SocraticGadfly: Larry Lewis, say hello to your new boss

July 01, 2008

Larry Lewis, say hello to your new boss

James Damm, who oversaw Wilmer-Hutchins ISD as an interim superintendent, is now the new TEA-appointed conservator for Lancaster ISD. Damm has also been chief financial officer at Plano, Highland Park and El Paso ISDs.

Good luck, Mr. Damm. You’re going to need it.

You’re probably going to need every ounce of skill and energy to keep Lewis and Carolyn Morris from killing each other.

TEA Commissioner Robert Scott cited not just the past year’s financial management, but several years of less than stellar financial diligence.

In addition to financial and budgetary oversight, he’s also supposed to look at communication issues in the district.

As, I said above:
Good luck, Mr. Damm. You’re going to need it.

Oh, and in case you didn’t read down to the bottom of Scott’s bullet points, Larry, Damm can:
• Disapprove any action by the superintendent;
• Recommend additional sanctions against the district.

Mr. Damm, you probably should start by nosing around district personnel matters, hiring and firing, human relations and other issues.

Drop Commissioner Scott an e-mail line, maybe with a temporary e-mail account, if you have things James Damm needs to look at. (I did.)

2 comments:

Gadfly said...

Ahh, Larry Lewis. I've long wondered how much fire there was behind the whiffs of smoke, and smoke signals sent my way, about sexual harassment at Lancaster ISD administration.

Gadfly said...

And teh Google has told me why I was getting a burst of hits on this piece. Lewis was one of the finalists to be superintendent in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. I hope this and other blog posts of mine about his time in Lancaster prevented that from happening.