bastian Elementary to be bulldozed
Thursday, May 12, 2011, 11:30AM CST
By Lynn Walsh

The proposed closures of four Houston elementary schools could leave those neighborhoods with more eyesores and create safe havens for illegal activity, some neighbors have said — but school district administrators said they’re taking steps to prevent that from happening.

As Houston Independent School District trustees consider closing four elementary schools, community members are reminding them of the forlorn condition of another campus, the old Bastian Elementary building on Calhoun Road.

“The fact that an unoccupied, unused, raggedy, unmonitored, closed school … sits within 1.3 miles of Grimes Elementary School and only 3 miles away from Rhoads Elementary School is very unsettling,” Tristan Washington told HISD Superintendent Terry Grier and trustees in an e-mail. “We don’t need another school closure which results in another ‘old Bastian Elementary’ situation.”

(continue reading…)

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

Houston’s Sunnyside neighborhood appeals to save Grimes Elementary School from closure: Featured video
Wednesday, Apr 20, 2011, 09:12AM CST
By Lynn Walsh

As the Houston school system continues to debate closing 17 elementary and middle schools in the district, alumni and community members at one school are creating a video awareness campaign to save their school.

Opened in 1952, B.H. Grimes Elementary School in Houston’s Sunnyside neighborhood, may see its final bell ring come June, as Houston Independent School District trustees consider closing small schools in the district.

Local Grimes alumni are hoping to keep the doors to the school open a little longer and they are pleading their case with a video, which is today’s featured video on the Texas Watchdog home page.

“When you go to HISD meetings, they show their videos,” said Travis McGee, a civic leader in Sunnyside. “Their videos paint the pretty picture, but that’s not reality. Our video shows the reality.”

(continue reading…)

A story produced for Texas Watchdog:

View the latest Trent TV online: Tips on obtaining and reveiwing public officials’ emails
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2011, 03:04PM CST
By Lynn Walsh

Trent TV is a free monthly journalism webinar focusing on open government issues. It airs LIVE on www.newmediatv.org to help journalists, citizen journalists, blogger, activists and you!