Posted on May 23, 2008 at 6:23 a.m.

“At this point, we have found no instances of fraud, theft or any other misappropriation of assets,” Moore said

The problem is that the school district lacks the tools to find such instances. For particular instances, "assets" such as computer equipment were very definitely stolen by the then-drug-addicted, self-confessed thief Nathan Smith from the Lancaster High School. But the district has no system for tracking physical assets. The Legislative Budget Board, in 2005, pointed out the district could get free software support from the Texas Education Services Center Region Ten (ESC-10) to accomplish exactly that mission. Track assets. Tracking includes recording what was bought, where it's supposed to be, how much it cost, how long the has district owned it, what is the depreciated value... The NAME OF EMPLOYEES WHO SIGNED A HAND RECEIPT AND IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE CUSTODY ...

An entire physical asset tracking system, is available for free.

The district, in response to open records request, reports they have not signed up with ESC-10's service.

They have not "turned on" the module in their own "Pentamation" software to do this mission. And they do not maintain a physical file cabinet or ledger book with manual records of such fixed assets.

If there are no records of what used to be where -- on what basis can Andrew Moore or anyone else report that none of the stuff is now missing?

We KNOW for a fact there was a fox in the henhouse, Nathan Smith at the High School, who stole from our kids.

We KNOW for a fact another fox, Eugene Smith, was in charge of the entire school district cash flow, some $50 million a year. We KNOW the fox is a thief. Confessed, convicted, sentenced.

Isn't worth a good close look to see if some of the eggs might be missing?

And wouldn't it be useful to review the hiring practices that allowed the foxes into the henhouse in the first place? How many candidates did the superintendent and the LISD trustees reject before accepting Eugene Smith? How did a business manager from the East Coast with no experience in Texas governmental funding or Texas school financial accounting -- a topic LISD Trustee Russ Johnson repeatedly has sworn no human being can possibly understand well -- wind up working for Larry Lewis?

Whenever a new out-of-state employee is hired, how broad is the background check? Do they look at criminal history for his prior residences - or do the same TEXAS ONLY criminal records review they do for local hires?

Does the HR department look for "moral" weaknesses? A guy who, just for instance, has a record of spousal assaults, neglected child-support payments, extra-marital affairs, bad personal credit, and sexual harrassment of his subordinates MIGHT be somewhat less than completely trustworthy in other matters. Does the superintendent have the tools to research such matters before he brings candidates to the trustees for confirmation?

On Former Lancaster ISD CFO sentenced for embezzlement

Posted on May 12, 2008 at 5:58 p.m.

"Narrowly" is not inaccurate regarding Kana's district 5 victory.

LISD races have had, recently, even narrower margins, however. A 13 vote margin in a 245 vote race is 0.05% That comfortably doubles the percentage margin of 0.02% (9 votes out of 413) in the 2005 race between Nina Mangrum and Marie Elliot.

Russ Johnson filed for re-election but withdrew when challenged by newcomer Cheryl Wright. Wright, like Mejia, was unopposed and the seat will change, er, "hands" in district 7, just like in 4 and 5.

The turnover of three seats on a 7 member board should make the board election of new board officers an interesting spectacle.

On 2008 Lancaster election results

Posted on May 9, 2008 at 5:48 p.m.

Citizens aren't clearly against bonds in general. They have, however, clearly expressed an opinon about giving more money to a guy like this:

http://bestsouthwest.blogspot.com/200...

On Lancaster ISD board president calls again for bond package

Posted on May 9, 2008 at 5:45 p.m.

Brian, could you please explain for us under what unusual circumstances it might turn out that Lancaster will NOT elect a black mayor this year?

On Lancaster may have its first African-American mayor

Posted on October 12, 2007 at 8:31 p.m.

As of 12 October, and one week after the TEA asked for another copy, the TEA and Lancaster ISD have not succeeded in publishing the results of the required Comp Ed audit.

A senior official at the TEA school finance office advises that, because TEA has auditors in the district, that a direct query about the status of the audit will be made next week.

On Lancaster ISD "Compensatory Education Audit" late and unviewable

Posted on September 13, 2007 at 6:14 p.m.

We're number TWO!

I make a parlimentary motion to combine the counts for "lLancaster", "Lancaster ISD", and "Larry Lewis" into one overriding "search" term. Will somebody second my motion? Then, if we get enough votes to jigger the statistics just that wee little bit, it'd make us, uhm...

Uh...

Oh well.

We're number TWO!

On What are you looking for?

Posted on September 11, 2007 at 7 p.m.

A local board can't manage a budget ...

Why am I unsurprised?

On Dallas City budget process has flaws

Posted on September 6, 2007 at 6:19 a.m.

When Judith Miller was in jail for refusing to reveal that Richard Armitige had revealed Valarie Plame's CIA job to her -- in connection with Joe Wilson's New York Times editorial, there was a story going around. It claimed -- more as an illustrative parable than fact, I think -- that the NY Times policy on the professional responsiblities of journalist were such that a Time theater critic walking home from the play and eyewitness to a mugging should not, ethically, describe the perp to the cops. It would be okay for the critic to WRITE about the mugging , but not to "reveal his source" to government authority.

Again, illustration; not policy. But that such an extreme self-image of a journalist's unique specialness should be held in mind when deciding whether to consider them un-special.

On Is being in the media newsworthy?

Posted on September 6, 2007 at 6:14 a.m.

Y'know, I'm just a whitebread country kid from the remote sticks, but I wonder. How many generations of U.S. Jews learned to speak and write Hebrew without one dime of taxpayer money being spent to fund a public school and/or escort the kids back and forth to that school?

I had the impression, no doubt false, that once upon a time such kids grew up speaking some weird form of German or Yiddish or Polish or or or in their ghetto tenament apartments and had to learn English Monday thru Friday and Hebrew on Saturday.

Then faced huge high stakes standardized testing with the New York Regents Exams when they were trying to graduate those English-only schools.

How did such an oppressed minority-language group manage to survive in such a hostile environment? Much less ever send one of their kids to law or medical school?

On The flow of history

Posted on September 3, 2007 at 9:39 p.m.

The district published official notice that a Public Meeting to discuss the Lancaster Independent School District's financial rating under the Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (F.I.R.S.T.) will be held at the district's Board Auditorium, at 7:00 p.m. 10 September 07.

This is in conjunction with the regularly scheduled board meeting. As of Monday 3 September the agenda for the 10th has not been published to the district website.

The rules by which the public is to "discuss" the rating have likewise not yet been published. The minuts of last year's public meeting on the FIRST rating are published at

http://www.lancasterisd.org/sections/...

If the same procedure is followed this year as last, the CFO will present, while the public is expected to silently listen, watch and raise no question, comment or objection. The board president will direct the CFO to fix deficiencies, and the CFO will agree to do so. This verbal agreement will not depend on the CFO's actual ability to fulfill the bargain.

(As noted in the Pegasus News story of 12 Aug

http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2007/...

the PEIMS data quality indicator continued to worsen for Lancaster each year from 2004 thru 2006. )

On Lancaster ISD Board of Trustees Meeting