Lynn Walsh

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

FOIA: Fun-Ongoing-Interesting-Activities
Aug 09 2010
By Lynn Walsh, Texas Watchdog

With deadline after deadline in a TV newsroom it can be laughable to think anyone would have time to file a freedom of Information act request.

On top of taking the time to file it correctly, there is always the time it takes to find the correct person to send it to, knowing what to ask for and of course waiting and keeping track of the response itself.

While a time crunch is a plausible excuse, it shouldn’t be yours. Here are some tips I have learned along the way on how to use the Freedom of Information Act and state-level public information laws to develop enterprise stories and add some spice to dailies.

1. Prepare Early

This may sound like a no-brainer but sometimes it helps to be reminded. There are certain documents that are filed on the same date every year-campaign finance reports, conflict of interest reports, etc. Keep a calendar of when the documents are due and prepare requests ahead of time that can be sent first thing on the due date.

2. Subscribe to e-mail lists

It can be annoying to have a inbox flooded with newsletters–but remember it only takes one click to delete them. Subscribe to what corresponds to your beat. E-mail newsletters will show you reports that are coming out, big trials, etc. Reports often stem from audits-request it. You may have a summary of the trial but why not request the whole court document?

3. Request Databases

Whether it is a salary database or a contract database, the information listed inside can be invaluable time and time again. Once you put in the request make sure you have access to those databases at all times. Details like salary, hire dates, contract totals a company has with a city or other government entity always add to the story and can help set your story a part from the competition.

4. E-mails/Communication

Was there a little argument at the City Council meeting? Heard rumors about construction bids being approved “in the dark?” Request all communication records: e-mail, written, phone, etc. from the players involved. Don’t forget about personal schedules, calendars, personal cell phones, personal e-mails….

Documents hold information that is hard to refute and they are always “on the record” when attained through FOIA or public information laws. Use this to your advantage!

A story produced for Texas Watchdog:

What’s for lunch at HISD, and who’s chewing on it?
Mon Aug 23 13:53:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

As students in the Houston Independent School District head back to class this week new items will be dished out on their school lunch trays.
An article in the Houston Chronicle Sunday detailed some of the new items students may choose for lunch:

“Among the items debuting on Houston-area school lunch menus this academic year: yams, Brussels sprouts, acorn squash, edamame and bok choy. Sushi, Cuban pork tacos and spinach salads also will be served up as some area school districts try to meet increasing pressure to offer more nutritious school lunches. Old favorites, such as chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese, remain on most menus but have been overhauled to be healthier.”

The nutritional value of the food HISD serves students is not a new issue. HISD trustees regularly discuss food nutrition values at board meetings.

Trustee Anna Eastman has pushed Aramark, the food service company HISD has contracted this year for $5.8 million, to improve food nutritional values and make more food from scratch.

“You guys are looking at making your own yogurt next year, and it would be nice if we did not have the Trix yogurt anymore. Trix are for kids, but it is also sugary,” Eastman said at a board workshop meeting in May.

Earlier in the year, while an expanded breakfast program was being implemented at schools across the district, the debate over healthy food continued.

Eastman again encouraged Aramark to make more food from scratch. View her comments in the clip below.

The debate over healthy food in HISD has not been confined to board meetings and trustee conversations. Two blogs, First Class Breakfast? and The Lunch Tray weigh in on the food being served to HISD students.

First Class Breakfast? provides a history of the expanded breakfast program and pictures of what students are eating for breakfast at schools in HISD. The Lunch Tray, linked today by Off the Kuff and highlighted in the Chronicle story, looks at the nutritional value of school lunches across the country while using the Houston Independent School District as an example in many blog posts.

The debate over nutritional food options in HISD does not seem to be ceasing anytime soon. We want to know what you think. Are the new food options being offered enough?

Contact Lynn Walsh at at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org. Follow news about the Houston Independent School District on Twitter, #HISD.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

Texas Watchdog blogger meet-up this Saturday: Visit with us, talk politics and transparency
Tue Aug 3 13:30:13 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

The long-awaited Texas Watchdog blogger meet-up is right around the corner — and you’re invited.

Join us Saturday afternoon at the Stag’s Head pub to mix and mingle with area bloggers, activists, journalists and others who are passionate about Houston and Texas politics and government transparency.

What: Texas Watchdog blogger meet-up

Why: Talk shop with Texas Watchdog staff and local bloggers/journalists/activists

When: 3-5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 7

Where: Stag’s Head, 2128 Portsmouth St., Houston, TX 77098-4057

All are welcome! Come alone or bring friends — the more the merrier.

We’ll also celebrate Texas Watchdog’s second birthday.

Questions? Contact Lynn Walsh, lynn@texaswatchdog.org, 713-228-2850, Twitter: @lwalsh.

Hope to see you there!

This story produced for Texas Watchdog:

HISD launches Myth Busters web page to ‘clarify misinformation’
Wed Jul 28 11:41:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

HISD is shaking up the way the district handles media relations and communications by adding a new page to its website titled “Myth Busters,” apparently intended to refute negative stories about the school system that appear in the local press.
The “Myth Busters” page appeared on the Houston Independent School District’s website over the weekend “to clarify misinformation or rumors,” the page reads. The new page has appeared less than three months after the school system hired a new communications director, one who recently said the system “may need to get better at communicating.”

Does the name “Myth Busters” sound familiar? It’s also the name — minus the space between words — of a popular TV show on the Discovery Channel that uses scientific experiments to verify or debunk urban legends and modern-day folklore, such as whether driving a car with the windows open uses more gas than driving it with the air conditioner running.

(The federal Transportation Security Administration also has a similar “Myth Busters” page on its website. According to online trademark databases, the Discovery Channel has sought, but not yet received, a trademark for the name “MythBusters.” A voicemail left with a Discovery spokeswoman Tuesday afternoon was not returned.)

HISD’s Myth Busters’ first post, published Friday, provided the district’s response to recent media reports that detailed possible funding shortfalls for summer school and other programs. “While principals may have to pay for some summer school costs out of their budgets, it will not be anywhere near the $19 million being reported in the media,” Myth Busters said.

The next post came Sunday, after Fox 26 reporter and Houston blogger Isiah Carey’s post on special education cuts in HISD. The level and quality of special ed services won’t suffer because of the cuts, Myth Busters said.

HISD did not return a call for comment on Monday. District spokesman Norm Uhl sent an e-mail to a reporter Tuesday apologizing for not returning the call.

The new web page “already resolves two myths — one regarding a reduction in special education teacher positions, and the other regarding funding for summer school, prekindergarten, and the Apollo 20 project,” the district said in a press release Tuesday.

In an interview with My Fox Houston, a local expert in social media raised concerns about the new website.

“They call it ‘Myth Busters.’ They’ve already established that everything they’re going to talk about is a myth,” Brian G. Smith, an assistant professor of communications at the University of Houston, told Fox. “Second of all, the problem is, they’re not putting any information on there where people can come back and give feedback and say, ‘Well, I heard this.’ There is no back and forth.”

HISD’s response? According to the Houston TV station:

“HISD would only respond with a written statement saying it’s working to ensure the community has up-to-date and accurate information about the district. It continues with, ‘As any large company knows, rumors can spread quickly and take on a life of their own, even when factually incorrect. The purpose of the new Myth Busters page on our website is to help clarify misinformation and dispel rumors.’”

The new pages come just months after HISD hired Aggie Alvez as new chief communications officer. She is responsible for overseeing six departments at HISD, including media relations.

Last month at an HISD board workshop meeting Alvez said, “I have received a few subtle messages that we may need to get better at communicating.” Some suggestions included new websites in different languages and more use of video.

“The mistrust has been engendered, people think that we are out there and we are talking the talk but not walking” the walk, Alvez said. “As the message gets filtered down it changes; what (the HISD trustees) say isn’t exactly what a teacher may hear in a classroom or a parent may hear.”

Watch Alvez’s entire comment in the video below.

Another change: HISD will not hold a media roundtable in August, and it is unclear whether the once-a-month question-and-answer sessions with HISD Superintendent Terry Grier will resume.
“We have a couple of press events associated with the beginning of the school year coming up,” Uhl said in an e-mail Tuesday. He didn’t elaborate and added, “more to come on that later.”

In the past, the press chats with Grier, which lasted up to two hours, happened once a month.

Texas Watchdog questioned HISD’s ban on the use of cameras during the media roundtables earlier this year. HISD said cameras were not allowed because they hampered dialogue. Back in April, Uhl elaborated:

“That is counterproductive to what we are trying to do,” Uhl said. “We want to get back to what it has always been, an open and honest conversation. It works better for reporters because they can get more information and ideas for future stories. Sometimes Grier will mention topics he is not ready to go on camera about.”

Texas Watchdog wants to know what you think about HISD’s new Myth Busters website. Do you believe the information is credible, or is it just another public relations tool for the district?

Let us know by leaving comments or sending us messages on Twitter, @TexasWatchdog or @LWalsh. Also, be sure to search #HISD on Twitter for the most recent school news in Houston.

Also reporting:
Houston Press
West University Examiner
My Fox Houston

A story produced for Texas Watchdog:

Video: HISD Trustee Larry Marshall defends prior consulting gig with Community Education Partners, an HISD vendor
Fri Jul 23 11:35:44 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Houston Independent School District Trustee Larry Marshall recently defended a consulting gig with a district contractor, and said it was not a conflict of interest to have earned income from a private group that will be paid $13.7 million this year to run an alternative school for HISD.
Marshall was a “consultant in Atlanta assisting them with business development and helped them to have a presence in Atlanta,” he said at a board meeting last month.

In an interview with Texas Watchdog Tuesday, Marshall said he made sure his contract with Community Education Partners, or CEP, only allowed him to consult “outside the state of Texas.”

The decision to only consult outside Texas “was a personal one,” Marshall said. “At the time there was not a policy that stopped me from working for CEP and serving on the board.”

Marshall said he did not vote on issues relating to HISD while he was a consultant for them — something that would have violated board policy.

In September 2004, HISD trustees adopted a new trustee conflict of interest disclosure policy. The new policy said the district could not “contract with a business entity in which a trustee or anyone related to the trustee…has any pecuniary interest” — in other words, a monetary or financial interest.

Prior to the adoption of the new policy, HISD could do business with a company that employed a trustee, but the trustee involved could not vote or discuss matters related to the company that came before the Board of Education.

The policy also says that “all such contracts executed prior to the effective
date of this policy shall continue to be in full force and effect.”

Marshall said it was after HISD trustees approved the new conflict of interest policy in 2004 that he quit his consulting position with CEP.

“The board voted on the new policy at 10 am and I quit at 10:05,” Marshall said.

According to Marshall, when HISD was discussing the renewal of the CEP contract last month, the trustee’s relationship with CEP had been brought to Superintendent Terry Grier’s attention.

“I think it may have started in closed session,” Marshall said. “The superintendent was updating us on CEP and then it happened, it was a ‘by-the-way’ thing — never a planned conversation, kind of vicarious.”

Marshall said that Grier never called the trustee’s relationship with CEP a conflict of interest.

After the closed session at the June HISD board meeting, Marshall decided to address his relationship with CEP.

Marshall’s employment at CEP was in the news back in 2006, when the Houston Press reported that Marshall earns “$72,000 a year for four days of work each month ($1,500 a day).”

“That is inaccurate,” Marshall said when Texas Watchdog referenced the above article and $72,000 salary. “The checks stopped, and I resigned that same day,” referring to the day in September 2004 when the new conflict of interest policy was adopted by HISD trustees.

Marshall in June joined five of his colleagues on the nine-member board in approving a contract with CEP, 6-1. Trustee Anna Eastman voted against the contract renewal, and Trustees Paula Harris and Diana Davila were not present.

The contract is more than $4 million less than the the 2009-10 cost of $18 million, a savings administrators attribute to more accurate numbers on how many students will be sent to CEP. Students are referred to CEP by principals for a variety of reasons ranging from acts of violence to drug abuse.

Contact Lynn Walsh at lynn@texaswatchdog.org or 713-228-2850. Follow news about the Houston Independent School District on Twitter, #hisd.

A story written for Texas Watchdog:

HISD summer school costs to be covered by individual schools: West University Examiner
Wed Jul 21 19:27:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

A $19 million federal funding shortfall at the Houston Independent School District has been passed on to individual school campuses, according to an article in the West University Examiner.
Programs normally funded by the Houston Independent School District’s central office, like summer school and preschool will now have to be funded by individual school budgets, the article says.

This is not the first time summer school funding has been at the center of budget conversations at HISD. In April, HISD Chief Financial Officer Melinda Garrett and other top administrators were scrambling to find a way to fund summer school programs across the district.

Garrett said HISD normally spends about $28 million to fund summer school, and most of the money for the summer programs comes to the district in the form of Title I funds, federal funding aimed at boosting achievement among poor students. Title I funds are redirected to school districts from the state of Texas.

According to the Examiner, principals at schools across the Houston district were told of projected budget cuts in federal Title I funding for the 2011-12 school year on June 22, just two days before HISD trustees passed the $1.6 billion budget.

The article says:

“Board members were not officially informed of the adjustment until July 14, well after some were alerted by principals in their respective districts; many trustees felt slighted by the miscommunication and have also expressed that a drastic shift in expenses passed to individual schools should have been brought before the board for a vote.

“It’s a sensitive issue we should have addressed up front,” trustee Lawrence Marshall told The Examiner.”

Texas Watchdog has questioned the transparency of the 2010-11 HISD budget process before, asking Garrett if the scheduled public hearing and comments from citizens would really change what the budget looks like, because of their timing on the night of the vote.

Garrett has fired back via the Houston Press, which has updated its earlier item on the funding issue. She tells the alt-weekly that the $19 million figure may change, and that “trustees have known for months about the summer school funding problems.”

For weeks Texas Watchdog has been trying to get answers from HISD to find out how summer school will be funded in coming years. After phone call, e-mail and in-person requests, Texas Watchdog is still waiting for answers from the district.

In the article, the Examiner also describes its difficulty in obtaining information: “HISD originally declined comment. Since last week … HISD leaders have scurried to produce a cohesive explanation for the cuts.”

Contact Lynn Walsh at 713-228-2850 or lynn@texaswatchdog.org. Follow all her reports on the Houston Independent School District by searching #HISD on Twitter.

A story produced for Texas Watchdog:

Lee High School to get up to $1 million in structural repairs
Fri Jul 16 00:15:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Lee High School will be repaired after Houston Independent School District trustees agreed to an emergency use of capital funds at the July board meeting earlier tonight.
The engineering firm Matrix Structural Engineers will lead the project, which could cost up to $1 million, after trustees passed the agenda item unanimously.

HISD administrators have said the school in District VIII is in need of structural repairs. A portion of the school has sunk 9 inches, HISD Superintendent Terry Grier said Thursday night.

Grier said this would not be a permanent fix and told trustees that the building will eventually need to be replaced. Grier on Monday questioned whether adding a planned running track to the campus in northwest Houston is the best investment right now. Trustees did not discuss the track Thursday night.

According to HISD, Lee High School was part of the 2007 Bond Program and received $5.5 million for renovation or repair work. The district says some of the work has already been completed but most is still in the design process.

This stabilization project, according to HISD, cannot be paid for with that pool of money, which was for “major building systems/ADA improvements,” not structural renovations.

According to the contract, Matrix will be responsible for obtaining contractors to stabilize the structure, continually monitoring the structural stability of the high school and assisting HISD in evaluating contractor proposals.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, Trustee Diana Dávila resigned. Find more background in this Houston Chronicle piece, and view video of Dávila’s statement below.

The HISD travel investigation that Texas Watchdog published has been featured on the Investigative Reporters and Editors blog:

District’s travel practices prove costly
Posted on June 21st, 2010

A Texas Watchdog review of three years of the Houston Independent School District’s travel records shows a penchant for pricey, last-minute tickets, and a toothless travel policy that allows teachers and staff broad discretion over travel spending. Reporters also spotlighted the school district’s use of a travel agency that adds $30 to every ticket issued by the district, even though the school system has two employees, paid $50,750 each, devoted full-time to making travel arrangements. Texas Watchdog used paper records, a database of credit card transactions, and interviews to develop this story.

A story produced for Texas Watchdog:

An ethical quandary and our attempt to solve it
Thu Jul 1 20:01:00 2010 CST
By Trent Seibert

Texas Watchdog regularly posts clips to YouTube from Houston Independent School District meetings, which video journalist Lynn Walsh covers.

Last month, we got a request from HISD. Because of a technical difficulty, the district’s staff were unable to produce their usual in-house video of a June meeting of school district trustees, which the school system would normally save for archival purposes and make available to citizens who requested copies. Our reporter was at that meeting, doing some recording for our news website — could HISD have a copy of our footage, the school system asked?

That created a dilemma for us – one that we’re going to try to solve with this blog post.

On one hand, Texas Watchdog fully supports government transparency. We want citizens to be able to access recordings of what HISD trustees do. And certainly, as reporters, we can sympathize with HISD’s situation — we’ve all had tape recorders die, or their batteries die, in the middle of some important interview.

But here’s the tricky part: The idea of a news organization freely turning over unpublished material – whether it’s a recording or handwritten reporter’s notes – at the request of a government agency could set a terrible legal precedent, not only for us, but other news organizations.

We’d like to help HISD make its actions transparent to the public – and helping the school system might seem totally innocent and laudable to many of our readers. But imagine it’s not HISD making the request – imagine the next request comes from the police department, or FBI agents. And the tape isn’t a recording of a school board meeting. It’s video of a crime scene.

Journalists have gone to jail in this country to prevent being forced to turn over unpublished material in such situations. And Texas’ new first-ever reporter shield law, the Free Flow of Information Act, was created in the last session of the legislature to stop just such things. We don’t want to turn over our recording to HISD and set a bad example that is later used in court by some other government entity to argue that journalists somehow don’t mind giving out their source material – and that reporters at Texas Watchdog, or The Houston Chronicle, or KPRC-Channel 2 shouldn’t mind turning over their notes, too.

(Just to be clear, HISD asked us for the footage, and asked nicely. The school system at no time ever threatened us or threatened to force us to give up our video. And this note is not intended to suggest that HISD had any ulterior motive in asking us for the recording. We don’t have anything personally against HISD. We’re just trying to explain our thought process.)

In other words, we don’t feel like we can give HISD our meeting footage. But we are willing to try an alternative.

We’re not giving our meeting footage to HISD – we’re giving it to all of you, the reading public. We are posting on our YouTube page more footage than usual of the June meeting, where anyone with an Internet connection may access it, including HISD.

The clips are linked below:

An audio track from the meeting

Video Clip 1 of 10

Video Clip 2 of 10

Video Clip 3 of 10

Video Clip 4 of 10

Video Clip 5 of 10

Video Clip 6 of 10

Video Clip 7 of 10

Video Clip 8 of 10

Video Clip 9 of 10

Video Clip 10 of 10

Contact Trent Seibert at trent@texaswatchdog.org or 713-980-9776.

A story produced for Texas Watchdog:

Video: HISD Trustee Anna Eastman says school ratings websites boost accountability
Tue Jun 29 18:25:03 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh

Ratings of Houston Independent School District schools are no longer just coming from the State of Texas or the federal government. Now the public can join in the rating game too.

Houston ISD Trustee Anna Eastman said she is excited about the information being aggregated and shared by websites like GreatSchools and EveryBlock.

“I think if we further mobilize the voice of people who are actually experiencing these schools … it just pushes us to do a better job and helps hold us to a greater level of accountability,” Eastman said. View her entire comments below.

Websites like Everyblock and GreatSchools provide forums for comments and ratings for schools in HISD and around the country by parents, community members, teachers and others.

Will information posted on the sites have negative impacts on schools receiving poor ratings? Eastman does not see it that way: “I’m really excited about information that’s out there that is more objective than the systems we have in place to rate our schools,” Eastman said.

Have you used school ratings sites before? What is your opinion on the sites? Let me know. E-mail lynn@texaswatchdog.org, call 713-228-2850. I’m also on Twitter: @Lwalsh.