Dallas County Schools' ticking time bomb keeps exploding

Earlier this week, Jim Schutze said that Dwaine Caraway’s bid for mayor is probably dead in the water if a corruption lawsuit has any meat. Given that it’s connected to Dallas County Schools, it probably has plenty of meat.

He was right —  Caraway and his future are both dead in the water; he has now
pled guilty to two federal charges and resigned, the Observer reports.) I have a bit of personal familiarity with Dallas County Schools from it having a bus barn in Lancaster. This is just the latest in the ticking time bomb of corruption even worse, speaking of Lancaster, than that seemingly exemplified by former Lancaster ISD superintendent Larry Lewis.

In what might have been the last collapse of Caraway's hopes of dodging a bullet, former DCS "superintendent" Rick Sorrells was sentenced earlier this week. At least Dallas City Council won't have to pay Caraway's legal fees now.

There's probably still more time bombs to explode as the Eff Bee Eye continues to look and now the SEC too.

Already a decade ago, the rationale for DCS looked thin. I never understood why three of the four Best Southwest school districts used them. Had all of Dallas County been under a desegregation order (we can only wish) it might have made sense. Why Lewis, who actually had some financial sense, didn't dump DCS and make that part of one of the district's bond packages, if needed, in hindsight, I don't understand, either.

Larry Lewis comes back to Best Southwest

You Lancasterites will love this one in south suburban Dallas.

The "late," not so lamented Larry Lewis, former Lancaster ISD superintendent, is now an interim assistant principal in Cedar Hill.

That said, showing how the Dallas Morning News' knowledge of the area has gotten ever thinner, and isn't challenged since I and Today Newspapers are no longer around, the Snooze story has one big error of commission and one of omission.

The error of commission claims Lewis hasn't worked since Lancaster let him go. NOT TRUE.

He was still peddling insurance, or consulting, or whatever, for AFLAC some time after that, because it became a matter of dispute in his settlement terms.

The error of ommission? Lewis' ex-wife, Sylvia (divorced after Lancaster canned him - I could say more) still works in Cedar Hill ISD as Highlands Elementary's principal.

"Ohhh, my," as George Takei would say!

Ohh, last I knew, Lewis' first ex-wife was still in Duncanville.

There's still DeSoto, Larry.

Also, per one commenter to the Snooze piece, why the rush, I rhetorically ask CHISD Superintendent Horace Williams? You've only got two months of school left. Second, did you talk to Sylvia about this at all? Third, as an interim hiring, did this dodge having to talk to the school board?

Former Lancaster ISD head in trouble again

Larry Lewis is the still-embattled, yet former, superintendent of the Lancaster (Texas) school district. Why still embattled?

After agreeing to resign, this spring, in exchange for a severance of several months, his last severance check has been held up.

Why? He has an outside job, which violates the terms of the agreement.

Or does it? Since he had it before he got the boot. That's the way current and former school board supporters of Lewis are painting it.

Back in 2007, in executive session of the board, and never discussed in open session, Lewis got the okey-dokey to take on a consultant position with AFLAC. (What, your $190K salary as super wasn't enough?)

Lewis could sell ice to Eskimos, I will readily concede. This is ridiculous. So is his defense by those certain board members.

Lancaster ISD does it again on a superintendent

After a monster executive session, the suburban Dallas school district failed to come to terms with the person it announced as its choice for the position this spring.

I will guess that at least $30K a year, if not $40-50K, separated the two sides, along with length of contract and/or buyout provisions.

Well, now we know how lowballing the Lancaster School Board is. Good luck hiring a mid-year superintendent with that now on the record.

Beyond that, did you not have at least some discussion on salary issues before you tapped Ms. Morris?

Lancaster ISD – Unacceptable

One final, parting gift to Lancaster, Texas, School Board President Carolyn Morris and others from former Superintendent Larry Lewis? Or, a sign of just how goofy Texas Education Agency school ratings are?

How can you have an International Baccalaureate program in an academically unacceptable school district?

At the same time, how can you have six “recognized” campuses and an academically unacceptable district? I know dropout rates are important, but…

An old Lancaster ISD dog won’t learn new tricks?

The Lancaster School Board is slated to name one finalist as its new superintendent June 29.

That’s after the district selected three semifinalists the week before but refused to release their names when asked. Given Lancaster’s history in this area with superintendents, I think the district would want to take a different tack.

In 2006, when Cedar Hill ISD wound up hiring Horace Williams, the district not only named all three semifinalists by name, but, had open meet-and-greet times for the public with each of the three.

For a school district that, from where I sit, pretty much inflicted its previous superintendent, Larry Lewis, on the public as a lone finalist, the public relations on this looks bad even if it isn’t illegal. After five years, the board finally fired Lewis, then came to a settlement agreement on a lawsuit he fired.

And, given that Board President Carolyn Morris had the most acrimonious relationship with that former superintendent, Lewis, of anybody on the board, you would think that she, if anybody, would know better.

So, there you go, Lancaster residents, especially parents of school children. Your board, more than five years after a hiring disaster, and with the example of another local school district on how to do things right, has given the impression it still doesn¹t care about you.

Larry Lewis era over in Lancaster – but life there goes on

In exchange for the Lancaster (Texas) school board dropping its notice of termination against him, suspended Superintendent Larry Lewis has agreed to resign, effective July 31.

Lewis, who got national attention for things such as trying to implement a four-day school week less than two weeks before school started, and supporting a football player wearing an ankle monitor from a criminal case to play at Lancaster, will certainly leave a legacy.

When editor of the Lancaster weekly community newspaper, I reported on other problems he had, such as bad construction of a new high school in Lancaster.

That said, the International Baccalaureate Program that he got started up in Lancaster is reportedly some sort of success, and Lewis did try to change around a culture there.

Now, if only somebody would run against School Board President Carolyn Morris and defeat her, the other half of needed LISD cleansing would happen.

If not “nice” for it to be seen, it would behoove Lewis to have learned lessons in humility and team-building, among other things, from this experience. However, I wouldn’t hold my breath over it.

As for anybody running against Morris, that school district seat and its parallel Lancaster City Council district have NEVER had a contested race since the city and school district went to single-member districts more than a decade ago.

Larry Lewis on way out from Lancaster ISD

The smooth-talking but controversial superintendent is the target of termination by the Lancaster School Board.

The technical language is in the hyperlinked area because the Lancaster School Board did not actually fire Lewis Nov. 17, but instead approved a motion to send Lewis a notice of intent to terminate his contract.

In addition to both the real and not-so-real complaints of Lancaster School Board President Carolyn Morris that prompted her to get the board to hire Harold Jones of the law firm Anderson Jones to investigate Lewis, that investigation found new concerns.

Chief among those was a payday advance program, with Anderson Jones finding promissory notes for at least 10 such advances.

Technically, paycheck advances are loans, and that’s against Texas Education Agency regulations.

Second, and relevant to Morris’ concern about how Lewis handled board copies of a TEA audit mailed to his care this spring was the revelation that he never gave board members copies of a preliminary version of the TEA audit, which would seem to be a clear violation of board policy. And, he had received the preliminary audit just days before the board in place in March voted to extend his contract.

Once Lewis officially gets written notice of his termination, he has 15 days to appeal.

Lewis, when hired five and a half years ago, made grandiose projections about what he would do in five years, stuff not likely even with Joe Stalin administering a USSR Five-Year Plan.

Not even made words from the Lord could help Lewis accomplish that. (Nor could they amplify his own not-inconsiderable persuasive powers to try to charm me the first time we met in spring 2003.)

That said, while Lewis brought a fair amount of his own trouble, once Morris became board president, this was bound to happen. It’s unfortunately TEA conservator James Damm has limited powers. (James, now that you’ll be in the middle of the rugby scrums between Morris and Ed Kirkland, I’d buy stock in Advil.)

As for the belief that Lancaster ISD now has nowhere to go but up, I wouldn’t bet in favor of that if you gave me 10-1 odds. Sadly.

That’s especially true if the Perot family seduces Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, and others, to kill the inland port and Dallas Logistics Hub.

Lancaster ISD — ‘The worst school board meeting I have ever attended’

No, not my words, though they could be. Instead, that’s the comment of. TEA-appointed conservator James Damm.

Ron Rowell from the Texas Education Agency believes Damm is having a calming effect on the Lancaster School Board. Maybe at the last meeting, but not at the first two he was at.

Meanwhile, Damm partially contradicted LISD Chief Financial Officer Cheryl Peoples and said, yes, the district likely WILL need a bridge loan.

Oh, and will Damm’s comments shame either Carolyn Morris or Ed Kirkland? Fuhhgeddaboutit.

Larry Lewis – your five years at Lancaster ISD are about up

Not quite five years ago, on Sept. 30, 2003, rightfully embattled Lancaster ISD superintendent Larry Lewis made this pledge:

“Give me $75 million in February, and I will give you the best school district in the nation in five years.”

Well, Larry, you got your $75 million in the February, 2004 bond election.

And, guess what?

With the closure of Wilmer-Hutchins ISD, consensus of opinion, TAKS scores and more is that Lancaster is the worst school district in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

Yes, you may have made gains there, but they’ve been gains at a lower rate than any other school district in the Metroplex.

In other words, you’re not even treading water in your region, let alone “the best school district in the nation,” you’re falling further behind every year.

Note to LISD Superintendent about ‘neutral’ grievance hearings

Uh, Supt. Larry Lewis? A “neutral” grievance by a teacher against the administrator CANNOT have the administrator presiding over the grievance!

Not even because you say so.

Ask Theresa Dobbs about the inanity of James Browden presiding over her grievance against … James Browden.

Better yet, ask Dobbs’ attorney at the Association of Texas Professional Educators. (And, no, just because she’s going to Grand Prairie doesn’t mean she’s foregoing her grievance.)

Or ask librarian Connie Fowler’s ATPE attorney, who is the same person. Or ask other people filing grievances.

And, what’s with moving Stephaney Norman to an elementary teaching position?

Lancaster ISD flunks fitness

And Duncanville is about as bad.

All of the four Best Southwest school districts in south suburban Dallas County scored below average on a statewide “Fitnessgram” conducted by the Texas Education Agency.

But, in the results, which track closely with rich-poor school district divides, Lancaster was dead last among Dallas Metroplex school districts; with Duncanville second from the bottom.

Both districts had nobody at eighth- and 12th-grade levels passing all six fitness tests. Lancaster had only 5 percent of third graders pass, and Duncanville 19 percent of third graders.

Both districts were also skimpy on the summer of tested students they reported, especially at the junior high and high school levels.

The results don’t totally show a poor-unfit correlation, though, contrary to co-authors of the Snooze story, who claim:

The correlation between economics and fitness stays true statewide.

Within the Best Southwest, Cedar Hill students tested to be as healthy, by percentage, as Lewisville ones, and DeSoto students were almost as healthy, as were Irving students. And Plano children were only modestly to moderately more healthy than in Cedar Hill.

In short, re the story authors, the statistical correlation is moderate to moderately strong, not extremely strong. And, of course, it is at this point JUST a statistical correlation. No causal correlation has been demonstrated. (Although it is certainly likely.)

Lancaster ISD chases away orchestra director to Grand Prairie

Theresa Dobbs, director of orchestras for the Lancaster Independent School District, is going to Grand Prairie ISD, where she will teach at two middle schools with the likelihood of moving up to the high school level when that position opens up.

Dobbs had reportedly been threatened with demotion to elementary-level teaching by LISD Director of Fine Arts James Browden. Her would-be high-school level replacement? Reportedly, a first-year teacher who does not yet have TEA certification.

Dobbs was hired as LISD’s first orchestra director in summer 2005 for the 2005-06 school year, teaching at the high-school level while overseeing elementary and junior-high teachers. (Photo by Today Newspapers/Steve Snyder.)
During her first year in Lancaster, Dobbs had this to say about teaching orchestra in public schools:

“Kids don’t think orchestra is cool. So my job is marketing and PR," she said.

But, there is progress at all levels from the start of the year. That includes informing students of musical scholarships and grants.

"The kids that are more involved are seeing the rewards and the potential," she said.

And, technology has changed music education for the better, too, Dobbs said.

Students can take master classes in their particular instruments on the Internet. They can pause, rewind and otherwise study in detail QuickTime videos.

"It enables us to deliver instruction directly to the home. It lets them gain ownership of their instruction," Dobbs said.

She also uses peer teaching to get the better students even more involved in their learning by helping students who are struggling more, or students at younger grades. Dobbs said this - older students working with younger ones - also adds cohesion on a year-to-year basis.

Dobbs, who has a master of music degree from Southern Methodist and experience in MIDI-based electronic music production as well as orchestra (primary instrument— cello). She has composed electronic as well as traditional orchestral music.

Musical influences for Dobbs, an accomplished guitarist as well as cellist include classical guitarist Andreas Segovia and modern guitarists Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix and Joe Satriani.

Knowing the background to the Lancaster situation pretty well, and knowing the scrutiny Texas Education Agency-appointed conservator James Damm will give to the LISD budget, it would not surprise me to see the orchestra program there go by the boards, sadly.

Beyond all this is the frustration of a highly parsimonious Lancaster ISD, which budgets orchestra and other specialty classes with a day-to-day classroom budget of “zero.”

Yes, Ms. Dobbs has to pay for spare orchestral strings or sheet music out of her own pocket.

She also paid for two student practice violins stolen at the theft-magnet Lancaster High School in the fall of 2006.

It’s ‘kick Lancaster ISD’ day at the Dallas Morning News

And, well earned, even if the Snooze is two months slow on talking about the theft history of former LISD chief financial officer Eugene Smith. That said, the story does provide background on the personal connection between Smith and Superintendent Larry Lewis.

But, the real fun is inJacquielynn Floyd’s column, titled “The spin in Lancaster ISD is getting tiresome.”

If you're not tapping your feet and singing along by now, you must be spiteful or cynical or just plain nuts. You must be against excellence!

It’s a journey to a parallel universe where every problem is a blessing in disguise, where there’s no embarrassment that can't be pasted over with a shiny coat of happy talk, and where, if you don't have something nice to say, you should keep your big mouth shut.
At the center of all this is the district's enigmatic superintendent, Dr. Larry Lewis.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Although I have said many similar things here in different ways before, and in the pages of Lancaster Today in my final months there.

And no, we’re not against excellence, just against an apparently incompetent administration.

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.)

Lancaster ISD has a ghettofabulous school bus

Or maybe more than one. I’ve only heard of one.

Supposedly, one of the buses that Lancaster ISD — apparently illegally, as no provision in its 2004 bond issue mentioned using bond money to buy vehicles — bought with 2004 bond money has exterior stereo speakers. And also, supposedly, some sort of designer rims.

That said, the bus was a first-of-its-kind model with the add-ons free. That still doesn't negate the base price of the bus possibly being an illegal purchase.

I also heard that Superintendent Lewis was married before his current wife, too. Supposedly, the first Mrs. Larry Lewis works at Duncanville ISD.

And, I also heard that Tom Allen thinks Dallas Morning News reporter Kathy Goolsby might be "on the take" from the school district because she accepted a Thin Mint cookie from Teri Wilson.

And, Tom, you exemplify exactly the type of nutbar thinking I said Jeff Melcher did. No wonder you saw nothing wrong when I noted it in him.

Lancaster ISD Supt Larry Lewis – officially demoted by TEA or still hanging on? (Updated for DeSoto)

I guess the Texas Education Agency audit didn’t quite “vindicate” the school district or the superintendent after all, if TEA is in fact naming a conservator to oversee the “troubled” district. Yep, just like Wilmer-Hutchins before its ultimate demise, the Snooze will have their Microsoft Word programs with a text macro to automatically insert the word “troubled” in front of “Lancaster ISD” for the foreseeable future. TEA told Lancaster School Board President Carolyn Morris that the yet-unnamed conservator will be on campus three days a week. 

Update, Dec. 20, 2021. I see Lewis has been named interim superintendent at DeSoto ISD and this piece is trending. For a more complete list of other reasons not to make this permanent, click here .

Lewis said the TEA had not contacted him about the decision on a conservator. He was surprised to learn that Morris had been told first. “That’s not the Texas Education Agency I know,” Dr. Lewis said. “Generally, they talk to the superintendent and the superintendent then inform the board.”

Well, maybe something got leaked that TEA didn't want to go public yet. Or maybe (see below) Carolyn Morris got something wrong. Or maybe this isn't Shirley Neely's TEA any more.

Morris said she was told by TEA that the cost of the conservator is $60 an hour. According to the agency’s Web site, that is paid by the school district.

That’s $480 a day on a straight eight-hour day, or about $1,400 a week at three days a week. That said, per a second story, the TEA claims Morris misunderstood them and that Commissioner Scott still hasn’t pulled the trigger on anything. That said, Lewis said he talked with TEA officials, but isn’t commenting. Silence gives assent? To the original story, in this case? Details of what got LISD in trouble are in the 291-page PDF of the TEA audit findings. (The portions after page 64 are basically skippable.) 

• Not in compliance with IRS travel reimbursement regs, page 8; 
• Unallowable travel per diem when paid from a state or federal grant, page 9; 
• Per diem/credit card “double dipping,” page 9; 
• MLK dinner at Pappadeaux, page 11 (anytime you spend nearly $600 at Pappadeaux for a Martin Luther King Jr. dinner for less than 30 people - $55 a pop, roughly- , you’re inviting trouble from your own taxpayers - the heck with TEA; 
• Other credit card dining, with unnamed city of Lancaster staff as well, page 11ff; 
• Counting graduated seniors as attending school after the date of graduation, page 13.

 

Update, Dec. 20, 2021: I see we've got new visitors here, presumably attracted by Larry Lewis being named interim superintendent in DeSoto. 

Doorknob help us if this indicates he could be the permanent deal. Click the Larry Lewis tag below or else right here for all the "fun" about him.

Besides the above, you'll find this about his time at Lancaster ISD:

• A payday advance loan system, among other financial irregularities. 
• His general selling ice to Eskimos/coals to Newcastle bullshitting.
• His religious authoritarian appropriation that God talks to him and people opposing his bond proposals after he screwed the pooch on his first one are minions of Satan or close to it.
• Trying to funnel business from school district employees to a school board member.
• Someone willing to personally smear people without grounds.

And, pre-Lancaster, don't forget his performance at Austin Reagan.

Note also: I tweeted most this info to Talia Richman at the Snooze, the author of the linked piece. We'll see what, if any, folo she does.

Lancaster ISD in BIG trouble with TEA

Anytime the Texas Education Agency talks about appointing a conservator, you’re in trouble.

Anytime you get per diem meal allowances and still apparently bill meals to a credit card, you’re inviting trouble.

Anytime you spend nearly $600 at Pappadeaux for a Martin Luther King Jr. dinner for less than 30 people ($55 a pop, roughly), you’re inviting trouble from your own taxpayers; the heck with TEA.

And, it seems awfully strange for Superintendent Larry Lewis to claim this “vindicates” the school district.

Details in the 291-page PDF of the TEA audit findings. (The portions after page 64 are basically skippable.)
• Not in compliance with IRS travel reimbursement regs, page 8;
• Unallowable travel per diem when paid from a state or federal grant, page 9;
• Per diem/credit card “double dipping,” page 9;
• MLK dinner at Pappadeaux, page 11;
• Other credit card dining, with unnamed city of Lancaster staff as well, page 11ff;
• Counting graduated seniors as attending school after the date of graduation, page 13;

Also, whether ethical or not, or legal or not, a number of the credit card bills, as I had heard off the record in the past, are related to the International Baccalaureate program.

As for the Pappadeaux dinner, the current LISD administration could have talked to the “other lens” called King Myrick before he moved away from Lancaster.

Now, if you had just invited Jeff Melcher there, everything would have been hunky-dory!

That said, Kathy Goolsby (or her editor), coming off as typical mainstream media, couldn’t resist taking a shot at Lancaster Today. If the Snooze would just worry about its own financial bottom line, it wouldn’t have to potshot at a school district entering into an agreement with a suburban community newspaper. (And, Today Newspapers actually has a copy of the contract, Kathy.)

Lancaster ISD in BIG trouble with TEA

Anytime the Texas Education Agency talks about appointing a conservator, you’re in trouble.

Anytime you get per diem meal allowances and still apparently bill meals to a credit card, you’re inviting trouble.

Anytime you spend nearly $600 at Pappdeaux for a Martin Luther King Jr. dinner for less than 30 people ($55 a pop, roughly), you’re inviting trouble from your own taxpayers; the heck with TEA.

And, it seems awfully strange for Superintendent Larry Lewis to claim this “vindicates” the school district.

Details in the 291-page PDF of the TEA audit findings. (The portions after page 64 are basically skippable.)
• Not in compliance with IRS travel reimbursement regs, page 8;
• Unallowable travel per diem when paid from a state or federal grant, page 9;
• Per diem/credit card “double dipping,” page 9;
• MLK dinner at Pappadeaux, page 11;
• Other credit card dining, with unnamed city of Lancaster staff as well, page 11ff;
• Counting graduated seniors as attending school after the date of graduation, page 13;

Also, whether ethical or not, or legal or not, a number of the credit card bills, as I had heard off the record in the past, are related to the International Baccalaureate program.

As for the Pappadeaux dinner, the current LISD administration could have talked to the “other lens” called King Myrick before he moved away from Lancaster.

Now, if you had just invited Jeff Melcher there, everything would have been hunky-dory!

That said, Kathy Goolsby (or her editor), coming off as typical mainstream media, couldn’t resist taking a shot at Lancaster Today. If the Snooze would just worry about its own financial bottom line, it wouldn’t have to potshot at a school district entering into an agreement with a suburban community newspaper. (And, Today Newspapers actually has a copy of the contract, Kathy.)

Larry Lewis might need to eat more crow in Lancaster

The Lancaster, Texas, school superintendent claimed a year ago, after the suburban Dallas school district was discovered to have a big financial shortfall, that it was just a matter of money not being transferred properly, not put in the right place, and not properly documented.

Well, Larry, you may need to retract that statement in the future. Eugene Smith, your chief financial officer at that time, has pled guilty to illegally using a credit card from a couple of jobs back, when he worked for Washington, D.C., schools:

On September 25, 2001, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) received a complaint from Eugene P. Smith, Director, Internal Audit, District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), who reported accounting irregularities pertaining to the New Vistas Public Preparatory Charter School (New Vistas). The charter for New Vistas was revoked on September 6, 2001. Smith, who had the responsibility for closing out New Vistas’ financial accounts, accepted responsibility for all of the charter school bank accounts. A joint investigation conducted by Special Agent Kerthalia W. Peavely, OIG, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, disclosed that Smith, without authority, closed one of the accounts, transferred the funds into a new account, designated himself the sole signatory, and obtained a business check/debit card.

On July 31, 2002, Smith’s DCPS employment was terminated due to a Reduction in
Force; however, he did not relinquish possession of the debit card. Between April 2003
and July 2003, Smith expended $46,742.94 in cash as a result of 114 transactions, using
the debit card from the New Vistas bank account. Smith closed out a second account,
transferred $109,861 into a new account, and again made himself sole signatory.
However, Smith made no withdrawals from this account. The DCPS Office of the
General Counsel has initiated efforts to obtain possession of these funds.

At the least, somebody needs to call the Texas Education Agency, especially since Larry’s old friend, Shirley Neely, is no longer in charge there, and tell it to come back up here and it or the Legislative Budget Bureau start doing some more auditing.

And, although LISD supposedly doesn’t have a lot of credit or debit cards, has the district done a recent audit?