CISD Withholds TEA Preliminary Report from the Public and School Board Candidates

by Micki Nellis

Outgoing Cleburne ISD Superintendent Robert Damron received the Texas Education Agency Preliminary Report in electronic format sometime before 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 11. This report was the culmination of more than a year’s investigation by TEA on how CISD spent or misspent federal funds earmarked to improve the children’s education.

CISD administration has all along claimed they are innocent of any wrongdoing. Now they show all signs of fighting tooth and toenail to prevent release of the report to the public. Why?

Harold Gentry, who filed the original complaint, was notified by TEA’s auditor Ramon Medina at 2:30 p.m. March 11 that the report was in Damron’s hands.

CleburnePolitics.com sent out a news release to its subscribers at 3:42 p.m. Then the editor, Micki Nellis, wondered if the CISD School Board knew the report was there, so she sent out a news release to all School Board Members at 4:18 p.m. on Tuesday, March 11. Apparently the School Board did not know it was there.

CleburnePolitics.com attempted to submit an Open Records Request for the report by email on March 11, only to find that both their email addresses were blocked by CISD’s spam blocker. The Open Records Request was hand-delivered the morning of March 12, Wednesday morning, along with a request to be removed by CISD’s spam blocker so CleburnePolitics.com could communicate by email.

Cleburne ISD School Board Candidate Wendell Dempsey said he requested a copy of the TEA report in electronic format on Wednesday afternoon, March 12 from Sally Smith, Superintendent Damron’s assistant. He was told he would have to come back the next day because they were busy. Dempsey stated that it would not be fair to deny him the report if any of the other candidates had access to it. Ms. Smith agreed.

The next day, Thursday, March 13, Dempsey said he returned and was told that he would have to submit an Open Records Request, and that CISD would then submit it to the Attorney General to see if CISD was required to supply the report, and that it would take the Attorney General about four weeks to rule, and that CISD would not get around to asking the Attorney General until the week beginning March 24. That would bring the total time for an answer to at least five weeks. That would mean that the contents of the report probably would not be revealed before the School Board Election May 10.

Dempsey asked if the School Board had copies. Sally Smith said that yes, all members of the School Board had copies.

Since Ms. Smith admitted the School Board members have copies, that means that School Board Candidate Stu Madison, running for re-election, has a copy. That means that at least one School Board Candidate has a copy of the report, and it was denied to Candidate Wendell Dempsey.

Question: Do the School Board Candidates have a right to know what is in the report so they can know what they are getting into if elected? Is it fair for one or more candidates to have a copy while it is denied to others?

Note that one School Board Candidate, Brad Allen, was on the board during the alleged misspending of federal funds. Brad Allen ran for and won re-election last year, then resigned 3 days after he was sworn in. Brad Allen is running again this year. Wendell Dempsey is one of his opponents.

Also note that Brad Allen is good friends with current School Board Member Brad Mead, who was also on the Board during the alleged misspending of federal funds. Therefore it is highly likely that Candidate Brad Allen has access to the report.

Do the voters not have the right to know the contents of the report so they can decide whether Brad Allen should be held accountable at the ballot box for any misspending?

If the report was provided to anyone in electronic format or by hard copy, there is no control over who they show it to or to whom they forward the electronic file.

More Questions:

Does the Community have a right to know what the TEA has said about how CISD has spent federal funds? Remember, these are taxpayer funds that were supposed to be spent to help the children learn.

Do voters have a right to know what is in the report so they can make an informed choice when voting for School Board Trustees?

Does any prospective new Superintendent have a right to know what is in the report so he can know what he might be getting into if offered the job?

Our Opinion:

Our opinion is that CISD is continuing a coverup.

Some school personnel have seen the report, and all the School Board Trustees (and possibly their friends) have seen the report. This situation makes the unprivileged members of the community and voters vulnerable to being fed untruths, half truths, and outright lies.

Wouldn’t it be better to let the general public know the unvarnished truth? Wouldn’t it be better to let all citizens read the report for themselves instead of leaving it open for gossip for two months? This is not just a school problem. It is a community problem. The community has a right to know the facts.

CISD administration has all along claimed they are innocent of any wrongdoing. If that is the case, why are they stonewalling about releasing the report to the public?

Oh yes, email from CleburnePoltics.com is still on CISD’s spam blocked list.

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