To
avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.
- Albert
Einstein
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about
things that matter.
- Martin
Luther King, Jr.
If you aren’t completely appalled, you haven’t
been paying attention.
My vision for
Eanes can't be seen on a Jumbotron ...
- Eanes ISD
parent
No man stands so tall as when he
stoops to help a child.
- Abraham Lincoln
Judge each day
not by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.
- Robert
Louis Stevenson
All children deserve an
equal playing field.
-
Ed Allen, Westlake Picayune April 2008
Nothing
is more destructive of respect for the government and the
law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.
-
Albert Einstein
One school district, one child,
one parent at a time,
Private attorneys retained by school districts get RICH, RICH, RICH ...
$58
million dollars.
The laws designed to protect our children are being manipulated by a cottage industry of private attorneys who have found a cash-cow opportunity to use the public's education tax dollars to fight against Texas schoolchildren. In 06-07, according to the Texas Education Agency, Texas public schools spent more than $58,000,000 on private attorneys. Fifty-eight million tax dollars that the people of Texas thought were going to educate children went instead to private law firms.
We should
be spending our school dollars to educate children instead of lining the pockets of private attorneys.
Aiding and abetting this practice is a network
of attorneys who specialize in fighting parents.
These attorneys are organized into a
professional group which holds national
conferences and
training programs at the local level. School
officials are invited to attend these
conferences where they are tutored in the finer
points of "aggressive action," in the form of
strategies to be used before an IEP meeting or
at the pre-hearing conference of a due process
or fair hearing.
Note: The
following is only a
sampling of the district's legal expenses including Walsh,
Anderson, Brown, Schultz and Aldridge law firm and does
not reflect the legal representation costs associated
with the 2007 Valley View Elementary sexual harassment lawsuit.
Further Walsh, Anderson, Schultz, Brown and Aldridge is
just one of many law firms retained by Eanes ISD (and
hundreds of other Texas
school districts) ... funded with our school tax dollars.
70670 WALSH
AN000 WALSH, ANDERSON, BROWN, SCHULZ R
10/27/2006 $600.00
71899 WALSH
AN000 WALSH, ANDERSON, BROWN, SCHULZ R 12/15/2006
$11,430.44
72473 WALSH AN000 WALSH, ANDERSON, BROWN, SCHULZ R
01/19/2007 $38,153.22
73541 WALSH
AN000 WALSH, ANDERSON, BROWN, SCHULZ R 02/22/2007
$4,615.71
96824
07/12/2007
37,331.22
WALSH, ANDERSON, BRO 199
E 41 6211 00 732 0 00
000 Legal Services
through May 15, 2007
07/12/2007 68,207.05
WALSH, ANDERSON, BRO 199
E 41 6211 00 732 0 00
000 Legal Services - May
1, 2007
97445
08/23/2007 1,857.71
WALSH, ANDERSON, BRO 199
E 41 6211 00 732 0 00
000 Legal Services
Through July 2007
96806
07/12/2007 17,025.00
STERN, WILLIAM PHD 199 E
41 6211 00 732 0 00 000
as of 06-29-07 Legal
Services Spec. Ed.
Due Process
"They bring out the big guns. They bring out high dollar law firms to fight the parents." The strategy is both simple and effective: "We're scare the hell out of them and we'll keep them from getting into your wallet." - Louis Geigerman, Advocate
Rethink special education
The current special-education system is an arrangement that only lawyers could love. It creates rights that can only be enforced in court — if then. It creates conflict between families and schools. It is all about process and not about results. Adding vouchers to the mix changes all of that by giving families an alternative mechanism for getting what they need, reducing costs and conflict, and ensuring better results for all disabled students.
Introduction:
Rethink
special
education
-
In a
three-part
series
beginning
today
on
our
Op-Ed
page,
the
authors
of
the
report,
Marcus
A.
Winters
and
Jay
P.
Greene,
explain
the
effects
of
Florida's
McKay
voucher/special
education
program,
and
why
parents
view
vouchers
and
special
education
as a
good
match
—
"more
than
90
percent
of
parents
participating
in
the
McKay
program
report
that
they
are
satisfied
or
very
satisfied,
while
about
a
third
of
them
were
similarly
satisfied
with
their
previous
public
school."
In
the
third
installment
that
will
be
published
Thursday,
the
authors
look
at
vouchers
and
special
education
through
the
lens
of
the
federal
government
and
presidential
politics,
encouraging
"a
fresh
approach
to
school
choice
that
would
allow
parents
of
disabled
students
to
use
federal
special
education
dollars
in
any
public
or
private
school
they
see
fit."
Part
1:
Vouchers
and
special
education
- by
Marcus
A.
Winters
and
Jay
P.
Greene
April
29,
2008
Part 2: Vouchers for special-ed students - by Marcus A. Winters and Jay P. Greene - April 30, 2008
Part 3: The politics of special-ed voucher - by Marcus A. Winters and Jay P. Greene - May 1, 2008
May 2008 HOUSTON -- At 6 years old, he was diagnosed as bi-polar and placed in special education. But by the age of 10, he had a lengthy juvenile rap sheet. That has some wondering if school officials are criminalizing his special needs. FOX 26's Randy Wallace investigates.
Texas
Taxpayers and the TEA: The Fleecing
of Special Education
So whenever a
school bond issue comes up, and you
as a taxpayer are asked to give more
money, ask the school board how much
was spent in one year on attorney
fee’s to defend against parents who
have children with disabilities.
Ask what the cost was of what the
“frivolous” request was from the
parent; and for the love of
Texas, ask what they instead
chose to spend in attorney fees to
deny that request. -
Michelle Guppy
Private
Attorneys to the Rescue!
Laughing all the
way to the bank, tax-funded Private Attorneys Train
Public Schools Districts How to Protect Against Children
with Special Needs ... and
specifically deny the participation of parents,
advocates, teacher educators and
other professionals.
1/29/07 - UPDATE: CONFERENCE organizers UN-INVITE parent advocates ...Click Here
Excerpt from NELI letter : I'm sure you will understand that based on the curriculum in the brochure, our regular attendees would be a bit nervous to have a representative from Advocacy, Inc. in the audience. This is terribly rude, but I must "uninvite" you to our Houston conference!
GREAT QUOTE:
"If parents see the school district as a
"Pot of Gold" as you describe - it is only because schools seemingly have an abundance of money when it comes to hiring attorneys and going to due process - versus - not having any money to provide the service needed."
- Michelle Guppy, Parent
and Advocate
1/30/07 -
ANOTHER DENIED REGISTRATION... Click
Here
Your choice to exclude me leads
me to question the purpose of
your training and if you have
some sinister purpose or hidden
agenda. There is no reason to
unilaterally limit parents,
teacher educators, and private
service providers from attending
if your purpose is genuine. -
Melissa L. Olive, Ph.D., BCBA
Excerpt from conference
invitation:
When it comes to
protecting your district from costly special education
litigation, there is nothing more empowering than knowledge of the law. To get it,
you dont (sic) even need a cape or X-ray vision!
Topics Include:
"Super Kids":
Evaluating for Autism Under IDEA
"Kryptonite
- ABA and TEACCH and PECS, Oh My!": Autism Methodology
Cases and What Can be Learned From Them
"The
Superhuman Challenge": Meeting All Eleven Requirements
Under the New Autism Supplement
"Deflecting
Financial Bullets": Requests for Outside Services and
Private Placements
"Using Your
X-Ray Vision": Determining Eligibility for LD Under the
New Commissioners Rules
"Leaping
Tall Buildings in a Single Bound": Addressing
Challenging Behaviors Under Autism and Other
Disabilities
For more
party
invitations,
click
here
or go to "Private
Law
Firms"
page
link
- see menu bar on left side of this webpage.
Here we go
again.
Walsh, Anderson, Brown, Schultz and Aldridge (Eanes ISD private attorneys)
Greg Groogan’s
latest story on the school district attorneys and special education
in public school: It's become all too
common for public schools and parents to
fight over what should and shouldn't be done for a special needs
child. FOX in Focus, Greg Groogan shows just how far one
Texas district was willing to go to get its way.
Unfortunately, this
story is all too familiar.
It
happens everyday in Texas. Legal hardball aimed
squarely at the parents of special needs kids.
These are Moms and Dads just trying to stop
their children from being shortchanged by school
districts who claim to be too financially hard
pressed to deliver the specialized instruction
and services these children need.
Instead many of these professed educators confer
with attorneys, draw a legal line in the sand
and begin waging a battle of attrition against
parents who push too hard. The bitter irony is
that families brave enough to engage in these
regulatory and legal marathons are
fought by lawyers paid with the parents OWN tax
dollars.
How bad does it get ? Dripping Springs I.S.D.
rejected an offer to settle with the parents of
Lathom Yeaman. They asked for $25,000 - enough
money to pay a private school to do the job the
public school refused to do. The school district
said no - and proceeded to spend
$400,000
on
attorneys fees to stifle the Yeaman's efforts to
get their son the "free and appropriate"
education he's entitled to by law.
Does that seem fair ? Does that sound like good
stewardship of public dollars ? Does that, at
it's core, do right by a boy challenged with
autism, attention deficit and dyslexia ?
Karen Yeaman says "it's about power and money
and the law firms that control and run the
school districts."
Walsh Anderson Brown Schultze and Aldridgeenjoys
great benefit from our Eanes ISD and Texas
school tax dollars. Let the PARTY begin!
CHEERS!?
Having trouble
obtaining a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)
for your child with disabilities? *
Does your child need an
Individualized Education Plan (IEP) as required by federal law? *
Apparently, your child's needs
and rights are sometimes just a BIG JOKE.
*
FAPE, a
federal educational rights for children with disabilities is a "Free
Appropriate Public Education", not
"Firewater, Alcoholic Potions & Elixirs"
as our tax-funded attorneys like to joke, all in good fun of course.
Bottom line:
Our education dollars are funding these attorneys (and their
idea of FAPE) instead of funding FAPE for our children.
Cause for celebration?
Duckey Luckey
played by public school Lead Speech Therapist
Bobbye Records ---
Grapevine-Colleyville ISD
TIP #1:
Got Money For Good Attorney?
(Hint: It's in the
district's check register - our tax dollars.)
TIP #6:
Courage to eliminate those who get in the way?
(Hint: Parents, Teachers
and those pesky CHILDREN.)
Last and clearly least ...
Chicken Little
... who was not invited to rehearsal.
Need a little extraordinary and entertaining reading? At taxpayer expense, of course ...
Click here to review the publications for sale by Eanes ISD private attorneys Walsh, Anderson, Schultze, Brown and Aldridge including these:
THE ADVENTURES OF ARD MAN: SEVEN STEPS TOWARD EFFECTIVE ARD MEETINGS - ARD Man lays out seven critically important steps toward improving the Admissions, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) committee process in an extraordinary and enlightening DVD. (38 Minutes)
SECTION 504: LEGAL REQUIREMENTS FOR EDUCATING STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES - Join Jim Walsh and his guests for a highly informative and entertaining excursion through the intricacies of Section 504. (47 Minutes)
WHERE ARE OUR SCHOOL TAX DOLLARS GOING?
Announcing: The Eanes ISD Job Program for Private
Attorneys
During the latter part of 2007, Eanes ISD retained
private attorneys to submit a complaint against an
award-winning
physics teacher who had served our district well for
decades. KeepEanesInformed covered that issue and
eventually the district agreed to withdraw the complaint
(click here
to learn if that ever happened.) So, while working
hard to win a complaint against this outstanding
educator, the same law firm was busy at work
"investigating" this site (while we were busy at work
covering this issue - is there a connection here?)
The legal invoices below
($1200.00) characterize me as an "individual not
affiliated with the district." In truth, my
affiliations with this district are numerous including
parent, volunteer, and taxpayer.
Further, Feldman & Rogers
describes my site's email address as "deceptively
similar to the district's email address."
Deceptively similar? Are they joking? So, to
clear up any confusion: Yes, the email address
references the very same Eanes ISD that is the
subject of this site, KeepEanesInformed.
Meanwhile, I appreciate the communications I received
from Eanes ISD community members, employees, students,
and other citizens from around Texas. Happily,
they were all well aware that the email address
belongs to KeepEanesInformed related to this website
since it began in October 2003:
eanes_isd@hotmail.com. Every person who
contacted this site also understood my "affiliation"
with the district.
And about this "Job Program for Private Attorneys"
funded by our school tax dollars? It's
thriving all over Texas! In October 2007, Feldman
& Rogers was also hard at work suing a citizen in
Galveston who maintains a site about the operations of
her community school district. Click here to see
the letter that finally preceded the withdrawal of that
lawsuit:
Attorney Responds to
David Feldman's Demand Letter.
They stay real busy
helping
school districts withhold public information from
the public, too. Maybe Eanes ISD should focus on
the district's apparent
inability to effectively manage bond projects
instead.
And I'll let you know if I ever receive that $1200.00
letter. In fact, I'll post it! Visit this
site's page on
Private
Law Firms to learn more about the "Job Program."
Here we go
again.
Walsh, Anderson, Brown, Schultz and Aldridge (Eanes ISD private attorneys)
How much
money
have
these
districts
deposited
into the
pockets
of private
law firms
funded
with our
tax
dollars
to
battle
against
the
rights
of
children?
During
the
summer
of 2006,
I
recognized
that the
Lake
Travis ISD
leadership
was
violating
the
privacy
rights
of
children
in that
district.
Background:
Eanes
ISD
published
and
publicly
distributed
my
child's
confidential
information
including
medical
information
...
yes,
more
than
once.
When the
district
denied
my
formal
complaint
"within"
the
district,
I
complained
to the
U.S.
Department
of
Education.
That
federal
agency
issued
an
adverse
finding
against
Eanes
ISD and
how did
the
district
respond?
By
hiring
private
attorneys
funded
by our
tax
dollars
to
battle
against
my
child's
privacy
rights.
Yes, the
district
appealed
the
adverse
finding.
Still,
the U.S.
Department
of
Education
confirmed
the
adverse
finding
against
the
district.
Want to
learn
more
about
the
school
district's
reaction
to open
government
and
advocacy
for a
child?
Click
here.
So when
I
discovered
the
Lake
Travis ISD
(also
represented
by
private
attorneys
funded
by our
tax
dollars)
distribution
of
confidential
education
records
of
children
on its
website,
I took
action
and
submitted
a formal
complaint
to the
Lake
Travis
ISD
Board.
Like
Eanes
ISD,
Lake Travis ISD
retained
a
private
law firm
funded
by tax
dollars.
Like
Eanes
ISD, the
Lake
Travis
board
denied
my
formal
complaint
"within"
the
district.
Like
Eanes
ISD,
Lake
Travis
ISD
responded
to my
subsequent
formal
complaint
with an
outside
agency
by
continuing
to
retain
tax-funded
attorneys
to
battle
against
the
private
rights
of
children.
Like
Eanes
ISD,
when
Lake
Travis
ISD
received
an
adverse
finding
from the
Texas
Education
Agency,
the
district
continued
to spend
education
tax
dollars
to
retain
those
same
private attorneys
and
continue
to
battle
the
rights
of
children.
Like
Eanes
ISD,
Lake
Travis
ISD lost
its
appeal.
I did
not
retain
an
attorney
and yet,
won both
complaint
against
the two
Central
Texas
districts
and
their
tax-funded
private
law
firms.
Read
more
about
the
LTISD
issue
here ...
the
following
excerpts
courtesy
of
www.ltisd.info.
The private law firm, FELDMAN & ROGERS, that profited from this lawsuit also benefits greatly from Eanes ISD education tax dollars.
Klein ISD sues mom over evaluation request
By Jennifer Radcliffe
Angela Harris acknowledges her relationship with the Klein school district is tumultuous. She's been fighting for years to get extra help
for her 12-year-old son, who has special needs. Still, she was stunned when she learned earlier this year that the northwest Harris County district was suing her.
Rather than pay for the independent evaluation that Harris requested, the district took her to "due process," a legal proceeding used to resolve special-education disputes.
"It's a very uncomfortable situation and it is not a cost-efficient way of doing things," said Harris, whose son, Marshall, was born with a type of brain injury called periventricular leukomalacia. "Klein has abused their authority to oversee tax dollars."
District spokeswoman Liz Johnson said the matter cost about $20,000 to $25,000 in legal fees. On top of that, the state spent roughly $13,000
to provide a judge and court reporter for the two-day proceeding, Texas Education Agency officials said.
A lawyer for the district estimated that it would cost a fraction of that — between $500 to $1,500 — to perform the test the mother requested.
While these cases are rare — 23 of last year's 341 due process hearings in Texas were filed by school districts — parents and advocates fear
that districts may increasingly opt to take parents to court to intimidate them, and others, from insisting on the services they believe their children need.
Feeling overmatched
It's another frustrating roadblock for parents of Texas' estimated 500,000 special-education students, said Louis Geigerman, a Houston-area advocate for special-education students. Parents in such situations, he said, often find themselves overmatched by school districts' high-priced attorneys.
"They would rather litigate than provide services. That's the theme," Geigerman said. "They need to look at a cost-benefit analysis when they
want to litigate, for $20,000 or $40,000, something that would cost less than $5,000."
She asked district officials to drop the case, but they refused, leaving her to represent herself. Feeling overwhelmed, she said, she sought legal advice from area nonprofit and advocacy groups. She was frustrated to find that no one could help her.
Harris' troubles with the district started when her son brought home straight F's in the first grade. Despite her pleas, she said, the district was slow to offer extra help.
After Harris filed a complaint with the Texas Education Agency, Klein was ordered to provide Marshall more than 50 hours of extra tutoring for writing. He is still struggling in class and on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, however, which prompted Harris torequest another round of tests.
"The law tells you you're entitled to different things, but no one tells you what to do when it doesn't happen," Harris said. "I never thought advocacy could end me up in due process."
The Fort Bend Independent School District board of trustees voted at
Monday night’s meeting to
terminate
the Feldman & Rogers law firm,
long-time outside legal counsel for the district. The motion passed 4-1-1 with trustee
Cynthia Knox voting no and Sue Hauenstein abstaining.
David
Feldman, Feldman & Rogers
principal, interrupted the
proceedings to demand an explanation for the firm’s termination. At
one point, Feldman said, “you don’t have to fire us, we resign.” He
later recanted and said, “No, go ahead and finish your vote and fire
us.”
The
report focused on
several alleged
improprieties
by
Associate Superintendent of Business and Finance Charles
Dupre, and also found
significant fault with
actions
by FBISD Superintendent Betty Baitland, inside FBISD counsel
Bernadette
Gonzalez,
outside counsel
David Feldman,
and FBISD Risk Manager John Griffin.
SUMMER 2006 ---
Eanes ISD
hires
Bernadette Gonzalez
as inside counsel and
David Feldman
as outside counsel.
School district must divorce its lawyers (Note: Feldman & Rogers is also an Eanes ISD private law firm.)
The Daily News - Published February 24, 2008
Excerpt:
Galveston school trustees should find a new law firm. At issue is the revelation that Superintendent Lynne Cleveland used the district’s firm, Feldman and Rogers, in October to file a divorce petition.
Nichols is describing the good-old-boy system. Never mind that the legal advice often is bad and always is more expensive; I do you favors from time to time.
Nichols doesn’t even understand who his client is. It’s not Cleveland, who got the favor, nor is it the school board. It’s the legal entity called Galveston Independent School District. Nor does he understand that doing favors from time to time for your client’s employees is by definition “giving a benefit to someone to induce them to give you something.” That something being the district’s lucrative legal business.
For the record, David Feldman repudiated Nichols’ comment, saying the firm does not do favors for clients. The public record says otherwise, however.
Officials with the public school
district have blamed high legal
costs on lawsuits, open records
requests, an epic federal
desegregation lawsuit and
personnel issues. Under the
recommendation of Feldman and
Rogers, trustees also sought,
then dropped, legal action
against a blogger they accused
of defamation.
Galveston public school district
in 2006-07 paid Feldman and
Rogers $99,639.67, according to
school district records.
This year, the district has paid
almost $150,000 to the firm.
Earlier this month,
administrators attempted to
almost double the district’s
legal budget, but the attempts
were met with skepticism by
Mytelka.
Mytelka, who is an attorney,
refused to vote in favor of a
budget amendment that would
increase the budget for the firm
by $117,500 from $150,000 to
$267,500.
“I
think we need to exercise a
little more control,”
Mytelka said then. “I would like
to approve the bills before the
check is cut.”
Katy ISD Watchdogs response here: Let me clue all of you into something; taxpayers in this state are angry and they are getting angrier every single day. Our ranks are growing daily as more and more taxpayers begin to come out of their apathetic stupor and begin to realize what is REALLY going on in their school districts. We are tired of wasteful, irresponsible and sometimes fraudulent school district spending. We are sick of “blank check” bond initiatives that only encourage wasteful, irresponsible and sometimes fraudulent school spending. We’re tired of school districts operating deficit budgets. But most of all we are really weary of school districts “passing the hat” before they have made absolutely sure that their own economic house is in order.
David Feldman: “It’s like you’ve been figuratively raped,” he told the newspaper, somehow failing to add “But then again, it’s obvious I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.”
Galveston ISD Threatens to Sue Watchdog Group Thu Oct 25, 2007 Houston Press blog comments here.
The Galveston ISD has locked horns with a taxpayer watchdog group over what the district calls "defamatory" statements made on the group's website.
The lawyer for the district, David Feldman, says his client has no problem with the existence of the "GISD Watch," but he says anonymous bloggers on their site have been making "libelous statements" about bosses at the district for quite some time.
In a letter to the operator of "GISD Watch," Sandra Tetley, Feldman asks her to take down blog postings that falsely accuse bosses at the school district of crimes. Feldman says the school district will take Tetley to court if she doesn't do what he's asking.
Listen to my interview with Mr. Feldman here:
Tetley received the letter from Feldman on Tuesday afternoon and talked to me about it shortly after that. She says what this is really all about is school administrators who are unable to handle it when citizens criticize the way their tax dollars are being spent. Listen to my interview with Tetley here:
If you'd like to check out the website for yourself and decide whether it's appropriate, click here.
One school district, one child,
one citizen at a time ... PRIVATE attorneys get RICH, RICH, RICH ...
Learn more about SLAPP suits (Strategic Litigation or Lawsuit
Against Public Participation)
![[Company Logo Image]](_borders/AG00052_.GIF)
Private
Attorneys to the Rescue! 
are sometimes just a BIG JOKE.
Click here to review the publications for sale by Eanes ISD private attorneys Walsh, Anderson, Schultze, Brown and Aldridge including these:
WHERE ARE OUR SCHOOL TAX DOLLARS GOING?
David Feldman: “It’s like you’ve been figuratively raped,” he told the newspaper, somehow failing to add “But then again, it’s obvious I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.”