Dallas ISD Spokesman Says District's Been Working to Fix Adult Basic Ed Since March

By Robert Wilonsky Tue., Aug. 25 2009 at 6:24 PM

Categories: Edumication News

We end the day where we began the day, if only because we've finally spoken with Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander concerning the critical internal audit of the Adult Basic Education Program, funded last year with $3.7 million in grant money. We were expecting to post the audit itself, which is 15 pages, but school district attorneys instead forced reporters to submit open records requests -- which means we may see the document sometime in the next, oh, two weeks. Maybe.

But Dahlander says some of the "serious violations" about which DISD trustee Carla Ranger wrote last night have been known at Ross Avenue HQ since March, when an earlier audit of ABE was conducted. "Since then," he says, "an interdepartmental task force was formed to come up with an action plan," which includes correcting the way employees are hired and paid.

"A budget specialist was also hired in May to help address other issues," Dahlander says. "Also, last year our annual external audit by Deloitte and Touche pointed out several issues with grant spending and the need to train employees. ... No money is missing - that's the key. And in some cases, funds were significantly underspent. It comes down to, there are training issues dealing with how to comply with grant spending." The adult education program is funded by the Texas Education Agency, which is reviewing the audit.

As mentioned this morning, Conchis Silva, the DISD's Adult Basic Education director singled out for his "management style of employee intimidation, harassment, and retaliation," has been placed on administrative leave, but Dahlander will say nothing else about the personnel matter. He will, however, say that the audit has several recommendations, and that "staff has been directed to implement them according to the time lines."

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Ummm, I think it's past time to call in the feds. But who will call them? Who will stand up for the kids being cheated due to fraud and theft and waste? Politicians? (silence). Business bigwigs? (more silence). Church pastors? (more silence). No one cares about the poorest kids in our city. No one calls for criminal prosecution. Were all these same types of people silent when blacks were forced to the back of the bus? Did none of them (among the whites) go on camera and say, "Hey, wait a minute. This may not affect me, but it's wrong and it needs to change!"? We send millions of dollars and thousands of people to be missionaries overseas; is there no big church willing to stand up and demand that the FBI stop the financial abuse of poor kids here in the DISD? The wind-energy guy can spend bazillions on commercials; surely he's influential enough to call someone and get them to clean out the rathole that is DISD. Sure, call in the feds. But who will call them and will they even answer?
I wonder how the budgets compare with the audits? The next external audit is due out around November 18th. We know there have been shortfalls and gross mismanagement of funds - The Feds have demanded the return of $3.5M in misappropriated Title 1 Funds. Has DISD gone beyond poor management and into the realm of criminality? Is it time to call in the Feds?
Stunning! Of 348 employees 134 had no applications on file in direct contradiction of the grant terms. Not all employees were required to fill out an application; assignments, duties and responsibilities weren't documented; employees were working from home; there was no clocking/signing in or out to account for hours worked; employees are not being paid according to assigned positions; employees are being paid from the incorrect fund...$181,906.07 of payroll charges are not supported by the documentation; $259,241.38 of payroll were incorrectly charged to two other programs...it just goes on and on. This is MY money they are mis-spending and I demand the Trustees release the last two years' detailed budgets to the public, TODAY! Here's a link to the PDF or the audit: http://dallasisdblog.dallasnews.com/ABEaudit.pdf
The district had a system in place for the past 15 years that worked just fine. So who made the decision to buy a whole new package that doesn't work? Why isn't anyone asking the question of who got paid off this time to create chaos on these middle and high school campuses? What vendor absolutely had to have a chunk of Dallas school money and why? The program is creating hardship for everyone. Who made this purchasing decision and why? Why hasn't that person been fired? What is the relationship between that person and the vendor? These are simple questions that need answers.
My kids have told me that some computer broke down that prepares the student's schedules and that many kids are in classes they either didn't sign up for or shouldn't be in. Plus, they didn't even know their schedule until they came to school on monday.
A suit against DISD would take years and would burn through taxpayer cash better allocated to our kids and may, or may not, change the system in a way to benefit the children and the community. The best action is to remove the current Trustees who are up for re-election this November. You recall this is a "special election" because the three Trustees illegally extended their own terms by an additional year. They are: Edwin Flores, District 1 (Northwest Dallas); Leigh Ann Ellis, district 3, Northeast Dallas; and Ron Price, District 9, South Dallas and parts of Downtown. The Trustees have consistently hidden budgets from the public for the last two years. They approve the budgets after "public hearings" that last 30 minutes but don't allow the public access to the detailed budgets prior to the hearing! EVERYTHING takes a freedom of information request. DISD is a public entity funded by our taxes. They will handle $1.24 BILLION dollars in cash this year and nobody in the public is looking at the numbers because they are not available. This must stop. VOTE IN NOVEMBER!
Shame on the trustees and community for letting this corruption continue. Travis Dad, find a good lawyer (are you one)file a lawsuit against the DISD! To Diplander's brain is missing- the district is cannabalizing students -Lang cheating scandal (said to be the worse in TEA history) -under performing high schools -50%percent drop out rate! The DISD's mission is to continue the bureaucracy!
Diplander never considers anything to be a real issue. The district could canabalize students, and Diplander would have some cheery reason that it was best practice. Why wasn't Conchis fired back in March? Who is he related to, Ron Price? Or is he one of Bill Brewer's poster children who has carte blanche? Diplander was Yvonne Gonzalez's spin doctor, so we can only wonder why he has a job in the district or why one is even needed. Lying to the press ought to be free. The superintendent does it frequently, so why pay $100K for someone to do it full time? And yes, money IS missing. If money was handed out to friends in opposition to the details of the grant, it was misspent. So unless the employees who wrongfully took it are going to return it, it is indeed missing. The culture of this district and the man at the top are the issues. The culture of the district is based on lying and pilfering until caught, and then playing stupid. It worked beautifully for all the pcard thieves who worked the WALMART gift card program for all it was worth. They are still principals in this district. Some offenders were promoted. WHEN, oh when, will we have a public, federal trial for school district employees that will give us all the same window as that provided by Don Hill and associates. We have some school board members who haven't held real jobs for years. What is the source of their income? Others, such as Lowe, openly do business while a trustee.