R.I.P. Wilmer-Hutchins I.S.D. (1927-2006)

[TexasStooge]

W-H district plans job cuts

By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV

Dilapidated conditions at Wilmer-Hutchins High School this summer turned out to be the least of the district's problems.

Buried in the district's financial ledger was $3 million in red ink that could balloon to a shortfall of $5 million next year.

The only answer, according to financial consultants, is deep cuts, the first round of which were approved by trustees at a special meeting Monday night. Officials said these 26 positions will amount to an immediate $1 million in savings.

"Well, it's a million dollars out of total personnel costs of about $14 million," financial consultant James Damm said.

Some cuts seemed clearly needed.

"Performing arts ... administrative assistance principal," said taxpayer Lionel Churchill. "They only have 43 students over there at that school ... they never should have had an administrative assistant anyway."

But upon closer inspection, critics of the administration see not only waste that was, but cuts that are allegedly being mitigated by the creation of other jobs. A roster of current employees shows that at least one of those persons affected has been shifted to another job.

"Well, you've seen something I haven't seen," said school board president Luther Edwards III when asked about the roster. "I've just come out of the meeting."

Board member Joan Bonner said she's not surprised by the possible creation of another job.

"(It's) another fine example of deception in Wilmer-Hutchins," Bonner said. "In my opinion, the name on the top of that list should have been the superintendent's position."

The good news, according to consultants, is that few - if any - existing teachers will lose their jobs. Unfortunately, they also said many more major cuts still have to be made.

[TexasStooge]

W-H superintendent vows innocence after indictment

By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV

Wilmer-Hutchins ISD superintendent Charles Matthews is vowing to prove his innocence after being charged with a felony Thursday in connection with alleged improprieties within the district.

Matthews and district maintenance coordinator Wallace Faggett were each charged with one count of tampering with physical evidence. Both counts stem from a News 8 investigation in August, in which former maintenance director Gerald Henderson - who hasn't worked for the district in two years - pointed out his forged signature on a purchase order from April 2004.

The crime occurred a few days after the initial report, when Matthews allegedly directed Faggett to shred all the evidence.

District security chief Cedric Davis said he's not surprised. He began blowing the whistle to authorities last June.

"It's a sad day, but yet it's a happy day because now I know that the students will at least have an opportunity to go forward once the leadership changes," Davis said.

Additionally, on Thursday morning the district's administrators received a visit from investigators with the Department of Labor.

Matthews insists he's innocent, saying the public should be "extremely" confident in his leadership. When asked if he would step down, the superintendent said, "Definitely not ... never."

Wilmer-Hutchins school board trustee Joan Bonner has been calling for Matthews' resignation for some time.

"Should he resign? Of course he should resign," Bonner said on Thursday.

Board president Luther Edwards, a staunch supporter of Matthews, said it will be up to the full school board to decide in the coming days.

"One board member can not make a decision," Edwards said, adding that he would not share his personal views on the subject, and had no comment about the ordeal as a whole.

Another woman who had held the position of district communications liaison - a position that was eliminated in recent cuts to try and stem the district's budget shortfall - was seen going into the administration building Thursday. When asked if she was still working in that capacity, she said "yes".

Federal authorities are pursuing their own criminal cases against the District. The charges issued against Matthews and Faggett are third-degree felonies, punishable by up to ten years in prison.

[TexasStooge]

Wilmer-Hutchins scores suspicious

Exclusive: News analysis triggers cheating concerns

By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News

On this year's third-grade TAKS reading test, an unlikely school finished No. 1 in the state.

Wilmer Elementary – a perennial underachiever in a district many consider the state's worst – beat out the scores of 3,212 other elementary schools.

But substantial evidence, including a Dallas Morning News data analysis, indicates that cheating may be behind that success.

"This large of a gain is highly improbable due simply to improved instruction," said Gregory Cizek, a professor at the University of North Carolina and a national expert on cheating.

After being informed of The News' analysis of scores at Wilmer Elementary, the Texas Education Agency began a preliminary inquiry and is considering launching a full investigation. Last week, the agency decided it would analyze 2004 TAKS answer sheets at several Wilmer-Hutchins' elementary schools to see if large numbers of answers had been erased and changed.

Wilmer educators strongly denied there was anything improper about their scores. "What are they suspicious of?" Wilmer Principal Geraldine Hobson asked. "We just worked real hard."

James Damm, the district's new interim superintendent, said he is aware of the cheating concerns and hopes state officials will determine the truth.

"Someone is presumed innocent until proven guilty," said Mr. Damm, who took over last week after Superintendent Charles Matthews was indicted on charges of tampering with evidence in a TEA investigation. "But if they're guilty, they'll be held accountable. If that's the case here, and there's been any sort of tampering, the individuals involved can be prosecuted under felony law. It's not a very happy thing to think about."

Not a first for district

This isn't the first time that improvements in Wilmer-Hutchins' test scores have been attributed to cheating. In 1999, TEA decided to monitor the test-taking process at Alta Mesa Elementary after suspicions of cheating arose. The school's test scores plummeted when the tests were administered in the presence of state officials.

This time, the questions are being asked at Wilmer Elementary, a historically underachieving campus. It has twice been labeled "low performing" by the state, most recently in 2000. That ranked the school in the bottom 3 percent of the state.

But in 2004, its students aced the third-grade reading test – the high-stakes exam that students must pass to be promoted to fourth grade. Of all elementary schools in the state that tested at least 30 students, Wilmer Elementary finished No. 1 – and by a significant margin over No. 2, Canyon Creek Elementary in the Austin suburb of Round Rock.

Almost all of Wilmer's students got nearly 100 percent of the test's questions correct.

Although schools with impoverished students typically fare worse academically than those in more affluent communities, Wilmer Elementary far outpaced the performance of the best schools in Highland Park, Plano, Carroll and every other wealthy district in the state. More than 90 percent of the test-takers at Wilmer were poor enough to qualify for free or reduced school lunch.

Immigrant students

Among the most striking results were the scores of Wilmer's limited-English-proficient students. These students – typically recent immigrants from Latin America – by definition have difficulties speaking, reading and writing English. Last year, Texas' limited-English students had a passing rate 9 percentage points lower than the state average on the third-grade reading test.

But at Wilmer Elementary, those students did extraordinarily well on the TAKS. All of Wilmer's children with limited English skills had perfect or nearly perfect scores on the reading test. They, as a group, outscored every other school in the state.

"Clearly these results ought to be looked into," said Dr. Cizek, who is also a member of the committee that advises Texas officials on how to run the state's testing system.

He said it was conceivable that a school as poor and underachieving as Wilmer could end up with the best test scores in the state. "It's about as likely as the Texans winning the Super Bowl," he said. "I suppose it could happen. But it's highly unlikely."

Principal is proud

Wilmer's principal, Ms. Hobson, said that's exactly what happened. "For us to have beaten Highland Park and all the others, I say thank you, Jesus," she said. "I'm real proud of that. We have absolutely nothing to hide."

"We were very confident before the test," said Janeece Choice, one of the two third-grade teachers at Wilmer. "The children had learned what they needed to know, how to analyze and summarize."

But the remarkable test scores at Wilmer are not duplicated in other grades or on other tests. On the fourth-grade reading test, Wilmer's students finished in the bottom 20 percent of the state. In fifth grade, scores were also well below the state average.

The amazing scores came only in the one grade where poor test scores have severe consequences – and, according to cheating experts, educators have a greater incentive to fudge.

"Cheating responds to the costs and the benefits," said Brian Jacob, a Harvard public-policy professor who studied seven years of test scores in Chicago schools. By searching for unlikely patterns on answer sheets and unexplained jumps in scores, he found strong evidence of educators cheating in about 4 percent of classrooms.

But that percentage increased if a test was high-stakes, as the third-grade reading TAKS is. Cheating was 30 percent to 40 percent more common in classrooms taking a high-stakes test than in those where a test had no concrete consequences, he said.

Analyzing the scores

The News analysis was performed by examining the scale scores of each school in the state. TEA typically reports only a school's passing rate – how many of its students did well enough to meet state standards on the TAKS.

A school's average scale score gives more detail. It indicates whether students were barely passing the test or if – as at Wilmer Elementary – they were getting nearly every question correct.

To put it in traditional classroom terms, scale scores can tell you whether a school's students are squeaking by with a D-minus average or if they're all scoring an A-plus.

Lionel Churchill, a community activist and critic of the administration, said several district employees have told him they believe there was TAKS cheating in several Wilmer-Hutchins elementary schools. He said many of the district's children had excellent TAKS scores despite having poor grades. Some students, he said, were recommended for summer school despite near-perfect scores on the TAKS.

"There's a lot of cheating going on," he said. "The scores just do not match up."

Last month, Mr. Churchill raised his concerns in a formal complaint to TEA. His suspicions are based in part on how much better the district's students scored in its elementary schools than in later grades.

In 2003, 77.2 percent of Wilmer-Hutchins' fifth-graders passed the math TAKS. But in sixth grade, the passing rate dropped to 32 percent. There was a similar drop in reading: 75.7 percent in fifth grade, 49 percent in sixth.

Sixth grade is the year when students move up to Kennedy-Curry Middle School. Test scores at Kennedy-Curry and Wilmer-Hutchins High School have long been among the lowest in the state.

Susan Barnes, TEA's associate commissioner of standards and programs, said that the unusual test scores at Wilmer Elementary "are of interest." But she said the agency had not done enough investigating to decide whether any state action is needed. "We'll look at everything that we think is appropriate," she said.

Rebuttal to critics

At an October school board meeting, board president Luther Edwards said the high test scores were a rebuttal to those who criticized Wilmer-Hutchins – currently the subject of federal and state criminal investigation and likely to soon be taken over by the TEA.

"You showed them," he told a group of students and teachers in the audience. "You knocked the bottom out of those test scores. You sent a message."

Staff writer Holly K. Hacker contributed to this report.

[TexasStooge]

Claims of inflated attendance inspire criminal inquiry

W-H stood to gain more funding than most districts

By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News

Wilmer-Hutchins schools are under criminal investigation over allegations that they reported false attendance information to the state – which could have been a way to get more state funding than the district deserved.

James Damm, the district's interim superintendent since Monday, confirmed that Texas Education Agency auditors are examining attendance books at Wilmer-Hutchins schools to compare them with data submitted to TEA.

A TEA spokeswoman would not confirm or deny the investigation.

"There is a broad criminal investigation ongoing, and our auditors are assisting them," Suzanne Marchman said. "At this point, we can just say that auditors are not finished at Wilmer-Hutchins."

In Texas, state funding for schools is based on what administrators call WADA – weighted average daily attendance. Boosting a school district's attendance rate by even a few percentage points can increase its state funding.

Wilmer-Hutchins stood to gain more than most districts from increasing its attendance numbers. That's because it had one of Texas' worst attendance records. In the 2001-02 school year, its attendance rate was 93.6 percent. That rated it 484th out of the 488 Texas school districts with at least 1,000 students. More recent data were not available from TEA on Friday.

If the allegations prove true, it would not be the first time that the district has been in trouble for misreporting attendance data. Last year, the state determined it had overpaid Wilmer-Hutchins $1.97 million because of faulty attendance and enrollment numbers for the 2002-03 school year. It demanded the money be paid back.

The district agreed to do so and freed up the money in its budget by laying out a list of cuts, including freezing hiring and raises for staff, and improving bidding procedures with contractors.

State auditors have since found that the district violated the terms of that agreement by, among other things, giving numerous employees raises and continuing to hire.

Despite having the undeserved state cash, Wilmer-Hutchins still ran out of money this summer, at one point failing to meet payroll for teachers. The district recently projected a $5.4 million shortfall for the current school year.

[TexasStooge]

Scores have spiked before in Wilmer-Hutchins district

In 1999, Alta Mesa Elementary was cleared after investigation

By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News

Wilmer-Hutchins has seen one of its schools' test scores jump unexpectedly before.

In the late 1990s, passing rates on the old Texas Assessment of Academic Skills test soared at Alta Mesa Elementary. From 1994 to 1997, the fourth-grade passing rate rose by 53.1 percentage points.

In 1999, the Texas Education Agency performed a routine analysis on the TAAS answer sheets of students at Alta Mesa and other schools throughout the state. It found an exceptionally high number of answers on Alta Mesa's test forms had been erased and replaced. In addition, a much higher than expected number of the erasures changed incorrect answers into correct ones.

TEA officials suspected cheating, but agency policy required them to request that Wilmer-Hutchins perform its own investigation. Wilmer-Hutchins' superintendent at the time, Stanton Lawrence, complained in a letter to TEA that it was "neither practical nor reasonable" for the agency to expect the district to have the expertise to perform such an investigation. But the district went ahead.

In their final report, Wilmer-Hutchins officials conceded there was "compelling evidence" that the level of erasures was "excessive." But Alta Mesa's principal and the accused teachers told district leaders that they had not cheated. The report said it found "no evidence that would cause us to question" the educators' denials. As a result, the report indicates no educators were fired or disciplined.

But in 1999, TEA decided to send a team of monitors to Alta Mesa to administer the test. With state officials making sure answer sheets were not doctored and answers were not given to students, Alta Mesa's test scores plummeted.

The year before, for example 75 percent of Alta Mesa's fourth-graders had passed all sections of the TAAS. In 1999, only 33.8 percent passed.

District officials asked Alta Mesa's principal, Ray Smith, for his explanation of the drop. According to the report, "teacher morale" was the primary reason he gave.

Mr. Smith is currently principal of Wilmer-Hutchins' performing-arts high school.

TEA stopped monitoring Alta Mesa's testing procedures after 1999. Since then, the school's test scores have increased again. In September, Alta Mesa was rated "exemplary" because of those scores. Only the top 6.6 percent of Texas schools earned that rating.

[TexasStooge]

Petition to abolish W-H district making rounds

Group pushing for May election has several obstacles to overcome

By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News

Wilmer-Hutchins schools weren't on the ballot Tuesday. But they weren't far from it.

Outside polling places throughout the school district, a group of activists gathered hundreds of signatures on a petition to abolish Wilmer-Hutchins altogether.

"Everybody realizes this needs to happen," said Frances Churchill, who spent Tuesday morning standing in the cold outside Alta Mesa Elementary, clipboard in hand. The drive is being led by her husband, former Wilmer-Hutchins trustee Lionel Churchill.

The petition asks Dallas County to give voters the opportunity to abolish the long-troubled district in May. Wilmer-Hutchins is the subject of a number of criminal investigations and teeters on the edge of financial collapse.

Charles Matthews, the district's superintendent, was put on paid leave Monday after being indicted last week on felony charges that he tampered with evidence.

The petition says students could be shifted into the Dallas, Lancaster and Ferris school systems.

"They should have done this a long time ago," said Lazell Preston, who said she spent a year at Wilmer-Hutchins High before fleeing to Dallas' Carter High School. "In Dallas, you actually learned something. At Hutch, you were self-taught. It was 'Show up and we'll give you a grade.'"

Ms. Churchill said she was getting a positive response. On Tuesday morning, it appeared that only about one in 10 voters at Alta Mesa were unwilling to sign the petition.

"I went to school here in fourth grade," said Christina Smith, who signed the petition at Alta Mesa on Tuesday morning. "I love my schools. I love them. But these children need more than what we're giving them."

Resident Louise Kirk said she believed that Wilmer-Hutchins children would get a better education in Dallas schools.

"Dallas has its problems, too, but it's still better than Wilmer-Hutchins," she said.

It appears that getting enough signatures will not be a problem. In just a few hours Tuesday morning, the Alta Mesa volunteers had gathered well over 200. And Alta Mesa was just one of the 10 precincts where Wilmer-Hutchins voters were casting ballots. The petition will need about 1,300 signatures, or 10 percent of the district's registered voters, to proceed.

But that doesn't mean Mr. Churchill's efforts are home free. The Texas Education Code requires that before being forwarded to the county judge, a petition "must be signed by a majority of the board of trustees of the district to be abolished." It is unlikely the current board would agree to put itself out of business.

Even Joan Bonner – the one board member who has been consistently critical of the district's leadership – opposes Mr. Churchill's petition.

"There will always be a Wilmer-Hutchins," she said at Monday night's meeting.

Another potential obstacle is that a neighboring district would have to agree to take Wilmer-Hutchins' students. Some Dallas school officials have said quietly that they would be willing to take on the added students, since Dallas has struggled with lower-than-expected enrollment.

"I feel like they should just get some new people in there who will stop robbing the district," said cosmetology student Shemeka Webber, who refused to sign the petition. "They don't need to destroy the whole district. They just need new people."

This is not the first time voters have attempted to dissolve Wilmer-Hutchins, which has been rated among the state's worst districts for decades. But past attempts, dating to the 1970s, have failed.

Among the morning voters at Alta Mesa was Dr. Matthews. Ms. Churchill did not ask him to sign her petition; he did not volunteer.

[TexasStooge]

Wilmer-Hutchins chief is put on leave with pay

Interim superintendent expects state agency to take over district soon

By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News

Charles Matthews is out as superintendent of Wilmer-Hutchins schools, and his replacement says the Texas Education Agency probably will take over the district by the end of the month.

Dr. Matthews, who was indicted last week on felony charges of tampering with evidence, was put on paid administrative leave by the district's board Monday night.

His replacement is James Damm, a veteran school administrator who has worked in top financial positions in several area districts.

"I will do everything I can to bring this community together to work for the betterment of the district," Mr. Damm said after getting the job.

He later said that based on his conversations with TEA officials, he thinks he will soon be working with a management team from the agency. He expects the TEA to take control of some district operations in the coming weeks.

That move could happen as soon as next week. Agency auditors delivered a preliminary report of their findings to the school board last month, and Wilmer-Hutchins has until Thursday to respond formally. Once the response is received, TEA will issue a final report and probably will take action on the district's governance.

The TEA sent a management team the last time Wilmer-Hutchins was in serious trouble, from 1996 to 1998.

It is not the most severe step that the agency could take. It could choose to install a board of managers, which would mean removing the superintendent and all board members and replacing them with state appointees.

The TEA could also choose to dissolve the district and send its students to a neighboring district, such as Dallas ISD.

"I don't think it will be as fast progress as some would like, and it will be faster than some others would like," Mr. Damm said. "We have to debug the system and see what will fall out."

TEA officials have said they will not comment on any intervention until it is announced.

Dr. Matthews was indicted Thursday after he allegedly ordered maintenance director Wallace Faggett to destroy purchase orders and other documents sought by TEA auditors and law enforcement. Wilmer-Hutchins is under investigation by several agencies, including the FBI, the Texas Rangers, the IRS and state and federal grand juries.

Mr. Damm said Dr. Matthews requested to be put on administrative leave. Neither he nor Mr. Faggett – who was also put on paid leave by the board – attended Monday's meeting.

2 salaries to be paid

The board's decision means the district is paying two men to be superintendent at the same time. Mr. Damm's contract with the district is for only six months, but it prorates to an annual salary of $169,000. That's only $2,600 more than what he had been paid to be a financial consultant to the district.

Dr. Matthews is paid $178,600. That's the second-highest salary in the state among superintendents in districts with 5,000 or fewer students. Last month, a TEA preliminary audit report said that Dr. Matthews must repay $16,000 of his salary because it was paid to him illegally.

This isn't the first time that Wilmer-Hutchins has had to pay multiple superintendents. At one point in the mid-1990s, the district was paying four current and past superintendents – including Dr. Matthews, who was fired in his first stint in 1994.

The double salaries were a point of controversy for some residents. At Monday's meeting, the board also voted to officially terminate the eight contract employees it had preliminarily chosen to lay off at its previous meeting. Among them was Annie Lee, the district's former interim superintendent. Another eight employees will be laid off later this week, Mr. Damm said, and 10 other positions have been eliminated.

"I don't think we should be paying two superintendents while they're laying off teachers," resident Faye Gafford said. "We're trying to educate children here."

Ms. Lee has retained an attorney to fight the layoff. Anticipating that other employees will do the same, trustees hired Austin education lawyer Kevin O'Hanlon to represent it in such cases.

Dr. Matthews and Mr. Faggett join the district's chief financial officer, Phillip Roberson, on paid administrative leave. Dr. Matthews put Dr. Roberson on leave after he agreed to testify before the federal grand jury about the district's finances.

Mr. Damm said he expects Dr. Roberson's status with the district to be "resolved soon," though he did not say how.

Trustee Joan Bonner, a regular Matthews critic, sought to put the superintendent on unpaid leave. But no other board members were willing to second her motion. The board then voted, 6-1, to put him and Mr. Faggett on paid leave, with Ms. Bonner the one dissenter.

Board president Luther Edwards said it would not be appropriate to terminate Dr. Matthews just because he had been indicted.

"Let the courts make their decisions," he said.

Financial woes linger

Mr. Damm said the layoffs will save about $1 million annually, although the current savings will be substantially lower since the district is already several months into the fiscal year.

He said an additional $1.2 million will have to be cut within the next two to three weeks to help the district climb out of financial crisis. Before the layoffs, the district projected a deficit of $5.4 million this year, out of a budget of about $20 million.

"We still have a ways to go," Mr. Damm said.

Law enforcement officials are continuing their investigations, and Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill has said more indictments could be coming.

As a reminder of investigators' presence in the district, the board also voted last night to cancel a planned auction of district property at the request of the district attorney's office. In a letter to Mr. Edwards, officials had expressed concern that allegedly stolen district property, including laptop computers, would be among the goods sold.

[TexasStooge]

Superintendent of W-H indicted

He calls tampering case misunderstanding; 2nd official also charged

By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News

Charles Matthews, superintendent of the troubled Wilmer-Hutchins schools, was indicted Thursday on charges he tampered with evidence in an ongoing investigation.

The district's maintenance director, Wallace Faggett, also was indicted by a Dallas County grand jury. The charges both men face are third-degree felonies with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

The troubled southern Dallas County district is the target of a major criminal investigation into corruption allegations. Officials said more employees of the school district, which has more than 2,800 students, could be indicted. "Maybe this is just the first step in getting the quality of education that we'd all like to see those children have," Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill said.

Dr. Matthews said Thursday afternoon that the indictments were the result of a misunderstanding. He said he had only wanted some documents thrown out because they made the place look untidy.

"I look forward to my day in court," he said.

Mr. Faggett was contacted by phone but declined to comment.

The charges are based on evidence Dr. Matthews ordered Mr. Faggett to destroy purchase orders and other documents that bear the name of Gerald Henderson, the district's former maintenance director. Mr. Henderson's role in the district was among the subjects of a Texas Education Agency audit into the district's finances.

Mr. Henderson's signature continued to appear on district documents for more than a year after he stopped working for the district and became too ill to sign his name legibly. His name and salary also appeared in the district's budget after he no longer worked in the district.

Wilmer-Hutchins has been the subject of dozens of investigations over the last decade by education officials and a long list of law-enforcement agencies. Among the current investigators: the FBI, the Texas Rangers, state and federal grand juries, the TEA, and as of this week, the Internal Revenue Service.

'New beginnings'

But Thursday's indictments are thought to be the first against district employees.

"It's a day for new beginnings in the district," said Wilmer-Hutchins Police Chief Cedric Davis, who has made public charges about corruption in the district since spring.

The current round of troubles in Wilmer-Hutchins began when a storm in June tore holes in the district's high school and officials did not properly repair the damage. Students could not attend classes in the main high school building for more than a month after school was scheduled to start.

Then the district ran out of money, just a few months after reporting a $1.6 million fund balance. On Aug. 25, the district could not meet its monthly payroll, and many teachers went without pay. Troubled by the missing money and other allegations of corruption, the Texas Education Agency sent an audit team to the district Aug. 30.

Two days later, Dr. Matthews was accused of ordering Mr. Faggett to gather up any documents bearing Mr. Henderson's name and destroy them.

At the time, Mr. Faggett's administrative assistant, Walterine Hardin, told The Dallas Morning News that she had gathered up the documents at Mr. Faggett's request.

She said he told her "the superintendent wanted us to destroy some documents." Mr. Faggett "tore them up in front of us," she said.

Ms. Hardin later reported the incident to Wilmer-Hutchins ISD police. Police and TEA officials found the torn documents, including a stack of purchase orders, in a trash bin behind the district's maintenance building.

Dr. Matthews said Thursday that he had done nothing wrong. He said that the maintenance office had a lot of extra paper lying around and that he wanted Mr. Faggett to "tidy it up." He said the maintenance department's secretary was "really sloppy."

"I told him, 'You need to clean up your area, get rid of the old stuff,' " he said. "It was filthy down there. It was untidy."

TEA audit

Tom Canby, the TEA's managing director of financial audits called the charges "very serious matters."

"We hold public officials to a high level of professionalism because they have responsibility over large amounts of public funds," he said.

The TEA could take over the school district within two weeks.

Mr. Canby said this was, to his knowledge, the first time a school official has faced indictment for obstructing a TEA audit investigation. He has been at the TEA since 1978.

The charges filed Thursday carry a penalty of between two and 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

Both men are allowed 24 hours to surrender to authorities and post bail.

The multi-agency criminal investigation into corruption in Wilmer-Hutchins continues. Mr. Hill said he hopes the charges will increase public confidence in the district.

"Certainly the students and kids at Wilmer-Hutchins deserve the finest education they could possibly have," the district attorney said. "Certainly that means having an administration that's free of corruption and crime."

Dr. Matthews said he probably would represent himself in court.

"I won't need an attorney," he said. "Truth is on my side."

He said he had no plans to step aside as superintendent.

Mr. Faggett continues as maintenance director, but the department was placed under the supervision of Lew Blackburn, the district's human resources director. Dr. Blackburn is also a Dallas schools trustee.

Dr. Blackburn said he did not know whether it was district policy to suspend district employees under indictment.

"We've got to make that decision," he said.

Board President Luther Edwards, a supporter of Dr. Matthews, said it was premature to discuss what would happen to the superintendent.

"He will have his day in court," he said.

He said the school board would discuss the matter at its meeting Monday, probably in executive session.

But trustee Joan Bonner, a longstanding Matthews opponent, said she thinks Dr. Matthews should step down.

"It's long past due," she said. "This proves the legal system can work."

Staff writer Robert Tharp contributed to this report.

[TexasStooge]

TIMELINE OF TROUBLES:

Aug 16: Wilmer-Hutchins High School cannot open on the first day of classes because storm damage from June has not been repaired.

Aug. 25: The district runs out of money and fails to meet its payroll. A few months earlier, the district had reported a $1.6 million fund balance.

Aug. 30: A Texas Education Agency audit team begins an investigation into the district's financial problems.

Sept. 4: The Dallas Morning News reports that James Belt, Wilmer-Hutchins' chief attorney and a central figure in the troubled district, had been suspended by the State Bar of Texas twice in the past three years.

Sept. 8: The News reports that an administrative assistant watched her boss, Wilmer-Hutchins maintenance director Wallace Faggett destroy a stack of purchase orders on direct orders from Superintendent Charles Matthews.

Sept. 9: FBI agents and Texas Rangers seize documents and serve subpoenas at Wilmer-Hutchins school administration buildings.

Sept. 20: Phillip Roberson, Wilmer-Hutchins' chief financial officer, is suspended by Dr. Matthews after Dr. Roberson agrees to testify before a federal grand jury.

Sept. 21: Wilmer-Hutchins High School opens more than a month late but is nearly closed a few hours later when Dallas fire officials discover that the fire alarm system is faulty.

Oct. 13: The TEA's preliminary audit report finds that Dr. Matthews received more than $16,000 in illegal pay last year. Investigators also find that the district illegally shifted $500,000 from its bond fund to its general fund.

Oct. 18: Wilmer-Hutchins trustees approve the layoffs of 26 employees. Officials estimate that the layoffs will save the district about $1 million.

Oct. 28: A Dallas County grand jury indicts Dr. Matthews and Mr. Faggett on charges of tampering with physical evidence.

Nov. 7: TAKS Scores suspicious. New analyses triggers cheating concerns after Wilmer-Hutchins' third-grade classes finished No. 1 in the state after completing the TAKS Reading test.

SOURCE: The Dallas Morning News / WFAA ABC 8

[TexasStooge]

State team taking over W-H schools

By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA ABC 8

As News 8 first reported Tuesday afternoon, the Texas Education Commissioner is sending a management team in to take over operations in the Wilmer-Hutchins ISD.

The move comes after months of bad publicity and serious allegations of financial - even criminal - mismanagement.

What started as allegations of corruption from one employee has evolved into the near-collapse of an entire school district.

Education Commissioner Shirley Neely, once reluctant to intervene in district affairs, has ordered a management team to take over the district's operations. By the end of the week, they will have arrived to work with the interim superintendent and trustees to try to restore order to the district.

Board member Joan Bonner still feels the state is not going far enough.

"I was hoping that the state had enough power to dissolve this board," Bonner said.

When reminded that she would be included in that dissolution, Bonner said that was acceptable.

"So be it, I'm part of the board, and if dissolving this board is going to improve the educational process in this district, that's what needs to happen," she said.

Bonner said trustees are largely responsible for conditions discovered this summer at Wilmer-Hutchins High School, for the district being millions of dollars in the red and for supporting a superintendent now under state criminal indictment.

Now there is more: a judge's order temporarily barring the board from even meeting as upset taxpayers sue to strip them of their powers all together.

District police chief Cedric Davis, the original whistleblower, said he's glad it is all finally coming out.

"Someone down in Austin is at least thinking about the children," Davis said. "If it's the right choice to put in a management team, I can't say that. If it's the right choice for them to have total control and eliminate the board, I can't even say that. But at least someone in Austin heard the cries."

State officials said there is no set timetable for their intervention in the district, but added they will stay as long as necessary to make sure the major issues are resolved.

[TexasStooge]

Several say W-H students cheated on state tests

By CHRIS HEINBAUGH / WFAA-TV

When Wilmer Elementary teacher Addie Stepney started her fourth-grade class last year, she felt encouraged. The students' third-grade TAKS test results showed strong reading skills.

"They had very good scores," Stepney said.

So when a fellow teacher warned Stepney that many of her students couldn't read, she responded that didn't make sense.

They didn't have a problem taking the TAKS test, actually they did very well," Stepney recalled. "And (the teacher) said, 'that was because they cheated.'"

Then one of her students confessed he could not read.

"I said, 'you had to read to take that test,' and he told me no, he did not read it," Stepney said. "He said that a teacher read it to him."

Other students shared similar stories. Stepney grew so concerned that she started keeping a log and notes, and is now one of several teachers and students who came forward after a recent data analysis by The Dallas Morning News indicated cheating on state tests in some Wilmer-Hutchins ISD schools.

"There are some statistics that indicate there is something that's questionable," said WHISD interim superintendent James Damm.

The principals of the schools in question told the Morning News that no cheating took place. Damm said investigators with the Texas Education Agency will spend time this week questioning teachers - and possibly students - about the tests. Meanwhile, Damm and others are determined to set the district on a new course.

"We're going to fix this thing as best we can," he said. "We're going to do the things that need to be done, and anybody who can't pull their weight in getting it done ... we'll help them find something they can be successful with."

Stepney hopes the district moves fast to get those kids who can't read back on track.

"These children go from grade to grade, and then finally they make it to high school," she said. "Then when they come out of high school, how are they going to survive?"

Stepney wants to be part of that process, but the district did not renew her contract. One reason she suspects: she asked too many questions about cheating.

[TexasStooge]

Official: Wilmer-Hutchins district 'not salvageable' without effort

State team begins work to pull troubled district out of crisis

By DAN RONAN / WFAA-TV

A former Dallas ISD interim superintendent and a businessman began work this week to bring the Wilmer-Hutchins school district back to financial and educational stability.

Texas Education Agency officials picked one-time Dallas interim school superintendent Robert Payton and businessman Albert Black to fix the Wilmer-Hutchins ISD.

"I know this is going to be a challenge, but many things in life we go through are a challenge," Payton said.

The state had a warning for the Wilmer-Hutchins school board as well.

"If the effort is not there, then we might have to look in another direction, which is maybe is (that) it is not salvageable," said the TEA's Karen Case.

The TEA team will be at Wilmer-Hutchins through the end of the current school year, and possibly even longer.

So far this year in the district, serious maintenance problems kept classes from starting on time, the superintendent and another official were indicted and the district is being investigated for alleged misappropriation of funds. Now there are charges that third graders in the district cheated on the state's TAKS reading tests.

Some financial information was supplied to authorities by the district's police chief Cedric Davis. Before Monday night's board meeting, a man could be seen distributing Davis' 1990s-era personnel file to reporters, when Davis applied for - and was rejected for - a job with the Grapevine Police Department.

"It's an attempt to slay the messenger or dirty the messenger, but it's not going to stop me from speaking out my opinion about the corruption that occurs here," Davis said.

Meanwhile, the Wilmer-Hutchins ISD board itself faces an uncertain future. Tuesday, a Dallas Judge continues a hearing on a lawsuit brought by community activists to remove the entire school board from office.

A state official said the level of the current issues in the district puts the situation in "uncharted territory" for investigators.

[TexasStooge]

W-H custodian indicted on theft charge

3rd person indicted in district inquiry accused of stealing computers

By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News

A Wilmer-Hutchins custodian is the third person indicted in the ongoing criminal investigations into the district.

Willie Dunn is accused of stealing 18 laptop computers from the district's administration building this summer. The charge, issued by a Dallas County grand jury on Thursday, is a third-degree felony and could carry up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Authorities have given Mr. Dunn 24 hours to surrender. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The computers were purchased as incentives to attract new teachers to the district. Their disappearance had been one of the first issues addressed by the multiagency criminal task force, which includes the FBI, the IRS and the Texas Rangers.

"The allegations were brought to us and the Rangers pretty much at the beginning of the investigation," Assistant District Attorney Pat Batchelor said.

Cedric Davis, police chief of Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District, was given the task of removing Mr. Dunn from district property when he was suspended from his job two weeks ago. He said Mr. Dunn acknowledged taking the laptops from the office of Lew Blackburn, the district's executive director of human resources.

"He said he did it, but what I felt was strange was that he said 'I did most of it,' " said Chief Davis, the initial investigator in the case. "I believe it goes further than Willie Dunn. I can't see him planning out something like this."

"It was really a surprise," interim superintendent James Damm said of Mr. Dunn's indictment.

Mr. Batchelor said investigators have recovered 12 of the 18 computers, which had a retail value of about $900 each.

Chief Davis said that Mr. Dunn is a popular figure in the community and that a group of residents would be raising money for his legal defense.

Mr. Dunn joins Superintendent Charles Matthews and maintenance director Wallace Faggett as indicted targets of the criminal corruption investigation. Dr. Matthews and Mr. Faggett were indicted last month on charges of document tampering.

Law enforcement officials have said more indictments are likely. In court testimony last week, Chief Davis said the targets of the investigation include several school board members, Dr. Matthews, district lawyer James Belt, and several other top administration officials.

Meanwhile, the district's school board is now able to meet without restrictions, state District Court Judge Merrill Hartman ruled Tuesday.

On Nov. 5, Judge Hartman issued a temporary restraining order preventing the board from meeting or taking action. He issued the order after a group of district residents filed a lawsuit asking for the removal of all the board's members because the residents disagree with some of the board's past decisions.

The residents' attorneys had sought last week to have the restraining order extended into an injunction, but Judge Hartman decided to let the board meet Monday even with the restraining order in place.

On Tuesday, the judge ended the restraining order and declined to issue an injunction. As a result, the school board will be able to meet without restrictions, although Judge Hartman ordered district officials to provide him and the plaintiffs with copies of the agenda of all future board meetings.

"It's a good solution," Mr. Damm said.

Last week, the Texas Education Agency appointed a two-person management team to oversee the troubled district's affairs, with the power to overrule almost any district decision. Both the plaintiffs and Judge Hartman said TEA's intervention lessened the need for the board to be made powerless by judicial order.

But Cyrus Holley, who led the TEA management team the last time the state took over Wilmer-Hutchins, said he was disappointed in the judge's decision.

"This board has had its chance," he said. "My recommendation is to get rid of this school board once and for all."

Mr. Holley said the school board tried to sabotage his stewardship of the district when he was appointed in 1996. Board members openly disobeyed managers' orders and told staff members to ignore the demands of state officials, he said. His car was vandalized twice in district parking lots.

He also said he discovered phone taps on several office phones and a hidden recording system in the superintendent's office. Information gathered from those clandestine devices was reaching school board members, he said.

Mr. Holley and his fellow manager, Lois Harrison-Jones, eventually resigned their posts, citing the board's interference. The newly appointed state managers, Albert Black and Robert Payton, have both expressed optimism about working with the board.

[TexasStooge]

Who's being cheated in W-H? The kids

By JACQUILENN FLOYD - The Dallas Morning News

Strictly speaking, allegations that teachers and even administrators deliberately cheated on the all-important TAKS test in the beleaguered Wilmer-Hutchins school district remain unproved. I'll leave the door open a crack here to admit the possibility that everybody has it wrong, that our lyin' eyes deceive us.

But the notion that low-income children in a district long considered among the worst in Texas managed miraculously to lead the entire state in their reading ability during the crucial grade-three test year is absurdly, pitifully, cruelly farfetched.

The news from this wretched little district just gets worse and worse: buildings falling down, money missing, indictment of the superintendent and a fresh cycle of state intervention that, in the past, has worked only until the overseers packed up and went home.

Some of the parents and taxpayers there have been deceived and stonewalled for so long that they have just about given up hope for any permanent improvement. I guess the most disheartened among them just pack their kids off to school every day, hoping for the best but expecting very little.

And now we have extremely powerful evidence that teachers, perhaps with the complicity of principals, purposely fed answers on the TAKS test to third-graders, that they falsely inflated the scores beyond all credibility, and then cynically saluted the kids for their "achievement."

Who really got cheated here?

The list is long: parents, taxpayers, the state of Texas, a society that expects public schools to carry out at least a rudimentary job of teaching children the most very basic skills.

The biggest losers, though, are the kids that one whistle-blowing teacher interviewed by my colleague Josh Benton called "those poor babies."

The teacher, who worked last year at Wilmer Elementary, said she found illiterate fourth-graders – children who could not read at all – whose records showed they had aced the TAKS reading test the previous year.

"Those poor babies," the teacher, Addie Stepney, told The Dallas Morning News. "If someone had really worked with them, I think most of them could have passed, eventually."

Passed the test for real, she meant; passed it on their own, passed it using their own knowledge and abilities.

But it appears that they were cheated, that people who were supposed to be helping them instead just gave up on them and lent their names to a lie.

This burns me up, more than the strong intimations of financial incompetence and malfeasance in the Wilmer-Hutchins district. It makes me angrier than the growing evidence that contractors were overpaid, that money was pocketed, that salaries were ludicrously inflated.

It burns me that little kids, many of them from poor homes or from families who don't speak much English, were screwed out of one of the few guarantees offered to even the most disadvantaged children in our society.

Learning to write and spell, learning to add four apples to three apples and come up with seven, learning to read and maybe even to love books may be the best shot life will ever offer these kids to better their circumstances.

It's a hard social reality that the academic deck is already stacked to favor students from affluent homes in wealthy school districts. Nobody expected Wilmer-Hutchins to post the highest test scores or to turn its students into the state's top achievers.

But they were damn well expected to teach them how to read, to give them a fighting chance to start out with the same academic basics as everybody else.

Instead, the district produced fourth-graders like the boy Ms. Stepney said she encountered who turned to her in class and said plaintively, "I cannot read."

Who got cheated here?

Those poor babies.

[TexasStooge]

Wilmer Elementary principal to resign

District says decision not tied to questions about TAKS scores

By JOSHUA BENTON / The Dallas Morning News

The principal of Wilmer Elementary has decided to resign, less than two weeks after a Dallas Morning News analysis of TAKS test scores found strong evidence of organized cheating at the school.

But Geraldine Hobson told district officials that her decision is based on family circumstances, not the cheating allegations, Wilmer-Hutchins interim Superintendent James Damm said.

"We'll be putting together a plan to replace her," he said.

The cheating allegations center on the third-grade reading TAKS test, which, in most cases, students must pass to be promoted to fourth grade. Wilmer historically has been an academic underachiever.

But this spring, nearly all of Wilmer's third-graders had perfect or near-perfect scores on the test – substantially better than even the highest-scoring suburban districts fared statewide. Among the more than 3,000 Texas elementary schools that tested at least 30 students, Wilmer Elementary finished No. 1.

Even the scores of Wilmer students who, by state standards, have trouble speaking and reading English, beat out every other school in the state.

But the school's scores in other grades – where passing the test is not required for students to be promoted – were poor.

Since the News' initial story, a former fourth-grade teacher at Wilmer has come forward to support the allegations.

Addie Stepney said many of the students she taught – all of whom had passed the third-grade reading test the year before – couldn't read at all. She said other teachers told her that the third-grade teachers had helped students cheat.

An investigative team from the Texas Education Agency arrived in the district on Monday afternoon and is interviewing principals and teachers from several Wilmer-Hutchins elementary schools about allegations of cheating.

Ms. Hobson, 65, will leave the job at the end of the fall semester. Mr. Damm said she had previously planned to retire at the end of the school year. Her mother died recently, and Mr. Damm said she cited that as the main reason for her resignation.

Reached at home, Ms. Hobson said she had no comment. She has previously said there was no cheating at her school.

In another Wilmer-Hutchins development, one half of the new state-appointed management team has resigned. Robert Payton, a former Dallas administrator and interim superintendent, told TEA officials he underestimated how much time it would take to fix the troubled district's problems.

"He decided it's going to take more time than he can offer," TEA spokeswoman Suzanne Marchman said. "He didn't think it would take the time commitment he realized once he was on site."

Mr. Payton started the job Monday. The TEA announced the state takeover last week. Under state law, a management team can order the district's school board, superintendent or principals to take almost any action, and it can veto any decision they make.

His replacement is Michelle Willhelm, former chief of operations at the TEA. Ms. Willhelm has worked in a variety of Texas districts in positions ranging from teacher to superintendent.

"I understand they need me, and I'm going to find out what I need to know," she said Wednesday. "I was told to be ready to roll up my sleeves."

During her stint at the TEA in the mid-1990s, Ms. Willhelm oversaw a 30 percent reduction in the agency's operating costs, including reductions in personnel. That experience will come in handy in Wilmer-Hutchins, which recently cut 26 positions and is planning another round of layoffs in the next few weeks.

Ms. Willhelm lives in San Antonio, and her appointment probably will increase Wilmer-Hutchins' costs. Under state law, a district must pay the travel expenses of its state managers. The other manager, businessman Albert Black, lives in Dallas.

But Ms. Willhelm said she expects to do some of her work by phone and e-mail.

"There can be advantages to not being local," she said. "You can be so neutral, you can be objective. It may be worthwhile one of us is from outside and one from inside."

[TexasStooge]

W-H suspends superintendent, fires 2 others

By DAN RONAN / WFAA-TV

A Texas Education Agency management team flexed its muscles Monday at the troubled Wilmer-Hutchins ISD, leading to the suspension of the district's embattled superintendent and the firing of its maintenance director and lawyer.

Superintendent Charles Matthews skipped the meeting as Board Members suspended him without pay.

"We started a process to conclude the relationship between the district and Dr. Matthews," said interim superintendent James Damm.

Matthews now has 60 days to appeal. He and maintenance director Wallace Faggett were indicted last month by a Dallas County grand jury, charged with shredding documents pertaining to the investigation of the district's shaky finances.

Matthews and Faggett were paid a combined $230,000 a year, even as the district twice couldn't make payroll.

"We need to look at all our expenses, particularly (of) high-paid employees that are not working," said the TEA's Dr. Karen Case.

Wallace Faggett will be fired Tuesday. District attorney James Belt, with whom some board members had expressed displeasure over his legal advice, was also let go - although that decision took two votes. After the first vote failed, TEA officials now running the district demanded another roll call.

"This district will not go forward with the law services of James Belt," the TEA's Albert Black said.

Belt, with his $120,000 annual retainer, was then fired. He would not comment on the decision.

Board members said they felt they had no choice but to let the three men go, especially now that the district is the subject of a state takeover and several investigations.

[TexasStooge]

SOME WILMER-HUTCHINS SCHOOLS MAY CLOSE

DALLAS, Texas (KDFW Fox 4) -- Some schools could be forced to close in the troubled Wilmer-Hutchins School District.

Interim Superintendent James Damm is proposing the school closings to help balance the budget. The Hutchins Elementary School, the Morning Learning Center, and the Peforming Arts School would be affected.

Mister Damm says closing the schools would save the district more than 400 thousand dollars. The board is expected to vote on the proposal next week.

[TexasStooge]

Wilmer-Hutchins board votes to close three schools by end of year

By BRAD HAWKINS / WFAA ABC 8

The Wilmer-Hutchins ISD will be downsizing in the new year.

Board trustees voted Monday to save hundreds of thousands of dollars by closing three campuses during the winter break, despite cries from parents and students to keep the schools open.

"Please do not close that magnet school," said one parent. "If this school closes, it's going to devastate a lot the children - especially mine."

But the impassioned pleas could not bend hard figures.

"We get about $6,000 per student, and the cost has been about $17,000 per student," said interim superintendent James Damm.

In a board room famously filled with fights over finance, disagreements and deceit, there was silent unity in disappointment and defeat. Trustees voted five-to-two to mothball Hutchins Elementary, Morney Learning Center and a performing arts magnet high school. The closures will save more than $400,000 for the district.

Some wonder about non-monetary costs, however. Performing arts magnet student Otia Winters wants to sing professionally, but faces a key change midstream.

"They don't have any right to take away our school from us like that," Winters said. "What are we supposed to do? How do we go to a regular high school and pursue what we were doing?"

"If that school was not there for me, I don't know where I'd be ... I'd probably be on the street on crack or something," said sophomore Chastity Robinson. "This school showed me my life; it showed me what I want to be and what I want to do."

Wednesday is payday at Wilmer-Hutchins, so faculty and staff will be taking home a pre-Christmas check. But they'll return from the holiday break to a district three campuses smaller - a district still fighting to survive.

[TexasStooge]

Wilmer-Hutchins ISD may face tax rate election

Interim chief says he, others can't find records on 1956 increase

By HERB BOOTH / The Dallas Morning News

The Wilmer-Hutchins school district has failed for nearly 50 years to hold an election on its tax rate, an oversight that could force a referendum with potentially crippling consequences for the troubled district.

Interim Superintendent James Damm said Monday that he and others can find no record of an election raising a 90 cents per $100 of assessed valuation tax rate that voters approved in 1956. Mr. Damm said if the records can't be found, the school district will have to ask voters for the authority to tax at a higher level.

The district's current tax rate is about $1.58 per $100 of assessed value, Mr. Damm said.

If the referendum to approve the higher tax rate were to fail, the district would have to operate next year at the rate approved in 1956. School district attorney Kevin O'Hanlon said that could threaten the district's existence.

"There's no way the district could afford to operate at 90 cents per $100," Mr. O'Hanlon said.

At a school board workshop Monday night, Mr. Damm distributed a six-page report on the situation and district finances in general.

"This condition, now discovered, cannot continue without resolution. It must be corrected before the setting of next year's tax rate," the report said.

Mr. Damm said in an interview late Monday that about 100 school districts across the state "are in the same boat."

Other districts have held elections to rectify similar problems, he said.

"Voting for it won't raise a person's taxes," Mr. Damm said of a potential referendum. "It would just keep them taxed at the same rate."

DeSoto and Lancaster school districts added propositions to their February ballots that clear up tax rate questions there.

Wilmer-Hutchins school board President Luther Edwards said he's hopeful the district will find records that authorize the current tax rate.

"We'll wait and see. We just can't find the records right now," he said. "We'll wait until we hear from legal advisers. I'm sure if we have to take it to voters, they'll appreciate what we're facing."

Mr. Damm said the district administration and state management team have consulted legal counsel, the Texas Education Agency and the Texas comptroller's office regarding the district's options.

Michelle Willhelm, who with Albert Black makes up the state management team assigned to help run the district, said this was difficult information to share but "we believe in openness."

The district report handed out Monday states that the administration learned of this condition within the last two months and has been researching it.

Mr. O'Hanlon said the election is likely to be in May.

He said the district would not owe refunds to property owners. He said the law has no provision for taxes paid "voluntarily" in past years.

Mr. Damm said new tax notices for this year won't have to be sent again.

The report states that the administration does not think the district illegally used the extra tax revenue. It says that all district money has been accounted for and that investigations about past district officials have not been completed.

Mr. Damm pledged better recordkeeping in the future. He said he would return to the board with his plans.

[TexasStooge]

Judge appoints W-H supervisor

By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA ABC 8

In an emergency move, a Dallas judge has appointed a court master with the power to oversee operations of the Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District.

Dilapidated conditions at the district's high school this summer were just the beginning of the problems at Wilmer-Hutchins ISD. Allegations of mismanagement and corruption have resulted in the criminal indictments and the state taking over district operations.

Monday's order comes in the wake of new security concerns District Judge Merrill Hartman has been convinced by lawyers suing the district that when the police force was recently eliminated, security at the schools has run amok.

"When they were eliminated immediately they started having attempted sexual assaults what was the last one...girl's hair set on fire, riots, multiple fights, burglaries, vandalism."

That argument is the basis for Judge Hartman's appointment of a court master, giving him broad powers. Among those powers are the authority to hear all employee grievances, the authority to reinstate laid-off employees, the authority to reinstate the police department and the authority to replace all seven school board trustees being sued.

It's enough to have district officials shaking their heads. Wilmer-Hutchins ISD interim attorney Eric Moye said, "the order is absolutely extraordinary, and it goes so far beyond the bounds of propriety it's just staggering."

The person who stands to gain the most is former district police chief Cedric Davis, the man who blew the whistle on corruption last summer.

"I welcome it. It is about time."

Davis insists he doesn't want his old job back but said he is concerned that student safety is being ignored, citing a rash of recent break-ins as proof.

Acting Superintendent Jim Damm said he disagrees with Davis' assessment, but said, "the district is going to follow what any judge orders."

Damm also said he's more concerned with moving the district forward, and will unveil his master plan later this week. It's unclear whether he have to clear it with the new court master first.