A river in Egypt.

There is a interesting denial that just keeps floating around. What makes it interesting is this denial addresses a charge never, to my knowledge, made.

Senior leadership officials at the Lancaster school district deny that any money has ever been STOLEN.

Okay, cool. I actually believe that.

Now, I also believe CPA auditor Andrew Moore of the firm Judd Thomas Smith and Company when he tells the board, as he has for the past several years, that the district's financial controls are "not operating", or are "inadequate" or "fail to reconcile" one pile of records with another.

Millions of dollars slosh around, beyond control. But nothing was stolen.

I've heard, and happen to believe, rumors that a stash of cash and uncashed personal checks from volunteers for the schools was found unrecorded, unsecured, and apparently unused for the intended purpose. Thousands of dollars lying around idle, unused for the children as intended. But nothing stolen.

I believe the documentation provided by the TEA to the Lancaster administration in February -- the paperwork that mysteriously went missing from February until May -- that indicates funds from restricted accounts were used for purposes unauthorized by statute or the voters. For instance capital (bond) restricted funds for buying staff cars that should have been paid for -- if purchased at all -- from ordinary operating funds. Half a million dollars, at least, illegally spent. But it wasn't stolen.

I believe that the district wastes money hiring outside staff to do jobs that employees are also tasked to accomplish. From dance consultants who duplicate the duties of phys-ed specialists to "campaign planners" (like Scott Milder, the Karl Rove for Texas State Legislative District 112) who subcontract to fulfill the obligations of the superintendent; it seems to me about twice as money is spent as the value of the results obtained. Perhaps somewhere between thousands and millions, call it hundreds of thousands, of dollars are so wasted. But not, I think, stolen.

I believe a very very senior LISD administrative official is terribly bad at math -- to the point where he (or she) cannot balance his own personal check book. I believe this person, charged with managing millions of dollars and making long range multi-year strategic plans, can not survive from month to month without requesting and drawing a payroll advance against anticpated salary. Sort of her (or his) own personal "bridge loan" to carry thru on those seemingly too-frequent occasions when there's just a lot of month left at the end of the money. It's just a rumor. But I've seen this official do arithmetic under several circumstances and I find the rumor entirely plausible. So, in this personal instance, the official repeatedly may need to borrow hundreds of dollars.

At least that money isn't being stolen.

I don't hear rumors at all about any theft. Waste, mismanagement, poor controls? Sure. Funds for Craft and Trade and remedial education (CompEd) diverted to grant-seeking efforts? Yep, I've heard that.

Improper use of federal Title-Whatever funds paid to TODAY Newspaper? Uhm, that's not a rumor-- that's the district's boast. Money diverted to utterly stupid vanity projects that don't help kids? I've not only heard that accusation. I've made it a time or two.

Or two hundred.

Money MISSING? Well, what do we mean by that? If we're talking about money not delivered to classrooms, yeah, I believe there is money missing.

Do we mean "money missing" as in money STOLEN? Gone to line the pockets of the people tasked to manage it? Like the money former LISD-CFO Eugene P Smith stole from his employer back in Washington DC? You know, stolen, embezzled, carried away, diverted into personal pockets for private gain-- STOLEN?

Surprisingly, I don't hear that. Not even an echo in my own shower. And I don't believe it.

A person can get fired for stealing. But you can be incompetent, untruthful, away-from-your-duties, and unproductive for years and still hang on to your six-figure-a year salary. And provided you're merely a terrible financial manager, you can look forward to a huge severance bonus when you do, eventually, get forced out of your job.

But stealing would be unbelievably stupid. Even for somebody who's hopelessly bad at math and desperately needs the money.

Which is what makes the denial so interesting. Accused of money mismanaged, wasted, lost, and over-borrowed, the district denies THEFT.

Oh.

Right then. Let's all just move on.

(I hear that the district has a problem with mail tampering. What do you hear?)