"This dog appears to be sleeping and will be let lay."

Uhm. Either the local union representative of the largest employer in Lancaster is lying, or the district accounting system has caused some serious confusion (at best) at the Texas Retirement System. Either way, there's an interesting story here.

I've sent an e-mail to Howard Goldman of TRS to complete Steve Synder's interview for him. (He's sleeping, and we'll just let him lie.) Just WHEN, I ask, were the September and October payments credited. If the November payment was due yesterday, 8 December,it seems likely that the September payment was due around the 8th or so of October. If those funds were not credited until the first week of December I'd like to know that, and what accounts for the delay.

And if the funds WERE credited on time, what motivates the union to lie about it?

This sort of curiosity about the context of such matters is probably what keeps me from being a journalist. I just can't stop with the first answer, the way they do.


Anyhow, a personal anecdote. Two weeks ago while I was up a the Centre Street building waiting patiently for the one and only person authorized to talk to me to come out of a meeting, an LISD employee arrived to see another specially authorized person. Apparently only one person at Centre Street can correct payroll problems. The employee explained to Ms Allen, the receptionist, that this was the THIRD apointment she'd had with the person, and the third time it was missed.

The problem, the employee explained, was that she'd been issued a check by mistake, and wanted to return it. Apparently the district runs a "Christmas Club" program where small sums are, optionally, withheld from each paycheck. Then, during the seaon, a large lumpsum payment is cut to the participants. The employee explained that she had participated in the past, but was NOT contributing this year. She'd gotten her lump sum payment by mistake. She'd made three trips to Centre Street trying to return it. But the district couldn't seem to make the appropriate official available to its employee to help.

All that got me wondering.

How many employees that got overpayments by mistake would just quit at this point, keep the money, and not make a fourth attempt to do the right thing?

How many had already quit after two attempts?

How many bothered to return "free money" at all?

Actually, I bet most of the LISD employees that got unearned Christmas checks are willing to fix the problem. But it is a gamble.

I'm wondering, too, if the district were inclined to reward particularly loyal cronies for cooperative behavior, if such a "mistake" could be deliberately arranged. I recall that in the financial post-mortems at Wilmer-Hutchins ISD a number of employees were drawing coaching bonuses and sponser bonuses for coaching and sponsoring programs that no longer existed. Once the flags were set in the payroll system the payments just continued. I wonder how hard it would be for a slightly dishonest accountant to finagle such a payoff in the LISD payroll system. After all, the easiest way to steal money isn't to haul around sacks of the stuff -- but to have the victim cut you a check.

Anyhow, after the experience with the wayward Christmas Club money I was somewhat predisposed to believe the union about the retirement screw ups, and inclined to disbelieve the district's assurances that all was well. But that's just my bias showing. The facts are the facts and you gotta ask to find out. So I'm asking TRS the question.

The SECOND question. The OBVIOUS question.

I'll keep you informed.

So what do you do if there's a problem in your home? A switch that won't work, peeling exterior paint, a window that won't slide fully open or closed? Suppose you own a three-year old house, and the handyman tells you might have a shoddy installation; or you might have just got a bad unit. Either way, he says, builders just throw up the structure using the cheapest materials they can scrounge and any jake-labor they can hire. So, you gotta make some decisions.

Sell your home? Move? Cut and run? Take the loss on the current mortgage, see how big a new home loan you can qualify for, and buy a new house?

More likely you'll refigure the budget. Postpone buying the new computers or bigger TV. Devote a little each month to the Home Depot account. Work it out.

Unless you're Russ Johnson.

LISD Trustee Johnson assures us all that any money spent in maintenance, repair and renovations in old school buildings is a complete waste. He says he can't understand why anybody would waste one dime on maintenance. He tells us it's worse than a waste, it's downright theft to take money away from salaries, textbooks and fuel and spend it on old buildings.

This may actually be a more defensible position than I have been able to paraphrase. I dunno.

I was overcome with the incongruity of hearing this particular position articulated by a man who lives in the HISTORIC DISTRICT of Lancaster, in a home built in 1910. I wonder how many times over the original construction cost various owners have "wasted" money in repairs (to a roof, maybe, after a hailstorm or tornado?) or upgrades (I presume Mr Johnson's home has an air conditioner, that was added during renovations some decades after the place was built.)

I was further dumbfounded by the audacity of hearing this particular claim made in the newly refurbished Centre Street building (built 1903). Are we to understand then that Russ Johnson thinks the three million dollars of 2004 bond funds spent on that old school building was wasted? (There is a lot of community support for the proposition that '04 bond funds have been wasted but I hadn't heard the Centre Street project offered as the sole and best example before.)

And I finally struck by considering the possibility that Mr Johnson might try offering that analysis to the congregations of the various churches nearby -- Presbyterians, Baptist, etc -- many congregations still meeting in buildings half again as old as the Centre Street property. Have the generations of church members that have been sacrificing to maintain, repair, and renovate those sanctuaries been wasting their efforts?

I just don't know.

But I think I'd rather hear the proposition come up for a debate rather than a one-sided rant by a public official at his constituents.

Campaign Contributions in the Lancaster Bond Election,
November, 2006

The paperwork has not all come in. But we can't wait forever. Deadlines, even self imposed ones, are after all deadlines.

Pro Bond Contributors.  
Bond2006
Allen Development of Texas                 Vesalia CA     $3500 
Jerry Gallagher (school contrator)         Plano TX       $3000  *
LA Fuess (an engineering firm)             Dallas TX      $ 500  **
Ellen Clark                                Lancaster      $ 500  
Corgan and Associates (school architect)   Dallas TX      $ 500
Steve Topletz (LancasterCedardale LP)      Dallas TX      $ 500 
Terry Stinson                              Lancaster      $ 200
Priscilla Mayfield                         Lancaster      $ 200
(Individual)                               Lancaster      $  25
        

Lancaster Construction Diversity PAC
 (unspecified contributions, one lump sum)               $ 1327
                                               ----------
                                                           
Anti Bond Contributions
T.I.G.E.R.    ***

(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  25
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  39 (roll of stamps)
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
(Individual)                   Lancaster            $  50
                                                         

* Mr Gallagher maintains a business address / PO Box as listed on the PAC filing in Plano Texas. However he resides at 810 Saddlebrook, Lucas Texas, in the Lovejoy ISD. I have not yet obtained PAC filing from Lovejoy to determine how generous the Gallagher family has been in their own school bond elections, where their contracting firm will not benefit from the outcome. When those filings are available I will post them here.


** LA Fuess is a large structural engineering firm that has no obvious links to the Lancaster construction projects, Gallagher or Gorgan. Again, I have not yet obtained all PAC filings to see what other causes they have supported. This sort of context is interesting and as I obtain more information I will post it here.


*** The treasurer of T.I.G.E.R. reminds me that donations are still cheerfully being accepted. While I have no first hand knowledge regarding the Bond2006 PAC (who will probably have to change their name shortly) I'm fairly confident they, too, would appreciate contributions from Lancaster insiders -- for a change -- as well as more donations that might be available from the same old small circle of outsiders.

Data and surprises.

The mother of a fifth grader spoke before the LISD board of Trustees Monday, 4th December. This is the second month in a row she's spoken.

This is the second year her daughter's taken fifth grade in LISD schools.

She has a number of issues with the district. The elected officials whom she addressed, later went to great lengths to assure each other that her issues could not possibly be true. And having satisfied themselves, the board could go home assured that they "care". The parent, on the other hand, went home feeling that nobody either cares or is competent to help.

And most of the community willl never learn of the problems. Certainly these issues will not make the local news. Discussions of left lane lopers, global warming and the evils of Exxon may appear in our finest publications, but the actual lives and future of the kids in our community are too mundane for most writers to waste time and column space with.

But not this writer. And not here, not now, and not again.

Let's read the history. Let's look up the data. And let's do the math.

Texas state law changed in 1999 The so-called "Student Success Initiative" was intended to track kids from that year forward, and those whose TAKS scores were below standard in progressively higher grades would not, themselves, progress. Not "flunked out", mind. But "held" as in warm and incubating arms, while the lessons appropriate to the child's age and grade began to "sink in". Sound commpassionate, right? No Child Left Behind ... all that.

The Kindergarteners of 1999 were the 3rd graders of 2003. Those who took their first TAKS test, and demonstrated mastery, were promoted. Those who did not demonstrate such mastery ...

Well, there's the problem.

In Texas as a whole, the "retention" rate for 3rd graders increased from just around 2.percent prior to 1999 and the SSI, to 2.5 percent in 2003.

LISD got an even bigger shock. In 2002 the retention rate for 3rd graders was 0.8 percent. In 2003, the SSI impact hammered 2.3 percent of the cohort.

Note this is already a smaller fraction than the state as a whole. But those kids were identified and were eligible for help.

The following year, 4th grade TAKS scores for Texas overall, reading and math, were up. The kids who had advanced from third having mastered the material were more likely to succeed in 4th. And the retention rate for 4th graders, in Texas overall, reflect that .. falling, for the SSI cohort, from 2.5 in third to 1.7 percent in 4th.

In LISD, though, the retention rate fell thru the floor. Zero. No kids at all were retained between 4th and 4th grade for the school year 2004-05. This is particularly interesting given that both reading and math scores lagged behind the Texas average. Only 28% of LISD students failed the 4th Grade Reading TAKS compared to only 14% for the state overall. Fourth graders in LISD saw 31% of their cohort fail math, compared to 13% of their peers overall. But fewer LISD fourth graders were required, (or had the opportunity) to repeat the grade, or attend summer make up classes.

Now the state mandates that the SSI cohort pass math. Fifth graders find it a hurdle, and state wide 3.8% of them are repeating 5th grade. But in LISD, where no fourth grader was left behind last year, 14.6% (a retention rate exceeding the state's by 384% , for those of you Harvard men following along...) of fifth graders got notice they would not be advanced to sixth. This retention rate is more than double the previous record ( 6.9% of LISD first graders were retained in 1997).

It wouldn't seem to matter much if the source of the disaster is poor students, incompetent teaching, bad textbooks, bird flu, or hurricane Katrina. When nearly 15% of a population is affected by ANY sort of disaster it's generally newsworthy, and a community pulls together to discuss the problem and search for solutions.

But not in Lancaster. Thru spring graduation of 2006 and the back-to-school autumn of the next school year, the district has been touting only their accomplishments. "Test scores are up". "Bond funds have been well spent." "The girls' track team has done it again!" Oh, and did they mention test scores were up?

Perhaps no one should be surprised that the district, during two political campaigns where rosy scenarios are perceived to be necessary to victory, that the general public didn't learn of the problem. But in their zeal to keep the bad news under wraps the district seemingly neglected to inform some of those most affected: the families.

This is Doris Allen's complaint about her daughter Dencia's treatment. Only after the end of the school year did she learn, she tells the board, that her daughter failed 5th grade math. And adding insult, the district belatedly adds her daughter has failed the math portions of 3rd and 4th grade TAKS, as well. Where is the communication, she wants to know.

How come, Ms Allen asks, a child's regular grade cards can be acceptable, even good, if the child doesn't know the material well enough to pass the tests? What do the grade cards mean? And how is a parent supposed to track a child's progress if the grade cards don't mean what the public expects them to mean?

Is a five week program of summer school really enough to help any child who is three years behind? And if a regular classroom with a regular teacher could not advance the student in an entire year at the first attempt, is another attempt using the same methods, textbooks, tools, classroom and maybe even the same teacher supposed to be really better? If so, how?

For the school year ending 2006, 82% of Texas fifth graders passed the Math TAKS. Exactly half that percentage passed in LISD. Black students did better than whites. Hispanics performed better still. Boys scored better than girls. The score and the breakdowns are all publically available -- although not at the LancasterISD.org website, even though the district's failure to publish such data is a violation of state law.

Do not mistakenly get the impression that math is the only arena in which our fifth graders are struggling. In reading, 81% of all Texas 5th graders can read at TAKS standards, but only 51% of ther LISD peers can do so. On this measure, white students do better than Hispanics, who do better than blacks. LISD girls read better than boys. In "Science" the TAKS results show 76% of Texas 5th graders passing, but only 42% of LISD's. Hispanics lead in this category, followed in a near-tie by blacks and whites. It's not about math. It's not about race. It's not about gender. It's about all kids of all genders and races struggling to extract any education from the system we've provided them.

"No cow is too sacred to get skewered " except from the herd Synder?

I can read. Can anybody 'round here do arithmetic?

Meadowview is platted for 790+ homes, of which 650 are built. Building started in 2002 and continues. If in fact there are 3 kids per Meadowview household enrolled in LISD, what would have been the increase in LISD enrollment since 2002 -- attributable to Meadowview alone without any increase from any other development in Lancaster (or environs, such as Bear Creek)?

650 x 3?

Now, what has been the reported actual increase in LISD enrollment since 2002? About 4000 to maybe 5500?

Do you see the problem with the Team of Eight's claims?

Now I think the problem is not that a PhD demographer who has run her own business for decades is dumber than a hack journalist and has sold bogus and unsupportable statistics to a government agency. That would be a good story, but any journalist with even minimumal delusions of adequacy, a pretense of competence, and aspirations of influence would not be bold enough to commit to his newspaper such a claim.

That sort of rumor is reserved for blogs.

The problem is not that a blogger is too lazy to check his facts and too cowardly to defend his opinions in open forum, preferring instead to block comments from any who dare prod his badly atrophied conscience, sadly decayed research skills, and madly arrogant egoism.

One gadfly more or less -- pfft. What matter?

The problem is that our duly elected public officials believe they can't tell the public the truth. No problem is bad enough as it is -- but it must be exaggerated and falsified until panic replaces thought. The LISD board of trustees is not content to claim that 100 new homes will require seats for 80 new students. No. The board, and the trustees, and the lazy innumerate arrogant uncritical Socratic Gadfly, our pretender defender, all agree that 100 new homes means 210, or 250, or over 300 new seats. And they assert that any body who doesn't think such blindingly "obvious" demographic "reality" is small-minded and anti-child.

I can understand an over-the-hill ex-football coach and former drivers-education specialist who accidentally wound up in charge of a 40 million dollar a year enterprise might have some apprehensions about people looking into his numbers.

But I can't understand or sympathize with a poseur who claims to be skeptical and anyaltical, who is content to carry the coach's water just for a seat at the game. Literally or metaphorically.

Really. Being an outsider has downsides, too, but being forced to choose between keeping one's own personal integrity and sucking up to liars is not among them.