Showing posts with label Houston schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Houston schools. Show all posts
Sunday, July 30, 2023
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Charter School Founders Embezzled Millions: Parents Receive $150 Each
From Houston Public Media:
More than 4,000 parents of students who attended a Houston charter school whose founders have been imprisoned for mail fraud and tax evasion will receive more than $600,000 in restitution, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday.
The Varnett Public School is a charter school with three locations in Houston. In August 2017, founding superintendent Marian Annette Cluff, 70, and her husband Alsie Cluff Jr., 69, who worked as facilities and operations manager, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and conspiracy to commit tax evasion charges for embezzling millions of dollars from the school.
The couple received a combined prison sentence of 13 years –10 years for Mrs. Cluff and three years for her husband– and was ordered to pay a total of $4.4 million in restitution. Last month, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ordered the payments be distributed to the identified victim parents in the case.
The U.S. District Clerk’s Office said the restitution payments to the parents will be handled on an “expedited basis.” Specifically, the amount reserved for restitution is $604,889.
The Cluffs embezzled millions of dollars in funds that were intended for the operation and function of the charter school and its programs, according to court records.
Prosecutors say the couple took money that mostly low-income parents paid for school field trips, book fairs, student fundraisers, and other school activities, and used the funds to support a lavish lifestyle that included trips on private jets, multiple properties, designer clothes and jewelry.
The investigation found that the couple also diverted and concealed money received from vendors of the school, insurance companies and federal agencies into off-book accounts for their personal use and benefit. . .
Friday, December 30, 2016
Houston's Systematic Mistreatment of Special Needs Children
The Houston Independent School District has an established history of miseducative corruption, which goes back to the glory days of Rod Paige, who made a national reputation with made up graduation and dropout numbers for Houston high schools. His compelling lies earned him a spot as Secretary of Education for Geo. W. Bush, and since leaving ED to make room for the bovine Margaret Spellings, Paige has been on the prime rib speaking circuit of corporate ed reform.
In 2009, Houston elites brought in corporate ed reformers' poster boy, Supt. Terry Grier, to initiate as many half-baked ideas, child-unfriendly programs, and lucrative deals as possible. Grier was such a disruption that HISD won Eli Broad's highest honor in 2013.
As a result of some good reporting by the Houston Chronicle, we now find that many of the efficiencies that have been achieved by Grier and his corporate team have resulted from the systematic mistreatment of special needs children.
Chart below and clip from the most recent article in the Houston Chronicle series:
. . . . Federal officials have approved RTI, with one caveat: Schools cannot require teachers to try RTI before requesting a kid be evaluated for special ed.
That is exactly what has happened in HISD, according to numerous current and former staffers.
"RTI was a huge roadblock," said Renee Tappe, who retired in 2015 after 35 years in special education at HISD. "Every now and again, it would help a kid a little bit, but when you look at the number of kids denied, it's not even close to being worth it."
When delay is no longer possible, several HISD staffers said they have been encouraged to suspend or expel students who act out instead of evaluating them for special ed. A 2015 TEA probe confirmed HISD has done that multiple times, including by charging kids with truancy, according to records obtained by the Chronicle.
The district also has started increasingly serving students with dyslexia in Section 504, a less robust and less accountable program than special ed.
Veteran employees also pointed to the budget cuts as a way that HISD has intentionally lowered special education rates. Officials have cut nearly 600 special ed positions over the past decade, a 40 percent drop that has been even sharper than the dip in students, statistics show. . . .
In 2009, Houston elites brought in corporate ed reformers' poster boy, Supt. Terry Grier, to initiate as many half-baked ideas, child-unfriendly programs, and lucrative deals as possible. Grier was such a disruption that HISD won Eli Broad's highest honor in 2013.
As a result of some good reporting by the Houston Chronicle, we now find that many of the efficiencies that have been achieved by Grier and his corporate team have resulted from the systematic mistreatment of special needs children.
Chart below and clip from the most recent article in the Houston Chronicle series:
. . . . Federal officials have approved RTI, with one caveat: Schools cannot require teachers to try RTI before requesting a kid be evaluated for special ed.
That is exactly what has happened in HISD, according to numerous current and former staffers.
"RTI was a huge roadblock," said Renee Tappe, who retired in 2015 after 35 years in special education at HISD. "Every now and again, it would help a kid a little bit, but when you look at the number of kids denied, it's not even close to being worth it."
When delay is no longer possible, several HISD staffers said they have been encouraged to suspend or expel students who act out instead of evaluating them for special ed. A 2015 TEA probe confirmed HISD has done that multiple times, including by charging kids with truancy, according to records obtained by the Chronicle.
The district also has started increasingly serving students with dyslexia in Section 504, a less robust and less accountable program than special ed.
Veteran employees also pointed to the budget cuts as a way that HISD has intentionally lowered special education rates. Officials have cut nearly 600 special ed positions over the past decade, a 40 percent drop that has been even sharper than the dip in students, statistics show. . . .
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