TEA Preliminary Report is in CISD's Hands

03/11/08

The long-awaited Texas Education Agency preliminary report has been delivered to Cleburne ISD, according to TEA’s Ramon Medina. Medina told Harold Gentry that as of March 11 Superintendent Damron had the report in his hands.

The report is 156 pages long. Medina said this was a much longer report than normal.

The CISD will have 30 days to respond. If they request an extension, they can have another 30 days. After CISD’s response, TEA will take about 30 days to complete the final report. The final report will become public record and will go to the US Department of Education, Cleburne ISD, Harold Gentry, State Representative Rob Orr, US Representative Chet Edwards, and other parties who have requested a copy.

TEA has been investigating CISD for more than a year. Onsite auditors made two trips to CISD and spent considerable time poring through records.

The investigation was begun after Cleburne citizen Harold Gentry filed a formal complaint with TEA. Gentry and Access Cleburne members had addressed the School Board about questionable spending of taxpayer money on several occasions before the complaint was filed.

Gentry learned that the report was in CISD's hands before 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 11. CleburnePolitics.com mailed a news release to its subscribers. Then at 4:18 p.m. CleburnePolitics also mailed the release to all School Board Members. The next morning at 10:34 a.m. CleburnePolitics received a news release from Lisa Magers, CISD public relations director.

Here are links to Mr. Ramon Medina's letter to Harold Gentry and CISD's Lisa Magers News Release.