Wow.
The March 10 online edition of the Houston Chronicle includes a front-page article that has me shakin' my head and shufflin' my boots. (It's rodeo season for any out of town readers, so humor me as I try to make my way through the waist-deep bulls**t that is about to be presented to you.)
Apparently, the Houston Independent School District is now under investigation for allegedly using discretionary funds from school vending machines to purchase $100,000 worth of rodeo tickets for principals and other district personnel going back to 2003.
That's right, money that was supposed to be used for educational purposes according to the district's own guidelines was instead spent to show school employees a yee-hah good time.
Remember, that HISD's outgoing superintendent even admits the district's dropout rate is still way too high, and that other problems plaguing the district have yet to be resolved.
Oh but let's not worry about those pesky little things now, right? It's time to RO-DAY-O, people!
Here is an excerpt from reporter Bill Murphy's fine piece:
The principals bought the tickets with profits from school vending machines that go into funds controlled by the school leaders, said George Garver, manager of campus audits in the Houston school district’s inspector general’s office. Tickets for the annual Black Heritage Western Gala were then given to teachers and administrators.
The discretionary funds are to be used to “promote the general welfare and the educational development and morale of students,” the HISD’s financial procedures manual says. “Any expenditures directly from this account must benefit the entire student body.”
School Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said principals and administrators had appropriately used the funds because purchasing tickets works to cement a fruitful partnership between HISD and the rodeo. The rodeo, he said, awards more than $1 million in college scholarships to HISD students annually.
“I have been reassured by the (HISD) inspector general that there is nothing illegal or unethical about this practice,” he said. “It’s a relatively small investment when you consider that the return on that is very substantial.”
TEA initially conducted an investigation into the ticket purchases last year, but ended it because HISD’s inspector general concluded that no wrongful spending had occurred.
TEA re-opened the investigation this year. “Some more information was provided to us, and we are looking a little deeper into this,” Rita Chase, TEA director of financial audits, said Tuesday.
Del Murphy, husband of a retired HISD assistant principal, filed complaints with HISD’s inspector general and TEA. Money from the discretionary funds, he said, should go to buy school library books or make other school improvements.
“They use this money to go wining and dining. Taking this money and using it in this way is immoral,” he said. “You are taking money away from kids and elementary schools that are at minimal resources.”
In 2008, HISD spent about $16,000 on tickets to the gala. Tickets cost $40, and as many as 400 teachers and administrators received tickets for event.
Most of the money came out of the principals’ discretionary funds and principals’ general revenue discretionary fund, but a small portion of the money came from other school activity funds, Garver said.
HISD was unsure whether some of the nearly $6,000 spent on tickets in 2008 for elementary teachers may have come from parent-teacher organizations or corporations, said Bob Moore, HISD inspector general.
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