Beleaguered Lancaster School District takes another blow

letslearn says:

Let's all encourage Larry Lewis, to send a request right away to TEA, asking that they come in and do a complete finanical audit, covering all the years Lewis, has been at LISD.

This way he can prove he has been doing the best, fiscal job possible. And all the naysayers and those saying he has misappropiated funds, will know and speak the truth.

Now let's all send, this suggestion to Larry, and wait for him to consider to do doing this.....

Shelia_in_Lancaster says:

Ha ha your funny. The Lancaster district just finished one audit and found no stealing. What do you think? Dig where you want but all you do is waste time and come up with no dirt.

letslearn says:

Hey, what audit? Who did it? When? No one and least of all me has accused anyone of stealing. Come on now, let's speak the truth.

Please if you are going to direct comments to me, please read what I write and not what you think...

You speak of stealing do you know of any that was done and by whom? I don't and have not suggested it. But hey, you may not understand the printed word and I am through with that part of your note.

Did TEA, do the audit? It is not posted any where, that an audit was being done and why?

Since, you seem to be in the know or in the inner circle, could you please ask the superintendent, to have printed copies readied, to pass out, at the Monday night meeting, for the general public? And thank you, in advance for doing that.

For your information and edification, I am not an investigator, looking for dirt, good or bad about the district, all that needs to be known, just shows up. You know the one, paraphrase; "what is done in the dark, will come to the light."

Like, how can any leader try and get past the legal laws of the state. Not new ones old ones. Lay the blame on the staff, as with the order of tax rate and budget and the poor thought out plan for the 4 day week and say they know they (Lewis) have been good for the district...

I did not go seeking the policy on what comes first; the budget or the tax rate, but it seems the super, should have. YOU THINK?????

Like, I said no one has to investigate, just wait for the next interesting occurance in the district, from it's leaders...

The board president is silent and he has been on the board long enough to have learned some policy, but (oops) the superintendent speaks and he listens and agrees. Good grief who reads the policy , now that, Ms. Mangrum is not on the board?

I know! I know! No one until something is bought to the boards and superintendent's attention.

Are we being served yet as a community?

Good question, I look for answers.

Oh the top is off the bottle and the Jeanie, is loose. Don't you love it?

estherspeaks says:

Regardless of whether or not there is outright stealing taking place at the LISD administration, the fact remains that the promises this superintendent made when he came to the district, he has not kept. He promised to have at least a 3 million dollar fund balance after the first two years and now we are down to just around $500,000.00. He said we would be an exemplary district in five years of his coming, but we are academically further behind than when he came. We now have two campuses that are unacceptable with no recognized campuses. In his first convocation to the district employees, he said we would be the best predominately African-American district in the nation, but our state ratings proved that to be untrue.

When he speakes to the board he brags on the sports and the fine arts departments, but the academics are not his top priority. He speaks about the IB program he is bringing in, but that is not a done deal. That final determination is not even to occur until the late Fall semester or early Spring semester and with our TAKS and AYP status, it is very doubtful that it will be approved.

When the bond issues were put out, the information he gave to the community was that we had to have more buildings because we did not have enough seats for all the children coming to Lancaster. His new proposal is to not even open the East Campus and to leave that campus unopened. If we are running our of seat room, why would you leave an entire campus vacant, especially in an emergency situation. Dr. Lewis, you cannot have it both ways-either we don't have enough seats and we need the buildings or we have enough seats but they aren't in the new buildings that you have pushed so hard for. Which is it?

At the board meeting, you said "I don't care what the community thinks of me, as long as the Board knows me." Well, Dr. Lewis, you and the BOT need to care what the community thinks about you, because it is the community that replaced one board member, (Vick) and it will be the community that votes on who will be on the board come May. The community spoke last May and they will again this May and you may have to eat your words. The community is the final boss of all school employees and that includes you.

queensheeba says:

Board members better listen to what Dr. Lewis is saying. I beleive he has gone from 18 to 15 and now down to 12 for for sure money for the prosposed budget. The budget keeps getting cut. So board members what is going on???? Where is the money, oh I mean Show Me the MONEY!!!! It sure isn't in the fund balance account. How much more can we cut and still run a school district. I guess what you said is now true Dr. Lewis, since the bond did not pass, there will be no raises, although I am not sure what bond money has to do with raises?????

Shelia_in_Lancaster says:

And here we go with the nameless griping again. Put your face up behind your mouth if you want a serious hearing.

And I don't know why you can't see the simple truth about the bond money. A field trip can be on a rented bus paid by general money or it can be on a new bought bus paid by bond money. If we don't have bond money we either cheat the kids out of their trip, or we cheat a teacher out of supplies so we can rent the kids their bus. So all so smart at math, multiply that example a thousand times and see how missing bonds make low pay.

Chestertonian says:

So you buy a bus that lasts approximately 10 years with 30 year bond money. Then the bus becomes a maintenance headache somewhere around the sixth year. Sure, you free up operational and maintenance money for most of those first six years, but then you have 4 years of high maintenance and 20 more years of debt to pay and no bus. How much sense does that make? Tell me, even if a bank would go for it, which it won't, who in his right mind would buy for himself a new vehicle with a 30 year loan? A house, yes, (a 15 year fixed mortgage would be more prudent), an airplane, yes, a downtown office building, yes, but a car or a school bus?

queensheeba says:

Well Sheila in Lancaster, maybe administrators could take less airplane trips riding in first class, stay in cheaper hotels, eat at less expensive restaurants, etc. and have more money for students to go on field trips with rented buses. Most field trips are either paid by the PTA and or students bring a certain amount of money for the trip to cover expenses. Learning starts in the classroom, not on a rented bus. If I am not mistaken the district owns several buses already and was suppose to order several more with the left over BOND MONEY of 2004. So I just really do not think we are using alot of rented buses for field trips. So again I say, what would passing a new bond have to do with LISD getting raises? Instead of having so many elections trying to pass a new bond package, put that money aside for future raises....