What’s Happening with Personnel at CISD?

According to former Interim Superintendent Dr. James Warlick on July 9, 2008, the following situation exists:

Mike Bailey will remain with the title of Assistant Superintendent at the same salary. A new Chief Financial Officer will be hired.

Dr. Sharron Miles will remain at the same salary through November 7 as a "consultant" even though she resigned effective July 1.

Carolyn Cody retired as Assistant Superintendent. She will be rehired for an estimated 2 - 3 weeks to train her replacement. There are 12 to 13 applicants for this spot.

Amy Martin, Dr. Sharron Miles’ daughter, resigned.

Earlier, Joe Ripple left his position as Assistant Superintendent shortly after the investigation began, but he was in charge of Human Resources when the $177,000 of federal funds were spent on speech therapists and other staff without proper documentation and certifications on file. This money will now have to be paid back.

In March, Superintendent Robert Damron was "reassigned" as a "consultant" and collected his full salary until July 1 while performing no duties.

Our Comments:

Harold Gentry and Alden Nellis have met with Dr. James Warlick three times and state that he is honest and well-intentioned. However, he was hired to minimize the damage from the TEA audit. He will be here for only another month or two.

Gentry and Nellis have not met with new Superintendent Dr. Ronny Beard. Dr. Warlick cancelled out on a scheduled meeting July 8 which Dr. Beard had said he could not attend. Dr. Beard seems like a nice guy but there are persistent rumors that he has ties to some in the "good ole boy" system.

Mike Bailey was in charge of finances and a CPA since 1982 but did not exercise the proper control. Since most of Mike Bailey’s job was as Financial Officer and that duty is being assigned to a new hire, Mike Bailey will have very little to do to earn his $102,000 a year salary.

Dr. Sharron Miles is being paid for more than 4 months, through November 7, even though she is not on site and has nothing to do after July 1.

Carolyn Cody was eligible to retire and did so, but there are rules against retiring to be rehired.

To our knowledge, no one has been fired. No one has been asked to pay back the money they misspent. No one has been publicly reprimanded. No one has admitted to any wrongdoing. Even though CleburnePolitics.com posted copies of receipts and mis-expenditures on the internet three years ago, the school board’s public statements imply they are completely surprised and at a loss to explain how this happened.

The CISD school board has just authorized $2 million in new expense for an indoor practice facility to be paid from the general fund which has unallocated (excess) funds of $11.2 million.