THE PROBLEM WITH EANES ISD RECORDKEEPING ...

After year-long delay, Texas Education Agency finds Eanes ISD out of compliance with state records retention laws and Texas Education Code ... no consequence issued.

July 29, 2008 - We all talk about the importance of accountability in our public schools.  Our students and teachers are held to high accountability standards. However, when districts fail to comply with Texas Education Code or the Texas Records Retention laws, there is no consequence and the administrators who are paid well to manage our districts are not monitored.  How did we learn about the missing paper trail?

In October 2004, Keep Eanes Informed was contacted by community members with concerns that our school tax dollars were funding a professional lobbyist, Brad Shields.  Mr. Shields's affiliations with Eanes are numerous; in fact, on his lobbyist website he advertises that he is the  "Voice of the Chaps" at the Westlake High School football games and a past Eanes ISD board member.  He also served as State Representative Turned Professional Lobbyist Todd Baxter's campaign manager.  Was he also now the district’s professional (tax-funded) lobbyist? 

Dianna Pharr contacted Nola Wellman and the superintendent denied the speculation.  However, at the beginning of 2005, the check register told another story; the district was paying Mr. Shield's thousands of dollars.  Documents indicated that Mr. Shields emailed his requests for payment to the superintendent and she signed her approval each time.  The concern grew when, in response to public information requests, backup documentation for these expenses did not include agreements, contracts, or receipts.  The paper trail was absent.

It appeared that receipts were not maintained according to law and Brad Shields was paid without an agreement in place.  Keep Eanes Informed requested that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) investigate.  Approximately one year later, TEA ruled that the superintendent's approval of thousands of dollars of our education dollars in expenditures to a professional lobbyist, Brad Shields, without a contract in place and without obtaining receipts for expensive meals does not comply with the Texas Education Code or the state records retention laws.  Public school district administrators have control of our checkbook and yet, where is the accountability or consequence for noncompliance with important laws?

Even more troubling, when Dianna Pharr requested an investigation into the apparent expenditures of school tax dollars by the Eanes ISD superintendent to a professional lobbyist without contracts in place and without receipts to document the expenses, Nola Wellman met with the TEA and for quite some time, the investigation appeared to be derailed.  TEA gave Eanes ISD several "extensions on time" because apparently Eanes needed more time to “find” the requested documents.  However, the district's inability to respond to the agency’s request for information further illustrates the problem with Eanes ISD recordkeeping. 

In early 2008, when it appeared that TEA would simply not process the complaint thereby protecting Eanes ISD from accountability, I wrote to Robert Scott, TEA Commissioner and reminded him the TEA has a responsibility to monitor Texas school districts.  In the end, regardless of the granted time extensions, Eanes ISD found no documents, no contracts, and no receipts.  After a year-long delay, the Texas Education Agency finally issued a written ruling Eanes ISD did not comply with state records retention laws or the Texas Education Code when the district paid thousands of dollars to professional lobbyist (and former Eanes ISD board member) Brad Shields without a contract in place and without obtaining required receipts. 

TEA found that: