Q & A Cleburne ISD Investigation

Preface: This is a Q&A session with some members of ACCESS Cleburne, the group which initiated the investigation/audit of misuse of federal funds by CISD administrators.

Q. What started all this?

A. We started looking at school expenses after they called a second bond election six days after the first one failed. We were asking ourselves if they really needed all that money.

We also suspected we were being told untruths. That turned out to be correct.

Voters were told they had to pass the bond immediately in order to get $8 million from the state. That turned out to be untrue. Harold Gentry submitted an Open Records request to Mike Bailey for proof that the district did in fact receive or was receiving the eight million dollars in state aid touted by the 2005 school bond election. Harold recounts “Mr. Bailey sent me 120 pages of data. I requested help from TEA. TEA had Pablo Carasquillo contact me and after going over the 120 pages with him and Mr. Medina they both concluded that what I had been sent had nothing to do with my request. The false documentation was just busy work referred to as smoke and mirrors. They both confirmed that at that time it had not yet been determined if the district was to receive any funds, if ever. I did discuss this with Board President Stu Madison at the time and at length. He is aware of the details.”

Q. Did you go to the school board first when you found examples of misspending? If so, what happened?

A. Yes. Several of us made presentations to the school board. Donna Boles was president at that time, but Superintendent Robert Damron usually took charge of the meetings. Harold Gentry made a clear and concise presentation. Robert Damron criticized and bullied him after the meeting. Alden Nellis, Teresa Blackwell, and Ramon Dinsdale addressed the issues several times. The only thing that happened was that Robert Damron usually bullied them from the dais.

We have requested many times that the Superintendent be seated not on the dais with the School Board but down at the table with the other administrators. This more clearly shows where the division of power should be. The Superintendent is an employee of the taxpayers, who are represented by the School Board. The School Board is the Superintendent’s boss, not his equal.

Citizens are allowed three minutes each for Citizens Comments at most School Board Meetings. The Board is supposed to listen and not comment. Many times our three minutes was interrupted by Robert Damron trying to argue us down.

Q. What was the administration’s attitude?

A. They went along with Robert Damron.

Q. What was the Board’s attitude?

A. They went along with Robert Damron

Q. Did you have any trouble getting your Open Records requests answered?

A. Yes. At first, the school was charging Harold Gentry $40 per hour for “research” plus cost of copies. Harold Gentry’s bills for Open Records were more than $300. Gentry found that by law the school could only charge him $15 per hour for research, and they must notify him in advance if the total cost was more than $40. Gentry complained to the Attorney General, who ruled in his favor. The AG corresponded with the school. In his response to the AG, Assistant Superintendent Mike Bailey answered that he knew the maximum charge was $15 per hour. A reliable source told us that the administration said they were going to find out how deep our pockets were. The school refunded more than $300 to Mr. Gentry.

Q. How did you try to share information with the community?

A. The Cleburne Eagle News printed many of our findings. Copies of actual invoices, receipts and checks were posted at http://www.CleburnePolitics.com where they still can be found. Martha Deller of the Fort Worth Star Telegram and Gary Reeves of Channel 8 both did stories.

The Times Review continued to print puff pieces about how wonderful everything was at the school. The TR would not print anything we sent in. In fact, Alden Nellis got an email from Dale Gosser, editor and a good friend of Robert Damron, saying that Alden could save his ink because he wasn’t going to print anything else from him. When a story broke that should have had a response from our group, the Times Review usually said that Harold Gentry was not available for comment. Even though they had Gentry’s home and cell phone numbers, they didn’t call.

We sent a documented complaint to Kay Helms, publisher of the Times Review, which got no action.

The TR finally called Harold Gentry after the TEA Preliminary Report was issued.

The Cleburne Times Review is owned by a chain based in Alabama. Editor Dale Gosser lives in Arlington. Our opinion is that the Times Review is not so much a newspaper as it is a vehicle for advertising, and not a very good advertising buy at that. According to Kay Helms, publisher, the paid and rack sales average 6200. (Newspapers with second class permits are required to publish their circulation figures each year. Precise figures as to how many are in county could be had by looking in the September 30, 2007 edition.) Since Cleburne has a population around 29,000, that is not very good saturation.

Q. How did you get the name Cave people?

A. We were told by a reliable source that Lisa Magers, CISD’s Director of Communications, came up with the name of CAVE people and applied it to us. The acronym CAVE was said to stand for Citizens Against Virtually Everything.

At various times we were called Terrorists. At one School Board meeting Jeff Cody prayed for the “mean spirited” people.

We were told that the school board and administration ridiculed us behind our backs.

Q. I’ve heard something about a spoofed website. Please tell us about that.

A. Someone developed a website and hosted it on Sagentic’s server. The website was a spoof on the Cleburne Eagle, and ridiculed Harold Gentry, Wendell Dempsey, Alden Nellis, and Don Rice of the Cleburne Eagle. When Don Rice complained to Kenny Haferkamp who hosted it, Haferkamp removed it but would not tell who designed it or paid for it. At that time Sagentic designed and maintained the CISD websites.

Q. Didn’t some of you run for the School Board?

A. Yes. In 2006 Teresa Blackwell, Wendell Dempsey, and Brad Parsons ran for the school board on the reform platform. Access Cleburne organized a Meet the Candidates forum where the public could ask questions. Of the six other candidates, only Kenny Haferkamp showed up. We were told that they received phone calls from someone close to the school telling them not to show up.

Two weeks later the League of Women voters held a “do-over” forum where all the candidates showed up. Ironically, the audience didn’t. There were only about 40 people there, mostly families of the candidates.

In 2007, Teresa Blackwell and Pat Linkenhoger ran for the School Board. (This time instead of organizing a forum, we had a pizza party.) They each got 45% of the votes. Brad Allen, who won against Pat Linkenhoger, resigned three days after being sworn in. The School Board appointed Dean Woodruff, a former board member, to take his place.

Q. When and why did you decide to go to the Texas Education Agency?

A. Harold Gentry filed a formal complaint with the Texas Education Agency after all other efforts failed to at least get someone to look at the wasteful spending.

Q. I’ve heard there were threats against some of you. Is that true?

A. Yes. Four of us received threatening letters through the US mail with bogus return addresses. Harold and Alden received multiple letters. These handwritten letters showed knowledge of our houses and habits. Alden Nellis received a death threat through the mail (a federal offense). All these were turned over to the Cleburne Police Department.

Q. How long did the TEA investigation take?

A. Thirteen months, which included two on-site audits.

Q. Now that the TEA Preliminary Report is out, please give us a synopsis.

A. The TEA examined $826,951.71 from seven federal grants totaling $5,146,506.65.
TEA found 44.4% misuse in the $826,951.71 examined. In a CISD news release, they state that $10.7 million were administered in federal grants between 2003 and 2006. One could now speculate that of the $10.7 million administered in federal grants between 2003-06 that there is a probability that a total of $4.75 million could possibly have been misused and would have to be repaid to the federal government.

In other words, the audit of less than 10% of the federal grants resulted in CISD owing $367,027.24. CISD has now been assessed as a high risk of misusing federal grant funds.
The complete report is available for download at http://www.CleburnePolitics.com

Q. Can I read the entire report?

A. Yes, you can download and read the entire report at http://www.CleburnePolitics.com

Q. What happened after the school received the TEA Preliminary Report?

A. As the TEA report loomed, Superintendent Robert Damron announced his resignation effective July 1, 2008. After the TEA Preliminary Report was released on March 11, at a special called board meeting on March 31, after 5 hours in closed meeting, Robert Damron requested and was granted reassignment. The Board hired Dr. James Warlick as Interim Superintendent until a permanent superintendent can be hired.

A few days after Dr. Warlick came, Carolyn Cody, who was in charge of hiring teachers, submitted her retirement notice.

In the personnel department, TEA listed $140,756.20 to be paid back because “a) The grantee did not maintain periodic certifications for the following employees who worked solely on a single federal award or cost objective.” Named are Karla D. Cox, Allyson L. Elkins, Suzann Jodoin and Courtney Jones. The report also lists $37,180.06 to be paid back because there were no personnel activity reports for Amy Martin and Gina Jones. That's a total of $177,936.26 to be paid back because of personnel irregularities. (Page 49 of TEA report.)

Carolyn Cody said “The teachers in question …are all  certified.  Karla D. Cox, Allyson L. Elkins, Suzann Jodoin, and Courtney Jones are all TEA certified and also State Licensed Speech Pathologists.  The point questioned in the audit refers to a document not signed by those staff; it has been corrected and documentation of their work is on file.”

We checked the State Board of Examiners for Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology license database at http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/speech/default.shtm and did find that the teachers have state licenses. (Courtnay Jones is under Courtnay Garrett-Jones). The question is why was documentation not produced during the TEA audit when CISD had the opportunity to do so?

Q. What is going on at the school now?

A. Robert Damron is still being paid but is not at the school. Dr. James Warlick, Interim Superintendent, says he expects to have sorted out the findings of the TEA report, responded to the report (due May 11), and put systems in place to prevent the same thing happening in the future. He is working with Tom Canby of TASBO.

TEA recommended that CISD be classified as high risk as far as federal grants are concerned. CISD’s goal is to try to get the fine reduced and prevent a more in-depth audit.

Dr. Warlick has hiring and firing authority.

Q. Will criminal charges be filed?

A. It is not up to the TEA whether or not criminal charges are filed. That would be up to the Department of Education or FBI once they receive a copy of the final TEA report. CISD has no say in whether criminal charges will be filed.

Q. Is there any way to recover the money from those who misspent it?

A. That would be nice. We don’t know.

Q. Were all the expenditures audited?

A. No. The TEA selected seven grants totaling $5,146,506.65 to consider, or less than $1 million. That leaves $9.8 million that has not yet been audited by the TEA to determine compliance or noncompliance with the federal rules and regulations regarding grants.

TEA found 44.4% misuse in the $826,951.71 examined. One could now speculate that of the $10.7 million CISD claims to have administered in federal grants between 2003-06 that there is a probability that a total of $4.75 million could possibly have been misused and needs to be repaid.
In other words, the audit of less than 10% of the federal grants resulted in CISD owing 367,027.24. CISD has now been assessed as a high risk of misusing federal grant funds. It is logical to project that an audit of the entire $10.7 million of federal grant fund use would reveal that 44.4% of the entire amount has been misused, or $4.75 million which needs to be repaid.

None of the State or Local funds were audited. CISD has a total budget of about $57.2 million.(The most recently reported PEIMS actuals for Cleburne ISD - for 2005-06, almost two years old - shows the district's total disbursements all funds amount as $57.2 million, or $8,770 per student, as was the total expenditures/all funds figure for the same period.)

The State funds are much larger than the federal funds. It is common for a TEA audit which exposes a great misuse of federal funds to trigger a TEA audit of state funds. Our limited investigation into state and local funds reveal the same inappropriate procedures as used with federal funds. We feel it is probable that a very large amount of state and local funds have been misspent. It is the responsibility of local citizens to make sure that local funds, the largest portion of the budget, are spent properly.

Q. Do you see any evidence that CISD’s spending practices have changed?

A. We have not looked in depth at current spending. We did notice they seem to be renting cheaper hotel rooms. State guidelines say they should not spend more than $80 per night for lodging within Texas. At a recent board training in San Antonio they spent $139 per night on rooms. That is too much but is an improvement over previous years.

Q. So now after you’ve been through all this to get the misspending exposed and some consequences established, how do you feel about it all?

A. Harold Gentry answers “Any responsible member of our community should be outraged at the results of the Texas Education Agency’s findings. Central Office administrators have put in jeopardy the future of our children’s education by their irresponsible misuse of federal funds and have attempted to deceive the public at every turn.

“The superintendent was responsible, but not entirely responsible. Any central office administrator who is clearly involved needs to be terminated and board members who are also responsible for approving this misuse need to resign. The community needs to demand an immediate full forensic audit of all local, state and federal funds to find out the length and depth of this misuse.”