STORM2K

I'm starting this kind of thread, because there has been an endless stream of stories about Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District, the Worst school area in Texas. Everything from unsafe buildings to failing grades to being broke to low State Test scores, etc.

Note: Thread title changed at 6/23/2005 due to Wilmer-Hutchins ISD closing for a year.

Good thing I stayed in Irving ISD throughout my 12 years of Education.

To start off:
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Payroll not met in Wilmer-Hutchins

State says district mistaken about aid payments, is using tax funds illegally

By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News

It became clear Wednesday what a Wilmer-Hutchins official meant this week when he said the school district was "pretty much broke."

The district failed to meet payroll, leaving teachers, other employees and parents wondering if the district has a future.

"It just doesn't make any sense," said Sharon Coleman, parent of a Wilmer-Hutchins High School sophomore. "It's not a surprise, though. They've been doing this sort of thing for years."

Suzanne Marchman, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency, said district employees who receive their paychecks through direct deposit were paid Wednesday. Those who normally get paper checks received none.

The district's chief financial officer, Phillip Roberson, said Monday in a court hearing that the district was "pretty much broke" and facing a $100,000 deficit. But he gave no indication, as recently as Tuesday, that paychecks were at risk. The district has more than 400 employees.

District officials did not want to discuss Wednesday what might happen next.

When a Dallas Morning News reporter reached school board President Luther Edwards on his cellphone and identified himself, Mr. Edwards hung up.

When reporters arrived at district headquarters Wednesday afternoon, Superintendent Charles Matthews left by a rear entrance, got in his Cadillac and drove off, ignoring reporters seeking to ask him about the apparent financial collapse. Dr. Matthews had previously said financial matters are his administration's strong suit.

Dr. Roberson said Tuesday that the district planned to take out a short-term bank loan to cover the district's expenses until the first installment of state aid arrives in the bank accounts of all Texas school districts this fall.

But the date of that state payment, Sept. 9, appears to have created some confusion in Wilmer-Hutchins' administration building.

Ms. Marchman said a Wilmer-Hutchins official called TEA Wednesday and asked where the district's August state payment was. Last year, the Legislature chose to push back August payments to September – into the next fiscal year – to balance the state budget.

"They said they were waiting for the August allotment," Ms. Marchman said of Wilmer-Hutchins officials. "They seemed to say they were unaware what was going on."

The postponed state payments have been public knowledge for more than a year, and Ms. Marchman said TEA had sent several reminders to districts over that time.

She said no other district in the state appears to have made the mistake Wilmer-Hutchins has.

Ms. Marchman said "there's nothing the agency can do" to help the district. "They might try to find a short-term loan to pay their employees."

Revenue use questioned

The cash shortage isn't the only bind Wilmer-Hutchins officials are facing.

State officials also say the district is illegally using property tax revenues intended to pay off construction bonds to instead pay off a short-term loan from a Utah bank.

District leaders insist that everything about the $500,000 loan, taken out in May to meet maintenance bills, is legitimate. But TEA has given the district until Tuesday to stop spending the bond money and to replace the money it has spent. And the loan is now part of a criminal investigation, the TEA said.

"There are very clear rules about it, and the district cannot do this," said Ed Flathouse, TEA's associate commissioner for finance and compliance.

Dr. Roberson, the district's chief financial officer, said Tuesday that he would not discuss the loan or the district's reaction to TEA's concerns. "I'd rather not even comment on that," he said. "We'll just pretty much wait and see what we can do."

Questions about the loan are the latest in a series of financial problems in the district. TEA officials said Tuesday that they will send an investigative audit team to examine the district's books next week.

Documents not released

On Tuesday, The News requested from TEA a series of documents relating to the Utah loan. But agency officials said Wednesday that the documents could not be released publicly because they are part of a criminal investigation.

A Dallas County grand jury is considering allegations of financial improprieties.

School districts levy two kinds of property taxes on residents: maintenance and operations taxes, or M&O, and interest and sinking fund taxes, or I&S. M&O taxes fund regular district operations, like teacher salaries and gas for school buses. I&S taxes are used to pay off bonds, which typically finance school construction and renovations.

The disputed pool of money is Wilmer-Hutchins' debt service fund, which is where all I&S tax dollars go. The money in that fund is supposed to be used to pay off bond notes – not for any other purpose, state officials said.

A 1940 attorney general's opinion made it clear that the money in districts' debt service funds cannot be spent on anything else until all the district's bonds are retired.

"The voters voted on those bonds, and you're taxing voters to pay off that bonded debt," said Linda Fredlund, a TEA auditor. "You cannot remove those funds and use them on anything else until those bonds are paid off."

Ms. Fredlund informed Wilmer-Hutchins of the state's objections in an Aug. 3 letter. Ten days later, the district's attorneys prepared a memo arguing that Wilmer-Hutchins should be able to use the I&S tax money for other purposes if it chooses to.

The key to its argument: The district has accumulated too much money in the debt service fund and needs to spend some of it.

"While the District is allowed to retain a reasonable level of funds in the debt service fund, the District's debt service fund contained funds exceeding twice the amount of debt service due on its bonds," the memo said.

But Dr. Flathouse said there is an easy solution to reducing a debt service fund: Lower the tax rate.

Over the last four years, Wilmer-Hutchins' I&S tax rate has ranged between 5 cents and 7 cents per $100 of assessed property value; it's currently $0.0532. If the district felt it necessary to reduce the amount in its debt service fund, it could lower its tax rate – or stop charging I&S tax, as more than 300 Texas school districts have.

Lawyers defend district

It's unclear how much money is in Wilmer-Hutchins' debt service fund or how much debt the district is working to retire. TEA officials said such information is part of the investigation and couldn't be released.

Two law firms advised Wilmer-Hutchins on the loan and wrote a memorandum defending the district's approach. A spokesman for one, Winstead, Sechrest & Minick, said it would not comment on the case while the district was considering its options.

The other, West & Gooden, did not return calls seeking comment. West & Gooden is the law firm of state Sen. Royce West, whose firm has done a significant portion of the district's legal work in recent years. Mr. West has not returned multiple calls seeking comment over the last week.

Wilmer-Hutchins' I&S tax rate is substantially lower than that of most area districts. But that's because unlike its neighbors, Wilmer-Hutchins hasn't built new buildings or had a major bond election since its high school was built in 1982.

A 2002 evaluation of the district's facilities found that all the district's buildings were in near-unusable condition, blaming much of the problem on maintenance neglect.

The report recommended immediate razing of all the district's elementary and middle schools. The high school was damaged in a June storm after years of maintenance problems, and the start of classes there has been delayed weeks.

W-H leaders blame media for district's problems

By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV

DALLAS, Texas - Teachers at Wilmer-Hutchins schools got more bad news Friday. Employees not on direct deposit were told they won't get paid for another two weeks.

Superintendent Charles Matthews blamed the news media for the district's problems. He said the pictures of rotting, unhealthy conditions inside the schools, and administrators on their way to testify before a criminal grand jury influenced a bank to back out on a loan needed to pay employees.

Matthews said the schools are being repaired and no one has been indicted. The only thing left, he said, is prejudice.

"There's no mismanagement of money. And once again all these people are coming into this district because we are a black district."

School Board President Luther Edwards said he's tired of his school district being the target of negative reports.

But it's not just the media. State officials have been critical of district operations for the past decade. Even State Senator Royce West, himself a Wilmer-Hutchins graduate, said the districts's affairs must be cleaned up.

"As it relates to some of the financial missteps, I'm concerned about that and I'm wondering why they weren't caught by the administration and needless to say TEA is going in there to take a look at it."

Auditors with the Texas Education Agency will begin looking at district financial records on Monday.

Red ink not new to W-H chief

District isn't first to go broke under superintendent's watch

By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News

The financial mess at Wilmer-Hutchins ISD isn't the first such crisis presided over by Superintendent Charles Matthews.

In tiny Karnack ISD, amid the cypress trees of Caddo Lake on the furthest edge of East Texas, a healthy fund balance quickly went away when Dr. Matthews became superintendent in 1998.

In Karnack, as in Wilmer-Hutchins, Dr. Matthews insisted the district's finances were strong while they spiraled downward.

Those who dealt with Dr. Matthews then say they weren't shocked to hear of Wilmer-Hutchins' financial collapse, which peaked Friday with word that teachers would go more than two weeks without paychecks because the district is out of money.

"I happened to be in Dallas this week, and I woke up one morning and saw the news," said Judy VanDeventer, a former Karnack board president. "I said, 'I'm not surprised. I knew it would come out sooner or later.' "

Dr. Matthews has not returned more than a dozen phone calls seeking comment for this and other stories in the last week.

Karnack's financial state never reached the point that the district couldn't meet payroll. But it had a very comfortable fund balance in 1997-98, the year before Dr. Matthews arrived: $560,000, more than twice the level the state considers healthy.

Over the next three years, the number took a tumble: to $275,000, to $4,000 and finally a $91,000 shortfall in his final year in the district.

"Right after we got him in there, I started hearing different rumors about financial problems," said Elaine Davis, the Karnack board president who hired Dr. Matthews in 1998. "After getting involved with him, I wish we hadn't hired him at all."

When Dr. Matthews arrived in Wilmer-Hutchins in 2002, state auditors said the district had a fund balance of $1.6 million. Within a year, that balance was gone, and the district was $139,000 in the hole.

The district's estimates for the current shortfall range from $100,000 to $600,000.

"He's a very pleasant man, a likeable person," said Jim Gibson, another former Karnack board president. "But that's about it. I don't know how you could rely upon his abilities to be the superintendent."

Promising beginning

Charles Matthews was born in 1938 in Lecompte, La. He attended Paul Quinn College when it was in Waco, and his first teaching job was in the southeast Texas town of New Waverly in 1968.

The next year, he took a job teaching at North Forest schools, on the northeast side of Houston. Over the next 15 years, he worked his way up – to principal and, in 1980, to deputy superintendent.

In 1984, he was hired to lead Wilmer-Hutchins ISD, the small majority-black school district on Dallas' south side, even then known for being one of Texas' most-troubled.

At the time, Dr. Matthews told The Dallas Morning News that "the ultimate goal in everything we do from now on is to improve student achievement."

"We're embarking on a new and exciting time for Wilmer-Hutchins. It will take some work, but we've got a lot to work with," he said.

Dr. Matthews remained for 10 years. He instituted Saturday sessions and after-school tutoring for students who needed extra help, and the district established an early-childhood program and worked to improve its management.

There were signs his methods were working. In 1985, TEA removed a set of monitors who had overseen the administration. In 1987, TEA granted Wilmer-Hutchins full state accreditation for the first time since 1980.

But all was not well. State officials demanded an investigation into testing irregularities at one Wilmer-Hutchins' school. A TEA analysis found that the district was not "using prudent business practices" and was spending too much on legal fees. The state launched investigations into the district's bilingual program and payments to contractors.

And in 1987, the Dallas County district attorney's office started an investigation into claims, raised by residents, of mismanaged funds and other criminal activity. No indictments were ever returned. Dr. Matthews at the time said the investigation was motivated by racism.

Within Wilmer-Hutchins, Dr. Matthews was praised for bringing a measure of stability. In 1991, he was named State Superintendent of the Year by the Texas Association of School Boards.

The district's test scores had improved, as did the scores of nearly all Texas districts, but Wilmer-Hutchins remained near the state's bottom. In 1994, students' poor academic performance was cited by board members in their request that Dr. Matthews resign.

Under his severance agreement, he stayed on the payroll until 1996.

Fresh start

After Wilmer-Hutchins, Dr. Matthews told people he was finished leading school districts.

"He said he wanted to do something different," said Helen Curtis, then the principal of Dunbar Middle School in Fort Worth. "It was my understanding that he was really done being a superintendent. He was burned out, and he wanted to get into counseling."

In 1995, Dr. Matthews became a middle-school guidance counselor. Ms. Curtis says he did a fine job in his year at Dunbar, helping students schedule courses, talking with them about their problems and assisting with tests.

According to his resume, he then worked in Dallas ISD as "Wellness Programs Director" from 1996 to 1998. He also returned briefly to Fort Worth as a counselor at Atwood McDonald Elementary, according to district records. Then Karnack ISD came calling.

Karnack, like Wilmer-Hutchins, is a mostly black school district with declining enrollment. When Dr. Matthews took over in the fall of 1998, there were 385 students. Districts that small don't have finance departments.

"We just had the superintendent and a bookkeeper," said Ms. VanDeventer, who ran for the board and became president out of concern for Dr. Matthews' financial management. "It was hard to know how big the problem was because he'd tell you things were good when they weren't."

Two former Karnack board members said Dr. Matthews refused to adjust the district's budget to reflect declining enrollment.

In 1997-98, the year before he arrived, Karnack had 433 students. The district's operating budget spent $6,245 per pupil – about $1,100 above the state average but not unusually high for such a small district.

In 1999-00, the first year Dr. Matthews controlled the whole budgeting process, enrollment had dropped to 361 students. Even though fewer students meant fewer dollars from the state, Karnack's budget went up. Operating spending per pupil jumped to $8,052 per pupil – more than $2,000 above the state average. The payroll grew, too, with more teachers and staff.

"He hired a bunch of people we just couldn't pay for," Mr. Gibson said.

Like Wilmer-Hutchins, Karnack had dilapidated buildings, and Dr. Matthews pushed a bond issue to build a high school, Ms. VanDeventer said.

"They were in no financial condition to do anything," she said. "But he tried to make it appear that they were. He kept saying 'We can afford it, we can afford it.' "

The bond issue was defeated after Mr. Gibson, Ms. VanDeventer and others campaigned against it.

Over time, some former supporters turned against him.

"I don't dislike anybody, but I didn't like some of the things he did," said Ms. Davis, the board president who had voted to hire Dr. Matthews. "He'd tell me one thing and tell somebody else something else. He caused problems."

Dr. Matthews still had some support in the community. He used some of the newly hired staff to start popular programs such as Saturday tutorials.

"He was probably the best thing that had happened to Karnack since I was on school board," said former trustee Jake Haywood, who said some of Dr. Matthews' critics are motivated by racism. "He was one outstanding individual."

As spending went up and Karnack's cash reserves dwindled, several residents decided to run for the school board and put the district on stronger financial ground. Over two elections, they gained a four-seat majority on the seven-seat board.

"The night before I was elected, he told me 'I'll resign because I know you're going to get elected,' " Ms. VanDeventer said. "He knew I was determined to get to the bottom of the district's finances."

At the first board meeting after the election, Dr. Matthews announced his resignation. He said he wanted to spend more time in Dallas, where his wife and family had lived while he commuted to Karnack.

Ms. VanDeventer said sorting out the books after Dr. Matthews' departure was a challenge.

"We found bills that hadn't been paid," she said. "We found bills that had been paid twice."

She said it took three years to get the district back to a positive fund balance.

Dwindling fast

After Karnack, Dr. Matthews went back to counseling. He spent the 2001-02 school year at Como Elementary in Fort Worth, the district said.

But some board members in Wilmer-Hutchins had long wanted to bring back Dr. Matthews. As far back as 1996 – when TEA took over the district for a host of financial and academic problems – there had been attempts to rehire him.

In October 2002, the Wilmer-Hutchins school board voted unexpectedly to fire Superintendent Harvey Rayson. (Mr. Rayson had been Karnack's superintendent from 1988 to 1990.) Four days later, they hired Dr. Matthews to take his place.

As in Karnack, the enrollment in Wilmer-Hutchins has declined steadily, from 4,017 when Dr. Matthews left in 1994 to 2,902 last year.

Since Dr. Matthews' return, Wilmer-Hutchins' cash reserves have evaporated from $1.6 million to a deficit.

Meanwhile, his salary has jumped. Mr. Rayson was paid $95,100 a year. Dr. Matthews was hired at $125,000; a few months later, trustees gave him a raise to $178,600.

Dr. Matthews has the second-highest salary of 892 Texas superintendents who work in districts with fewer than 5,000 students, according to state data.

Last week, even before the Wilmer-Hutchins missed payroll, TEA officials announced an investigative audit of the district's finances. Auditors arrive today.

Some of those who worked with Dr. Matthews in Karnack say Wilmer-Hutchins might have seen it coming.

"I was never so surprised in my life as when I saw on the TV that he had been reinstated as superintendent in Wilmer-Hutchins," Mr. Gibson said. "It just seems like trouble follows him around."

Out of Control: If state can't fix Wilmer-Hutchins, who can?

DALLAS, Texas (The Dallas Morning News) - Texas Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley is surely correct when she says that her agency "can't run every district in the state."

Nobody's asking her to.

The question on the table is: Should the Texas Education Agency step in and run the Wilmer-Hutchins schools, which are once again making a strong run for the title of worst in the state?

Ms. Neeley, a former school superintendent herself, said she wants "to give districts every chance in the world to get things settled locally." She won't find many Texans who'll argue with the notion of local control.

But here's the thing: Wilmer-Hutchins is clearly out of control.

The list of people betrayed by the school board grows daily: students without serviceable school buildings; parents who can't get straight answers; taxpayers who wonder where their money went; employees who aren't getting paid; bondholders who've seen their investment misapplied.

And as for "every chance in the world," hasn't this board already been given that?

A majority of its seven members, including President Luther Edwards, have tenures dating back at least to 1996, when the Texas Education Agency took over the district for two years amid (to quote a news story from those times) "poor academic performance, muddled finances and leadership problems."

Superintendent Charles Matthews oversaw the district from 1984 to 1994, when the board forced him out in response to the schools' abysmal academic performance. Board members hired him again in 2002 and, after only six months, boosted his salary from $125,000 to $175,000.

The current dust-up, which includes a grand jury investigation into possible criminal acts, is mainly about money. Compared to academic achievement, finances are relatively easy to fix.

The broader issue is whether Texas' new TAKS test will produce an academic accountability system with teeth. The Wilmer-Hutchins mess will, in effect, become a test of the test.

Under the old TAAS system, which TAKS replaced last year, the district's bottom-of-the-barrel scores still qualified it as "academically acceptable" – immune from being permanently dismantled by the Education Agency. It can still scrape an "acceptable" rating under TAKS, as long as 50 percent of students pass the English, reading and social studies portions, at least 35 percent pass the math portion and only 25 percent pass the science portion.

With a curve like that, can education in Texas really make the grade?

In W-H, still no paychecks

Superintendent blames TEA, which says districts knew of change

By JOSHUA BENTON and HERB BOOTH / The Dallas Morning News

Friday came and went, and still there were no paychecks for nearly three-quarters of Wilmer-Hutchins school district employees.

Teachers and other workers were led to believe they could expect payment Friday – two days late. Instead, they were told there would be no pay until Sept. 10, another two weeks.

"I am fully aware of the burden this situation has caused you," Superintendent Charles Matthews said in a letter to employees. "I know that you will continue to work with our children. They need you at this time."

Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, a Texas Education Agency spokeswoman, said officials wrote a letter on Wilmer-Hutchins' behalf, guaranteeing any lenders that a $1 million state payment would arrive in district coffers Sept. 9.

"But apparently their bankers, for whatever reason, didn't feel they could give the district that loan," she said.

Anthony Miller, assistant principal at Wilmer-Hutchins High School, is one of about 280 employees who haven't been paid.

"I'm lucky, though. My wife is an educator in Lancaster, and we have enough to make it," Mr. Miller said. "Our bills don't come until the middle of the month."

Dr. Matthews said the district, with about $20 million in annual revenue, needed about $1 million to cover its obligations.

He blamed the TEA for the shortfall. The agency last year moved its August payment to districts to Sept. 9 – an accounting trick to balance the state budget.

Ms. Ratcliffe said she knew of no other Texas district that failed to account for the new payment date.

"This is absolutely not TEA's fault," she said. "The delay was widely reported by the media and through this agency. The other 1,036 school districts and 200 charter schools in the state managed to prepare financially for this two-week delay."

Financial leaders in other districts said they had known about the delayed payment for over a year and had simply planned for it.

"We don't foresee it causing any problems for us," said Kurt Brandt, chief financial officer for DeSoto schools. "Over the past several years, we've built up our fund balance, and one of the benefits of that is we're able to handle this delay."

DeSoto had a record fund balance of $8.7 million at the end of the last fiscal year.

"We're not in ... [Wilmer-Hutchins'] situation at all," said Bill Althoff, Irving's assistant superintendent for support services. "We maintain a reserve fund for situations like that. We feel it's prudent."

Mr. Althoff said it's possible to debate whether the Legislature's decision to delay the payment was appropriate. "But it's reality, whether it's fair or not," he said. "We planned accordingly."

Phillip Roberson, Wilmer-Hutchins' chief financial officer, said bank officials cited negative publicity for hurting the district's chance for a bridge loan.

Districts' being denied a short-term loan is very rare, but not completely unheard of, Ms. Ratcliffe said. She said it has happened to some charter schools in recent years.

She said the payroll problems don't materially change the goals of TEA auditors, who will arriving in the district Monday to check its books.

"The district had a fund balance not too long ago," she said. "Now they've announced publicly they're broke. We're hoping to find out what happened."

Dr. Matthews said Wilmer-Hutchins has no reserves on which to rely.

A memo to Wilmer-Hutchins High School staff said Wells Fargo denied the district a short-term loan. The district's chief financial officer, Phillip Roberson, said the district applied elsewhere but received no response yet.

At a Monday court hearing, Dr. Roberson said the district was "pretty much broke" and facing a $100,000 deficit.

Nate Carman, the high school principal, said he wasn't affected, but his wife, a teacher, was.

"We had two teachers and an office worker come in and ask for the afternoon off to try and arranged for short-term loans," said Mr. Carman. "There were a couple of people who said they'd help financially. I helped someone pay for an electric bill."

He said no one walked out on the job when told the paychecks would be delayed until Sept. 10.

Three high school teachers who were affected would not comment.

Dr. Matthews insisted the district did the "very best job we could do" to pay workers. He compared his plight with that of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who had to deal recently with Hurricane Charley.

Dr. Matthews said no improprieties led to the financial shortfall.

"There's no corruption here," he said. "Look at the grand jury. They cleared us. Jesus was persecuted for 36 months. Wilmer-Hutchins has been persecuted for many, many more."

On Thursday, a Dallas County grand jury took "no action" on criminal allegations related to the district's financial problems. The move is neither an indictment nor a decision not to indict.

Rachel Horton, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office, said the grand jury's decision means the case remains open. The panel has the ability to revisit the matter if new evidence or testimony is presented, she said.

Trustee demands answers over W-H budget discrepancies

By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV

Auditors from the Texas Education Agency arrived at Wilmer-Hutchins ISD headquarters Monday and began wading through records, trying to determine how the district has fallen into such a deep financial crisis.

Wilmer-Hutchins gets more money per student than almost every district in the state, yet the district is at least $500,000 in debt. Many teachers may not get paid for a month, and district officials can't seem to explain why.

The auditors converging on the district's administration building aren't the only ones looking for answers.

Two months ago at a budget meeting, school board member Joan Bonner asked questions about this year's budget. Bonner specifically wanted to know about the maintenance department where Gerald Henderson is listed as department head and for whom $30,000 is budgeted - despite the fact Henderson left the district nearly three years ago.

Superintendent Charles Matthews responded to Bonner by saying the money is a courtesy payment for Henderson's retirement.

Bonner asked, "So why is it a courtesy of the district that we pay his retirement?"

"Because he's a member of our school district," Matthews said.

Asked Bonner, "So he still basically an employee?

"Yes, ma'am, just out on extended leave," Matthews replied.

Tell that to Gerald Henderson. The former maintenance director lives in a one-bedroom house and said he collects nothing from the school district, living instead on his monthly disability insurance check.

Henderson said he hasn't had contact with the district since he left in 2002. He has not been able to do any work due to his disability.

"I can't even get out there and drive out of my yard," Henderson said.

Yet Henderson's name appears on a district purchase order dated April 14, 2004. News 8 asked Henderson to show us his signature, which because of a disability he struggled to do.

When asked if the signature on the purchase order looked like his signature, Henderson said, "It might have been way back when, but not up here now."

News 8 asked Superintendent Charles Matthews about Henderson.

"He's not being paid one penny," Matthews said.

So why, then, is there $30,000 in the budget being carved out for him?

"Ask the budget man," Matthews said.

And why is his signature still on purchase orders?

"Check with the business manager, thank you," Matthews said, shutting his office door.

News 8 then approached Phillip Roberson, the district's financial director, again asking why Henderson's signature showed up on a 2004 purchase order if he hasn't been with the district since 2002.

"I'm not aware of that," Roberson said. "I'm not aware, I'd have to see that ... I'd have to see that, but it shouldn't be there."

As for the $30,000 that Matthews said was budgeted for Henderson's retirement, Roberson told a different story.

"It was for the $30,000 of the director's salary, but not Henderson," Roberson said. "It would be half of his ... Mr. Faggott's salary."

Standing next to the News 8 crew, district employee Wallace Faggott seemed surprised that he was now the new maintenance director.

"I'm the ... Director of Auxiliary Services," Faggott said.

When asked if he was then not the maintenance director, Faggott paused but did not answer.

Monday, the head of the state's financial audit team called the problems at Wilmer-Hutchins "serious," and said it may take a month for them to complete their work.

Trustee Bonner said it's time for the auditors to get to the bottom of it all.

Said Bonner, "If I see a discrepancy in this, how factual are the other figures in the budget report? We need to re-do it."

State getting ready to run W-H schools

Takeover would need federal OK; education officials arrive for audit

By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News

The Texas Education Agency is laying the groundwork for a possible state takeover of Wilmer-Hutchins schools.

Ed Flathouse, the state's associate commissioner of finance and compliance, said he expects the agency to begin talks with federal officials to clear the way. The U.S. Justice Department must approve a TEA intervention that would give a state official power to reverse any decision by the district's board or superintendent.

"We'll probably make some inquiries in anticipation of it," Dr. Flathouse said, referring to the imposition of a state conservator or management team for the district.

The decision to take over the district, if it comes, will have to follow the report of the TEA's audit team, which arrived Monday to examine the district's finances. But Dr. Flathouse said "we won't wait" until the report is in to start talking to the Justice Department.

Charles Matthews, the district's superintendent, said he doesn't believe the TEA will have to intervene at all because he expects to follow all recommendations the audit team comes up with during its investigation.

"I'm going to do what they tell me to do," he said. "They're here to help."

The audit brings a fitting end to a whirlwind August in Wilmer-Hutchins schools, on Dallas County's south side. In three weeks, the district's high school was declared unusable, a grand jury heard allegations of corruption, and the district was unable to meet payroll, leaving teachers and other employees wondering when they'll next be paid.

"That is one of the failures we see here: Their business is not in order," Dr. Flathouse said.

The TEA has a number of options when it chooses to intervene in a school district. On the low end, the state could demand the hiring of a consultant to improve the district's handling of financial matters. It also could impose a monitor, who could sit in on board meetings and advise the administration. Wilmer-Hutchins most recently had a monitor for the 2001-02 school year because of low test scores.

The agency also has tougher interventions at hand. It could impose a conservator or management team, which would have the power to override any board vote, any administrative decision and any principal's action. However, it would not be able to interfere in district elections, set tax rates or pass an annual budget.

("Conservator" and "management team" are largely interchangeable terms and generally refer to the size of the state team taking over the district. Until a recent name change, the TEA called a conservator a "master.")

The most severe intervention the state can make, short of dissolving the district entirely, is a board of managers. That involves replacing the entire board with state appointees and the appointment of a new superintendent by the state education commissioner.

All of these interventions are rare. As of Aug. 16, only three school districts and six charter schools had a TEA monitor.

No Texas school districts are currently run by a conservator, management team or board of managers. Four charter schools are, including Dallas' Inspired Vision and A-Plus Academy.

Anything from the conservator level or higher needs Justice Department approval. "It's because it involves setting aside voter rights," TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culberson said. "The voters voted in that board of trustees to run the district, and by putting in a management team, we're setting aside the power of that board."

In June 1996 – when Wilmer-Hutchins was last taken over by the state – the Justice Department approved the move. That management team ran the district until 1998.

On Monday, the TEA audit team and inspectors from the Texas Department of Health arrived at Wilmer-Hutchins' headquarters on Illinois Avenue. The health inspectors are examining all district campuses for potentially dangerous situations. Their primary concern is mold and mildew causes by leaky roofs – most prominently at the high school, where a summer storm left parts of the building's interior soaked.

Dr. Matthews said Monday he hopes the building can open to students shortly after Labor Day. In the meantime, students are on other campuses.

Tom Canby, the TEA's managing director of financial audits, said the audit team will spend the better part of the next month gathering information and analyzing the district's financial state. A final report could be ready in a month.

Mr. Canby also said the district took out a $3.8 million tax anticipatory note loan in April, putting the district even further into debt. When asked why the district took out that loan, the district's chief financial officer, Phillip Roberson, said it was to pay off a previous $2 million loan.

Without serious cost cutting, Mr. Canby said, the district will have trouble paying its bills for the rest of 2004 – even with millions in state aid on its way.

Dr. Flathouse pointed out that the state has intervened in Wilmer-Hutchins many times – from small, targeted investigations to the 1996 takeover. "I've been in this room many times before," he said during a news conference in the district's board chambers. "It goes in cycles."

He said the district's recent problems are typical.

"You have to ask yourself: Could this have happened in any other district in the state?" he said. "That's the question that hangs."

Wilmer-Hutchins Woes Deepen

DALLAS, Texas (KXAS TV) - While the Texas Education Agency continues to audit the finances of the Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District, a substitute teacher in the district is under investigation for child molestation.

Lennell McCraw, 59, was arrested Wednesday night after turning himself in to Wilmer police. He is accused of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl on Tuesday at the A.L. Morney Learning Center elementary school.

His bond was set at $250,000.

District officials and Wilmer police will question teachers and students at the school in an effort to gain more information about the accusation.

A child psychologist will provide the victim with therapy.

Stooge - at least you consolidate all of these Texas articles in one topic. I have to give you that! I could easily start an entire Cincinnati local news thread right now, we have a real soap opera/Bill Clinton kinda thing going on right here. The story changes day by day, sometimes hour by hour.

But I haven't started it because only a handful of members here, Jeremy, polarbear, CincinnatiSun and maybe Eric would have an interest in it. LOL

Mary

Yep that we do...

Jeremy - think we've piqued their curiousity yet? LOL

Mary

W-H lawyer suspended by state bar

Exclusive: Counsel used identification number of dead lawyer at least once during suspension

By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News

The Wilmer-Hutchins school district's chief attorney was suspended by the State Bar of Texas last year, and at least once during the suspension he used the state bar identification number of a lawyer who has been dead for 20 years.

Attorney James Belt has had his law license suspended twice since Wilmer-Hutchins hired him in 1998. On a court filing from last November, he used the bar number of O.E. Threlkeld, a Seguin lawyer whose legal career began in 1929.

"He's not practicing from beyond the grave," said W.C. Kirkendall, a lawyer and former colleague of the late O.E. Threlkeld.

Mr. Belt did not return calls seeking comment Friday.

He is a central figure in the troubled school district, where Texas Education Agency auditors have been investigating finances this week. Last month, school board President Luther Edwards said Wilmer-Hutchins is run by a "team of nine" – Superintendent Charles Matthews, the seven board members and Mr. Belt.

"Some districts talk about a 'team of eight,'" Mr. Edwards said. "We call it a 'team of nine' because we include Mr. Belt."

Two years ago, the Texas comptroller's office recommended Wilmer-Hutchins hire a new in-house attorney to replace Mr. Belt – in part because he was charging Wilmer-Hutchins substantially more than lawyers in comparable districts do.

Mr. Belt has been publicly reprimanded by the state bar twice, according to bar records. In 1995, he broke a rule that required him to "take steps to ... protect a client's interests" after that client had stopped using Mr. Belt as her attorney.

In 1999, Mr. Belt violated rules requiring attorneys to keep their clients informed about the status of a case.

Those public reprimands did not affect his ability to practice law. But in 2001, he fell behind in paying his bar dues and a special state tax all attorneys must pay. As a result, he was suspended from September to December and banned from practicing law during that span.

But according to the bar association's disciplinary records, he continued to do legal work for Wilmer-Hutchins. The district even renewed his contract for three additional years during his suspension.

Because he continued practicing law, an evidentiary panel of the state bar suspended Mr. Belt's license to practice for six months in June 2003.

The panel also ruled that Mr. Belt's suspension would be "fully probated." That means he was allowed to continue practicing law during his suspension as long as he met a lengthy list of requirements. They included working under an attorney monitor, attending a course on better managing a law office and paying $1,500 in fees to the bar association.

Mark Pinckard, projects director for the bar's Office of the Chief Disciplinary Counsel, said Mr. Belt apparently met those requirements without incident and had his full license returned last December.

But on at least two legal filings Mr. Belt made during his 2003 suspension, he did not list his state bar number, the unique identifying mark of all Texas lawyers. Attorneys typically list the number on all motions and other court filings.

On one motion – an attempt to dismiss a sexual harassment lawsuit against the district – Mr. Belt listed no bar number at all.

On another, again a sexual harassment case, Mr. Belt instead lists the bar number of Mr. Threlkeld, the Seguin lawyer, who would have turned 100 this year had he not died in 1984.

"He'd come down to the office an hour or two every day and visit around, then go home," said Mr. Kirkendall, who joined Mr. Threlkeld's firm in 1975, when the older lawyer had already retired.

"He was the quintessential avuncular Southern lawyer. Very slow and methodical. A prince of a fellow."

It seems unlikely Mr. Belt chose Mr. Threlkeld's bar number intentionally. He simply has an easy-to-remember number: 20000000. (Mr. Belt's number is 02109300.)

While Mr. Belt's name is listed with Mr. Threlkeld's number, a third lawyer signed the motion. Thelma Sanders Clardy, a DeSoto City Council member and an associate on the case, signed for both herself and Mr. Belt. Ms. Clardy has done work for Wilmer-Hutchins since at least the late 1990s, according to the state comptroller's office.

Mr. Pinckard said he did not know if using another lawyer's state bar number on a legal proceeding would, by itself, be a violation of the bar's rules of professional conduct.

Mr. Belt's history of disciplinary problems have not appeared to be a major problem for district leaders.

Mr. Edwards, the board president, said Friday that he was unaware of Mr. Belt's difficulties with the state bar. "I don't know anything about any suspensions," he said. "That's personal. You'd have to ask Mr. Belt about it. I don't know about it."

But Mr. Edwards was a board member in March 2002, when the state comptroller's office released a comprehensive report on the district's operations.

That review discussed Mr. Belt's 2001 suspension and criticized the district for not checking the lawyer's credentials before entering into a contract with him.

It also criticized the district for being too generous with Mr. Belt. It said a qualified in-house counsel should cost Wilmer-Hutchins about $79,000 a year, including benefits. At the time, Mr. Belt was making a base salary of $119,790 a year, under a contract that granted him an automatic 10-percent raise every September.

In addition, the contract says the district will pay all Mr. Belt's work expenses, including secretarial services, phone bills and office equipment. The contract also requires the district to pay "reasonable costs, including tuition and travel" for Mr. Belt to attend seminars and workshops. The comptroller's office said both of these requirements are "not standard practice among law firms."

The comptroller's report compared Wilmer-Hutchins to three districts it considered peers: DeSoto, Lancaster, and LaMarque. According to the data in the report, Wilmer-Hutchins spent more per-pupil on Mr. Belt in 1999-2000 than any of the peer districts did on their entire legal budgets.

One of the 98 recommendations made in the comptroller's report was for Wilmer-Hutchins to sever its ties to Mr. Belt and hire a new in-house counsel to replace him – in part because Mr. Belt had apparently failed to inform board members that they were repeatedly breaking state laws regarding open records, illegal contracts and other matters.

The board's reaction was to give Mr. Belt a three-year contract extension, to August 2007. In a follow-up report, the comptroller's office said the district had not acted "in the spirit of the recommendation."

Miss Mary wrote:Jeremy - think we've piqued their curiousity yet? LOL

I don't know what it'd take to do that, but whatever we would have to do, I'm all for it. LOL

Where do I start? LOL It IS a real soap opera and if anyone is interested in reading about Cincinnati's Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen and his subordinate Rebecca Collins, whom he was having a 3.5 year affair with, but she claims it was sexual harrassment, and he's married with 2 kids...here's just one article, the latest in a string of them. People want Allen to resign, period. What a mess! To save on board space, I'll just post a link:
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/0 ... len05.html

Mary

W-H accused of shredding files

Superintendent denies data related to ex-worker destroyed

By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News

An administrative assistant to Wilmer-Hutchins' maintenance director said Tuesday that she watched her boss destroy a stack of purchase orders that he asked her to assemble.

She said the maintenance director, Wallace Faggett, said he was acting on direct orders from Superintendent Charles Matthews.

The district's police chief confirmed that he found a stack of torn-up purchase orders in a trash bin behind the district's maintenance building last Wednesday, matching the story of Walterine Hardin, the administrative assistant and a former internal auditor in the district.

Texas Education Agency auditors – already in the district investigating its finances – said that they have found evidence of document tampering and that a criminal investigation is under way.

After a board meeting Tuesday night, Dr. Matthews denied he had ordered any documents destroyed.

"No, never," he said. "I've been very supportive of the TEA, and I've told my staff to do the same. We have nothing to hide."

Mr. Faggett declined to answer questions about the destroyed documents.

The Dallas County district attorney's office said it is leading a new multi-agency investigation into the allegations.

"We have received some additional information and are coordinating an ongoing investigation into various allegations of wrongdoing" in the district, spokeswoman Rachel Horton said.

She declined to say what other agencies were involved.

Ms. Hardin, a 10-year employee of the beleaguered school district, said she got a call last week from Mr. Faggett.

She said he told her "the superintendent wanted us to destroy some documents – anything with [former maintenance director] Gerald Henderson's name on it."

In a report Aug. 30, WFAA-TV (Channel 8) focused on why Mr. Henderson's $30,000 annual salary remained in the district budget even though he has not worked since 2002 because of a disability.

The station also reported that Mr. Henderson's signature was found on a Wilmer-Hutchins purchase order from April. Mr. Henderson said he did not sign the order.

Ms. Hardin said she did as she was told, gathered up a "medium stack" of purchase orders and handed them to Mr. Faggett. "He tore them up in front of us," she said.

Ms. Hardin was the district's internal auditor from 2002 until earlier this year, when she was reassigned as Mr. Faggett's assistant.

She said that after talking with TEA representatives, they asked her to file a report with Wilmer-Hutchins ISD police.

Chief Cedric Davis confirmed the report was filed Wednesday. After receiving it, he and a TEA auditor went to the trash bin and found the torn documents. He said he found about 40 torn purchase orders with Mr. Henderson's name on them, some recently signed. He said he turned the documents over to the district attorney's office.

State law says it is a crime when a public employee "willfully destroys, mutilates, removes without permission ... or alters public information." Punishment can include a jail term of up to three months and a fine up to $4,000.

The TEA auditors arrived in Wilmer-Hutchins on Aug. 30 after a run of problems. First, storm damage and poor maintenance at the high school postponed the start of classes. Then, two weeks ago, the district ran out of money and couldn't meet payroll.

On top of that are a host of other management problems and perhaps the worst academic track record of any district in the state.

Last week, Dr. Matthews pledged the district's full and complete cooperation.

"They'll get whatever information they want," he said. "They are here to help us."

The auditor's job is taking longer than some in the agency had expected. TEA spokeswoman Suzanne Marchman said the auditors will remain in the district through this week and tentatively into next week.

Originally, TEA officials had said their on-site investigation could conclude in four or five days. But Tom Canby, TEA's managing director of school financial audits, warned last week that it could take substantially longer than that.

This is not the first time document tampering has been alleged in the district. In 1996, federal agents from the FBI and IRS raided district headquarters and seized boxes of financial records. Agents interrogated employees about allegations of shredding, but no charges were filed.

A few months after that raid, TEA took over Wilmer-Hutchins, sending a state management team to run the district's operations. TEA officials have said they will consider a similar takeover once the auditors have filed their final report.

District seeking image repair

Consultants hired for finances, construction before bond election

By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News

Looking for ways to improve its image with voters before next week's bond election, Wilmer-Hutchins ISD hired consultants to manage its finances and construction Tuesday night.

District officials pledged the outsiders would ensure there would be no financial shenanigans in the district's future.

"We want to earn the taxpayer's trust," board President Luther Edwards said. "We want voters to know that the projects they vote for are the projects that will be built."

The school board voted 7-0 to hire Jim Damm, a former top business official with Plano, Highland Park and Dallas schools. Mr. Damm will be tasked with bringing order to the district's financial operations.

Those hit a low two weeks ago when officials announced there was not enough money to meet payroll. A team of Texas Education Agency auditors is examining the district's finances.

"The primary area we've discussed is making sure there is a good set of procedures and controls in place and that the system is maintained in a manner consistent with good business practices," Mr. Damm said.

He said he would also work with a TEA conservator team if the state decides to take over the district later this month.

He said he was connected to the district through its financial adviser, First Southwest, and its bank, Bank of America. At the board meeting, Mr. Edwards said, "This is what our financial advisers are asking us to do."

The district also voted to hire Gallagher Construction Management to run the building of three schools and renovation of others. Those improvements will be made only if voters approve the $68 million bond issue on the Sept. 18 ballot.

In other action, the board approved a lawsuit against TEA over a disputed $500,000 short-term loan Wilmer-Hutchins took out in June. TEA says the district paid back the loan illegally by dipping into its debt service fund – money that is only supposed to be used for paying off bond issues under state law.

Last month, the agency gave Wilmer-Hutchins until Aug. 31 to repay the loan from a legal source. The district did not have the money to do so. The lawsuit the board approved Tuesday will argue that the debt service fund was an appropriate source of money to repay the loan.

Agents seize W-H documents

FBI, Rangers interview officials, serve subpoenas; U.S. grand jury opens

By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News

FBI agents and Texas Rangers seized documents and served subpoenas at Wilmer-Hutchins school administration buildings Thursday, and a federal grand jury investigation is under way.

Investigators from both agencies interviewed top district officials at Wilmer-Hutchins headquarters. It's the latest expansion of a broad corruption inquiry that also includes the Texas Education Agency, the U.S. attorney's office, the county district attorney's office and the district's own police department.

Among the subjects under scrutiny: an unexplained hole in the district's $20 million budget, a possibly illegal$500,000 loan, and allegations of double payments and document shredding.

"I open my arms to them," Superintendent Charles Matthews said shortly after he was interviewed by two agents. "I'm glad they're here."

The FBI and Rangers would not detail what subpoenas were issued, what documents were seized, or the targets of their investigation. FBI spokeswoman Lori Bailey said agents were at both the district's main administration building on Illinois Avenue and its maintenance building on Millers-Ferry Road.

The presence of the FBI brought back memories for some Wilmer-Hutchins veterans. In 1996, a joint team of FBI and IRS agents raided district headquarters and seized documents. A few months later, the Texas Education Agency took over the district and ran it for the next two years.

But that FBI investigation returned no indictments. One board member said that she hoped this time would be different.

"Someone should be held accountable this time," said trustee Joan Bonner, who was also a board member in 1996. "I'm just hoping and praying that it will be different this time. To be totally honest, they're going to have to make an example out of someone."

Dr. Matthews said agents did not tell him what, specifically, they were investigating. But he said he believed among the subjects is the alleged theft of a check signature plate from the district's payroll office in July. A signature plate is a device that automatically prints officials' signatures, and it could be used to print fake checks.

Dr. Matthews said two agents interviewed him for about 30 minutes, then spoke to Phillip Roberson, the district's chief financial officer. Through a subordinate, Dr. Roberson said he had no comment.

The district's payment processes have come under scrutiny in recent months. In May, Wilmer-Hutchins Police Chief Cedric Davis turned over information to the Dallas County district attorney's office alleging a variety of crimes. Among them was the issuance of multiple checks to cover the same expenditures.

In just over a year, the district has gone from a $1.6 million fund balance to a deficit of undetermined size. Texas Education Agency auditors arrived last week to determine the size of the hole and how best to reverse the outward flow of money. TEA could decide to take over the district in the next few weeks.

Dr. Matthews issued a memorandum to all district staff informing them of the investigation and ordering them not to "move, destroy, or tamper with any records. ... It is a federal offense for you to disobey this directive."

Last week, a district employee filed a police report saying she had witnessed Wilmer-Hutchins' maintenance director destroying documents under direct orders from Dr. Matthews. The Dallas County district attorney's office has added the alleged document tampering to the other issues it is investigating.

In his note, Dr. Matthews also said a federal grand jury is investigating the district.

The check signature plate went missing July 26, according to a Dallas police report filed by district officials, but it wasn't reported until Aug. 2.

"It just disappeared," Dr. Roberson said Monday. He said he knows of no evidence that the signature plates had been used to write any fake checks. Since the theft, the district has required handwritten signatures, he said.

Dallas police said they have not assigned a detective to the case. Sr. Cpl. Chris Gilliam said there is no physical evidence and there were no witnesses. No suspects have been identified, he said.

"If we get additional information on the case, it will be assigned to a detective," he said.

Dr. Matthews said again Thursday he welcomes investigators to the district, whether they are from the TEA or law enforcement agencies. "Once they clear us of wrongdoing, we can move ahead," he said. "If somebody's guilty, they'll pay the price."

But the superintendent struck a different tone in an interview with African-American News & Issues, a weekly newspaper stacked on the front counter of the administration building.

In the current issue, Dr. Matthews is quoted as saying inquiries into district problems are the result of racist attitudes. The district's population is about 60 percent black. All of the district's top administrators and board members are black.

"This is the latest in blatant attacks on black-owned and black-run school districts," the newspaper quotes him as saying.

Dr. Matthews also is quoted criticizing TEA intervention and media coverage.

"There is a plantation mindset here to return things to the way it used to be," he is quoted as saying. "They want to make blacks look bad and intend to do this by embarrassing us, and destroying the reputations of the positive black role models."

Dr. Matthews' comments angered Ms. Bonner, one of Dr. Matthews' critics.

"I am sick and tired of these incompetent people using the race card," Ms. Bonner said. "The only people I see out here destroying this district are black like me. This is not black and white. This is about taking care of business."

Staff writer Jason Trahan contributed to this report.

FINALLY, some good news for a change!

Payday at last for W-H workers

August check comes through two weeks late in embattled district

By HERB BOOTH / The Dallas Morning News

The three-quarters of Wilmer-Hutchins employees who were not paid when the district missed its August payroll finally got their checks Thursday.

The cash was two weeks late and not a minute too soon for staffers who had relied on relatives or good graces to pay the rent.

"We were paid today, thank God," said Chanda Norman, secretary to Superintendent Charles Matthews. She said her father helped her pay essential bills, such as rent. An overdue electric bill is waiting.

"I would hate for them to turn off the electricity," Ms. Norman said.

The district had the money for payroll because of a regularly scheduled $1.08 million payment from the state. Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, a Texas Education Agency spokeswoman, confirmed that the payment cleared Thursday.

She said the next state payment to districts is Sept. 25. The next scheduled monthly payday in Wilmer-Hutchins is Sept. 29

Danica Carman, the district's math specialist, said employees were "all paid today, as far as I know."

"Everybody I talked to had been paid," she said.

Banks rejected Wilmer-Hutchins school district's request for a bridge loan until the state payment arrived.

A TEA official said Phillip Roberson, the district's top financial officer, called Austin last month to ask about the district's August payment.

But last year, the Legislature announced it was delaying the August payments to school districts to September – into the next fiscal year to help balance the state budget.

The delayed state payments have been public knowledge for more than a year, and several reminders were sent, the TEA said. Most districts saved or reallocated funds to cover the postponed state payments.

The TEA official said Wilmer-Hutchins appears to be the only district to have made the mistake.

Wilmer-Hutchins board member Joan Bonner said she's glad the employees finally got paid.

"We're going to get through this," she said.

Staff writer Joshua Benton contributed to this report.

Wilmer-Hutchins board goes on defensive

By BRAD HAWKINS / WFAA-TV

School board members in the embattled Wilmer-Hutchins district met Monday night in advance of this weekend's $68 million bond election.

The gathering was contentious, defensive and divided. Sheriff's deputies removed some of the more rowdy members of the crowd as speakers lined up, demanding the entire school board step down.

There were some defenders, but many at the meeting said they have lost trust in the trustees and Superintendent Charles Matthews.

"(There is) mass corruption," said district resident Lionel Churchill. "There must be on some bathroom wall, somewhere, 'for a good time call Wilmer-Hutchins.'"

Many are just tired of the controversy. With the state now investigating and overseeing the budget books, Wilmer-Hutchins has missed paying its teachers and staff and its bills, and is likely at least $100,000 in the red.

Two hours into the meeting, board members removed any mention of resignations from the agenda.

"If I can come in here and uncover some of the things I've uncovered in three months, then you need to be glad I'm here," said board trustee Vornadette Brewer. "I am not resigning, and Deborah's not either."

Voters will decide this weekend whether to allow the district to spend the money to improve facilities, and address other issues.

I knew there will be some more bad news for the School District.

W-H voters to decide $68 million list

Some W-H officials say they never saw final details of school bonds

By HERB BOOTH / The Dallas Morning News

Voters will decide Saturday whether to allow the Wilmer-Hutchins school district to spend $68 million on new schools, renovations and demolitions.

But there's no evidence that Wilmer-Hutchins trustees voted on a detailed list of bond projects. And over the last several months, district officials and consultants have changed the list of spending items without the knowledge of some trustees.

Typically, school districts – as Wilmer-Hutchins did – appoint a citizens committee to determine projects. Dollar amounts are usually attached.

The package is presented to the school board, which might tweak a project with an architectural or construction consultant. But those deliberations are public and are published. Recently, the Lancaster school district followed this process.

A Wilmer-Hutchins bond committee member, Brenda Duff, said the committee never presented specific proposals to the board.

"The committee talked about specifics, but we never made a presentation to the board," said Ms. Duff, a former school board member.

Superintendent Charles Matthews and board President Luther Edwards said the consultant, PBK Architects, came up with the final list detailing how the $68 million would be spent. Mr. Edwards said he didn't remember whether the board reviewed that list.

"But the [citizens' bond] committee and the consultant got together and did all that," Mr. Edwards said.

Under the plan being presented to voters, $22.2 million would be spent on new schools, $39.4 million would be spent on renovations and expansions, $3.4 million would be spent on demolition and $3 million would be a contingency fund. This plan was available to the public for the first time on Sept. 1.

Ms. Duff said at first the committee considered building a high school. She said Dr. Matthews had suggested that.

"We reported back to the school board at the June meeting," Ms. Duff said. "We were supposed to have more meetings, but they dismissed us."

The June school board agenda included an item requesting that the board call an election on the $68 million bond proposal. However, there was no detailed list of projects on the agenda.

Board member Joan Bonner said she found out specifics in the bond proposal from a Sept. 5 newspaper story.

"To my knowledge, we have never voted on anything that says we'll spend $7.5 million to build this school or that school. We have never discussed it in a legally called meeting," Ms Bonner said. "Who finalized those figures? I couldn't tell you. I know we didn't discuss it at any meeting I attended."

A prior undated handout the district issued listed $30 million for a new high school, $22.06 million for three elementary schools, $13.44 million for renovations and $3 million for a contingency fund.

That list was issued after an Aug. 30 news conference when the Texas Education Agency and Texas Health Department announced separate investigations into the district.

Dr. Matthews said it isn't unusual for a school district to adjust its bond proposal to better fit the district or adapt to changing conditions within the district.

"Our consultants are going to be involved and put the numbers together," Dr. Matthews said.

The school board and Dr. Matthews won't be involved with the bond proceeds if voters approve the proposal.

On Wednesday, the school district released a statement saying that Gallagher Construction Services, a local bank and Jim Damm, a financial consultant, would oversee construction money if the bond measure is approved.