Tag: Investigations
HISD parents and students will learn, then earn
by Lynn Walsh on Aug.26, 2010, under Investigations, Video, What's New
A story produced for Texas Watchdog:
HISD parents and students will learn, then earn
Thu Aug 26 12:48:00 2010 CST
By Lynn WalshSome Houston parents and students will get paid for participating in a new academic incentive program after Houston Independent School District trustees approved the $1.5 million privately-funded program Thursday at a board workshop.
Parents will receive $20 up to nine times a year to attend conferences with their child’s teachers, Chuck Morris, HISD’s chief academic officer, said. Students will receive $2 for every objective they complete.Morris said these objectives will be in the form of homework sheets the student would complete and the parents would sign. If all of the 200 objectives are completed, a student could earn $400. The students’ work will be based on skills measured by the standardized test TAKS, or Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.
Twenty schools will be selected for the program, which is being funded by the Dallas-based Liemandt Foundation.
Morris said HISD is still working on developing a relationship with a bank or financial institution that would provide financial education to students as well as set up bank accounts for the students’ earnings.
HISD trustees approved the new program with a 7-0 vote. Trustee Carol Galloway was absent, and Trustee Diana Dávila’s seat is vacant.
Trustee Harvin Moore said he was intrigued by the new program.
“I know experts have looked at this, and this is not just an initial idea,” Moore said. “It’s been tried before, so I kind of trust them for the moment.”
Listen to his entire comments in the video below.
Morris said the elementary schools with the lowest math scores in the district will be selected for the program. According to HISD, none of the schools in a separate academic achievement program known as Apollo 20 will be involved. Elementary schools for that program have not been named.
In the planning phases for Apollo 20, Superintendent Terry Grier said students could get paid between $7-$8 an hour to attend tutoring sessions. HISD has put that plan on hold, but Morris said it could be discussed for the 2011-12 school year.
When the option of paying students at the Apollo 20 schools was being discussed in May, Texas Watchdog asked Grier if it was fair to pay some students and not others.
“It would be nice to have money to provide tutoring for everyone, but if you don’t have that type of resource then you have to provide tutoring with the resources you have for the students who need it the most,” Grier said. View his entire comments in the video below.
Do you think HISD should pay students to learn? Do you think parents should be paid to attend conferences with teachers? Let us know what you think. Message us on Twitter, @texaswatchdog or @lwalsh. E-mail Lynn Walsh at lynn@texaswatchdog.org.
HISD alternative school provider Community Education Partners releases 2001-03 contract documents with Trustee Larry Marshall
by Lynn Walsh on Aug.26, 2010, under Investigations, Video, What's New
A story produced for Texas Watchdog:
HISD alternative school provider Community Education Partners releases 2001-03 contract documents with Trustee Larry Marshall
Wed Aug 25 13:25:00 2010 CST
By Lynn WalshHouston Independent School District Trustee Larry Marshall made at least $72,000 over two years from a company that will be paid $13.7 million this year to run an alternative school for HISD, documents show.
Contracts obtained from Community Education Partners show that Marshall worked for Community Education Partners, or CEP, as a consultant earning $3,000 per month from 2001-2003. Marshall’s work was performed under the auspices of his firm M Associates of Houston.
According to Randle Richardson, chief executive officer for CEP, Marshall was also working for the alternative school company in 2000 under similar terms, but he could not locate that document. With three one-year contracts, Marshall would have earned $108,000 from CEP from 2000 to 2003.
The figures conflict with the salary of $72,000 annually reported by the Houston Press in 2006 based on court documents, but Marshall has said the higher figure is incorrect.
The contract documents support Marshall’s earlier statement that he didn’t work on the Nashville, Tenn.-based company’s behalf in Texas, and that he resigned in 2004 when a policy was put in place to bar trustees from earning income from district contractors. In fact, Richardson said Marshall performed no work after the contract term was up in June 2003.
According to the contracts:
“The responsibility of the Consultant shall be to initiate contacts and perform duties requested in the normal course of the Company’s business development efforts. This responsibility only includes efforts outside of the state of Texas.”
Richardson said both Marshall and CEP wanted to make sure that Marshall “didn’t do anything in Texas.”
“At the time everyone patted it on the back for going above and beyond what was necessary,” Richardson said. “Lately when I have been contacted people act like this was a deep dark secret. It was not, we did not go behind closed doors, we disclosed everything to the board and did this in public.”
Marshall has acknowledged working for CEP as a consultant many times. At a board meeting in June, Marshall said he was a “consultant in Atlanta assisting them with business development and helped them to have a presence in Atlanta.” You can view his entire comments in the video clip below.
According to Marshall and Richardson, before Marshall signed a contract to be a consultant for CEP, it was discussed with HISD lawyers, the district and trustees “in order to avoid a conflict.”
Richardson said HISD lawyers allowed the arrangement as long as “the contract was disclosed openly, Marshall did not vote on anything dealing with CEP and Marshall did not enter into any discussions involving CEP or lobby district staff on behalf of CEP.” The standards are listed in the contracts.
Individuals associated with the alternative school provider — which Superintendent Terry Grier in March said should be cut loose, then a few months later said should be retained — have also donated to Marshall’s campaign. Marshall’s most recent campaign finance reports show that his campaign received $2,500 from individuals associated with CEP during the months of debate over whether to renew the contract. HISD trustees approved the contract in June, 6-1, with Marshall voting in favor. Trustee Anna Eastman voted against the contract renewal, and Trustees Paula Harris and Diana Dávila, who resigned earlier this month, were not present.
“If someone sends us a solicitation, we will send something. If there is a golf tournament and someone asks us to buy a ticket, we will,” Richardson said.
Marshall has said the donations did not create a conflict of interest because it was not the first time CEP had donated to trustee campaigns. Richardson and another executive at CEP gave $1,000 total to HISD Trustee Mike Lunceford, who voted to renew the contract.
Contact Lynn Walsh at lynn@texaswatchdog.org or 713-228-2850. Follow @lwalsh or search #HISD on Twitter for news about the Houston Independent School District.
Covering Elections: TrentTV | Aired August 24 via newmediatv.org
by Lynn Walsh on Aug.26, 2010, under Video, What's New
A story produced for Texas Watchdog:
Covering Elections: TrentTV | Aired August 24 via newmediatv.org
Tue Aug 24 12:50:00 2010 CST
By Lee Ann O’Neal
Texas Watchdog logoView today’s TrentTV episode on covering elections below. Hosts Mark Lisheron and Jennifer Peebles chatted with our live audience about backgrounding candidates, in-depth profiles, and issues coverage.
Texas Watchdog’s Lynn Walsh, usually behind the camera producing the show, will host the next TrentTV, a live discussion of watchdog stories on schools to air at 11:30 a.m. CST Sept. 28.
newmediatvorg on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free
Video: HISD Trustee Larry Marshall defends prior consulting gig with Community Education Partners, an HISD vendor
by Lynn Walsh on Jul.25, 2010, under Investigations, What's New
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 WalshHouston 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.
HISD trustees approve $1.6 billion budget
by Lynn Walsh on Jun.27, 2010, under What's New
A story written for Texas Watchdog:
HISD trustees approve $1.6 billion budget
Fri Jun 25 13:49:41 2010 CST
By Lynn WalshHouston 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.
Former HISD employees accused of wrongdoing in E-Rate technology program named
by Lynn Walsh on Jun.27, 2010, under Investigations, What's New
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 WalshWilliam 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.
Back Story: HISD’s travel records show wasted taxpayer dollars, poor planning, toothless travel rules
by Lynn Walsh on Jun.27, 2010, under Investigations, What's New
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 WalshTexas 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.
Houston ISD administrator to resign following Key Middle School investigation into misspending; view purchases on administrator’s HISD procard here
by Lynn Walsh on Apr.29, 2010, under Investigations, What's New
A story written for Texas Watchdog:
Houston ISD administrator to resign following Key Middle School investigation into misspending; view purchases on administrator’s HISD procard here
Tue Mar 30 21:27:00 2010 CST
By Lynn Walsh
An administrator at a Houston high school has resigned following an investigation into misspending at Key Middle School, Houston ISD Superintendent Terry Grier said Tuesday.
Dolores Westmoreland, who is listed in an HISD employee database as an assistant principal at Kashmere High School, is quitting as of Wednesday, Grier said. An internal investigation done by a private firm for the school district said Westmoreland failed “to oversee the proper administration of the TAKS testing as well as misuse of the PROCARD,” referring to a standardized test and a credit card that certain HISD employees may use to purchase school supplies. A voice message left Tuesday afternoon at a home phone for a Dolores A. Westmoreland was not returned.
The investigation report details purchases made by Westmoreland at Wal-Mart between December 2007 and January 2008. According to the report, Westmoreland used HISD employee Mireya Villanueva’s procard to make purchases at the store, signing her own name on the receipts.
But the report says that’s not the only time Villanueva’s procard was used by someone other than Villanueva. The report also says that Villanueva’s procard was also used by former Key Principal Mable Caleb in December 2007; the receipts show that Caleb sometimes signed her own name and at other times signed Villanueva’s.
View transactions for procard holder Dolores A. Westmoreland here, and for Mireya Villanueva-Schendel, a secretary at Key, here. The records are culled from a database of procard transactions from Jan. 1, 2007 to Oct. 2, 2009, and show spending on Westmoreland’s card of more than $22,000.(A separate database of HISD worker salaries Texas Watchdog acquired from the school district earlier this year identified Villanueva as a secretary at Key; she is not accused of any wrongdoing in the report.)
From the investigation report:
The evidence reflects that there was a pattern and practice of gross mismanagement and abuse of authority by Key administration including Mable Caleb, Bernett Harris, and Peggy Collins. Other Key employees participated by distributing live TAKS tests and misrepresenting their credentials during this investigation (Richard Adebayo), attempting to obstruct the investigation (Herbert Lenton), participating in a fraud on the school district by accepting compensation for hours not documented as worked and misues of the PROCARD (Elgie Wade), failing to oversee the proper administration of the TAKS testing as well as misuse of the PROCARD (Dolores Westmoreland), and failing to properly oversee special education services at Key (Jackie Anderson).
Grier said “there is one more situation we are investigating” at Key Middle School, but declined to offer more details on what or who was involved. Once the investigation is complete, Grier said the HISD employees involved will have another opportunity to respond to the allegations.
“Some people may think this is just piling on,” Grier said. “But it isn’t. If you did something wrong, you did something wrong.”
According to Grier the district attorney is not currently investigating the allegations discovered at Key, but the Texas Education Agency has a copy of HISD’s investigation report.
TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said the state agency did receive the report on March 12, and it is currently being reviewed.
“Once the review is complete, they will decide how to move forward,” Culbertson said. “It’s hard to say what will happen.”
The investigation at Key Middle School began after HISD received an anonymous tip to look at surveillance video from Key and Kashmere High. The video showed several people removing computers and other equipment out of one school and into the other. The private investigation conducted by the law firm Martin Disiere Jefferson & Wisdom found multiple examples of price gouging of snacks for students, unauthorized fundraisers aimed at students, and thousands of dollars of missing equipment.
