from another poster on here... (CL)
"Obviously I don't have a dog in the hunt. Y'all can tell me to mind my own business if you want. I've been a casual observer of the man or woman or individuals who've posted over the last few years in my opinion what was a fairly well documented case of financial corruption. Based on the writing styles of the posts it appears to me to be at least two individuals. I'm not sure what in the heck is going on down there in Johnson CO but somebody needs their cage rattled and I mean like years ago. Somebody should've called the Texas Rangers, the State School Board, T.E.A., the A. G.'s office, somebody for an audit. The whole premise I'm sure of building a premier showcase multi-million dollar football stadium and sports-plex is to attract high caliber athletes, football players, and coaches to the program and increase the profile of Cleburne ISD. Meanwhile as the "princess" has pointed out and as she has been derogatorily referred to, the bait and switch will be on, and that new high school and other outdated facilities that were so desperately needed? Bye bye."
Hm. I guess someone cares after all. Turns out, if you keep bringing scams out into the light, sooner or later, enough people will say 'enough'.
For all of you who ponder if the kind of financial scams happening in Cleburne ever happens anywhere else, read this! Sound familiar?
"Burlington College, which took on heavy debt during the tenure of Bernie Sanders' wife, is closing down.
The closure of the liberal arts college in Vermont was blamed directly on Jane Sanders, who bankrupted the school as president from 2004 to 2011.
"Founded in 1972 as an informal gathering of students, Burlington College grew into a small, regionally accredited liberal arts college, but financial strain and academic probation created by an ambitious but ill-fated expansion under then-President Jane Sanders onto a new campus on prime waterfront land led to the school's demise," the Burlington Free Press reported.
Dean of Operations and Advancement Coralee Holm said it was impossible to pay back the debt from Sanders' land deal.
"I believe the vision was enrollment would grow, which it did, but not at the level that would have allowed us to manage the financial debt we had incurred," she said. "So here we are."
Well, isn't that hilarious: after Bernie Sanders spends his entire presidential campaign pushing "free college" for everyone by increasing the national debt, his wife bankrupts a college into oblivion through deficit spending.
"When a socialist runs a program, this is what happens when they can no longer steal money from the 'greedy capitalists' as they call them," news commentator E.T. Williams said. "This is what happens when you put socialists in charge, just look at Venezuela."
***************.... so Cleburne, when our town turns into Detroit, you'll know why.
Remember! Pictures of the new construction at CISD can be emailed through Craigslist, and we can compare them all on the blog, along with Freedom of Information Act requests to get copies of any expenditures that didn't show up on the CISD website. It'll be pretty easy to add up what's been done, vs what's been spent, and when the two don't add up, that's when the calls to the state, TEA, and all the rest start happening.
Must be a bummer to have lined up the perfect scam / bank robbery, and then be forced to use the money in the manner in which it's use was sold to the taxpayers, right? I'm pretty sure that if you guys pop up and say 'It's a miracle! We found a way to save $60 Million Dollars, and BUILD THAT NEW FOOTBALL STADIUM!' that somebody is gonna be GOIN' TO JAIL.
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Monday, May 16, 2016
Name calling doesn't change the fact that the Cleburne Texas ISD School Board has LOST CONTROL
It is always nice to get a response from the other side. However, when all they can do is name calling, and have no response to facts, you know, and that THEY actually know, that their position is untenable. Folks, these are the type of people you have given $130 Million Dollars to. If you're reading these posts, or going to the '2016CleburneISDSchoolBond blog' on blog spot, and know someone who might be older and ISN'T computer or internet savvy, print this and all the other posts off, and give it to them. Spread the word. Because this scam and incompetence in Cle burne can't exist in the light of day if enough people know about it.
How do I, and the others fighting this incompetence and potential thievery know that we are doing some good? Because of responses like this..
"Well, Princess, in your own words, "A lot of folks in Cleburne aren't very computer savvy and thus don't read social media..." Yet, here you are, still posting! Makes perfect sense! Guess it IS a lot easier (and safer) for you to just sit behind your keyboard and post your nonsense than to actually DO something IN YOUR COMMUNITY where it might actually do some good, right? What's that they say about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? LMAO! Just goes to show that you really AREN'T playing with a full deck; you're a JACK OFF!"
Sounds like we've poked the monkeys quite a bit, right?
Now, experience has shown us all that if you march down to the newspaper and voice your opinion against the supposed 'status quo', you'll have people do background checks on you trying to find anything in your past that is negatively newsworthy, such as what happened to Pete whatisname there in Cleburne when someone slipped a news article from 16 years ago under the door at the Cleburne Times Review to try and make Pete look bad and intimidate him. Another fella there in town, Harold, has had the temerity to try and hold the school to task for their expenditures over the years, by doing Freedom of Information Act requests, and calling TEA when the CISD gets out of hand, and he's been treated pretty badly by the morons in charge since he's tried to keep them from spending money like drunken sailors. Anyone else who has written an editorial against the bond has received shitty emails and texts. It's like a bunch of abusive 12 year olds somehow got in charge.
The last time that happened on a large scale, the Cleb urne ISD was spending federal funds so fraudulently, they had to give back $300,000 dollars or so, and the people from the State of Texas stopped doing their audit after only doing 10% of the books, because they were afraid that if they continued, they'd break the school financially. 2006 I think that was.
So really, all we're seeing now is just the latest band of incompetents in charge of the school, who can't get the kids to test out of the lower 10% of the state, and before ever talking about the sorry state the school buildings are in do to their malfeasance with the maintenance budget, had the gall to ask for $150 Million Dollars for a football stadium first.
In the spirit of spreading the good word, if you know someone in Cleburne, heck, email this to them, print it off and stick it on the business card wall of the local restaurant, print it off and stick it on windshields in town.
The facts are that the CISD school board has no control of anything anymore, couldn't act as an oversight committee for a lemonade stand, and has given up their power to approve hiring and payscales, and has allowed Heath to raise the 'don't report to anyone' dollar amount up to $50,000, from the already ridiculous $25,000 it was before.
If the school board can't be bothered to verify what is being spent and why, why are they there? And who should take their place?
Print it off, and spread the word folks. I see the hits on the blog, so I know this is doing some good, stats don't lie :) And eventually, once everyone in town knows what kind of scam was perpetrated with this double-whammy bond scam, I'm pretty sure that someone will be held accountable.
Gosh. Sure do hope you administration folks have some good lawyers, right?
And don't forget to take LOT OF PICTURES of the new construction, so we can add up what they did with what they spent! We call the difference between the two 'embezzlement'.
have a nice day! :)
How do I, and the others fighting this incompetence and potential thievery know that we are doing some good? Because of responses like this..
"Well, Princess, in your own words, "A lot of folks in Cleburne aren't very computer savvy and thus don't read social media..." Yet, here you are, still posting! Makes perfect sense! Guess it IS a lot easier (and safer) for you to just sit behind your keyboard and post your nonsense than to actually DO something IN YOUR COMMUNITY where it might actually do some good, right? What's that they say about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? LMAO! Just goes to show that you really AREN'T playing with a full deck; you're a JACK OFF!"
Sounds like we've poked the monkeys quite a bit, right?
Now, experience has shown us all that if you march down to the newspaper and voice your opinion against the supposed 'status quo', you'll have people do background checks on you trying to find anything in your past that is negatively newsworthy, such as what happened to Pete whatisname there in Cleburne when someone slipped a news article from 16 years ago under the door at the Cleburne Times Review to try and make Pete look bad and intimidate him. Another fella there in town, Harold, has had the temerity to try and hold the school to task for their expenditures over the years, by doing Freedom of Information Act requests, and calling TEA when the CISD gets out of hand, and he's been treated pretty badly by the morons in charge since he's tried to keep them from spending money like drunken sailors. Anyone else who has written an editorial against the bond has received shitty emails and texts. It's like a bunch of abusive 12 year olds somehow got in charge.
The last time that happened on a large scale, the Cleb urne ISD was spending federal funds so fraudulently, they had to give back $300,000 dollars or so, and the people from the State of Texas stopped doing their audit after only doing 10% of the books, because they were afraid that if they continued, they'd break the school financially. 2006 I think that was.
So really, all we're seeing now is just the latest band of incompetents in charge of the school, who can't get the kids to test out of the lower 10% of the state, and before ever talking about the sorry state the school buildings are in do to their malfeasance with the maintenance budget, had the gall to ask for $150 Million Dollars for a football stadium first.
In the spirit of spreading the good word, if you know someone in Cleburne, heck, email this to them, print it off and stick it on the business card wall of the local restaurant, print it off and stick it on windshields in town.
The facts are that the CISD school board has no control of anything anymore, couldn't act as an oversight committee for a lemonade stand, and has given up their power to approve hiring and payscales, and has allowed Heath to raise the 'don't report to anyone' dollar amount up to $50,000, from the already ridiculous $25,000 it was before.
If the school board can't be bothered to verify what is being spent and why, why are they there? And who should take their place?
Print it off, and spread the word folks. I see the hits on the blog, so I know this is doing some good, stats don't lie :) And eventually, once everyone in town knows what kind of scam was perpetrated with this double-whammy bond scam, I'm pretty sure that someone will be held accountable.
Gosh. Sure do hope you administration folks have some good lawyers, right?
And don't forget to take LOT OF PICTURES of the new construction, so we can add up what they did with what they spent! We call the difference between the two 'embezzlement'.
have a nice day! :)
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Cleburne ISD school board in Cleburne, Texas has LOST CONTROL.
only in Texas will a town try to pass a $150 Million Dollar school bond for a new football stadium first, and have it fail, before stating that they actually need $130 Million Dollars for a new high school because the old one is in such bad shape as the same people promoting the bond didn't maintain what they had. Oh, and no one asks why they asked for a new football stadium first!
Sure, the bond passed, but let's face it. A lot of folks in Cle burne aren't very computer savvy and thus don't read social media, the Cleburne Times Review actually doesn't have that big of a circulation in Cleb urne since it got sold to an out of town company, and the CISD administration did have $120,000 of taxpayer money to promote the bond. I bet if about 17,000 more people had known all of the reasons to vote that thing down, more of them would have gone and voted. People that were 'low information voters' unfortunately made the assumption that the people in charge wouldn't screw them, but as we've seen, respect for authority, when those in authority are idiots, has gotten us into wars for oil, gave us Obamacare, and resulted in one country being a good start for a world war, not once, but TWICE.
Always always question the action of those in charge, especially when it affects your pocketbook.
Anyway, let's talk about that school board there in C leburne.
Turns out, Heath, the Superintendent, told the school board he felt that he should be able to hire two new Principals for the, what was it, middle school and high school? to replace the folks that left recently, without any oversight, authorization, or input from the school board. Of course, this applies to what they get paid, too. No input from the school board, the entity whose sole reason for being is to act as oversight into the expenditure of public monies.
Of course, the reason the school board is SUPPOSED to have a voice in who is hired, is because that keeps a Superintendent from hiring his buddies, who may or may not be qualified for the gig.
Sure enough, Heath hired two people he worked with in Mansfield, his previous posting.
Word for the day! 'Cronyism'- the appointment of friends and associates to positions of authority, without proper regard to their qualifications.
You should all remember that word, because you're going to need it in the future when describing Heath's hiring practices..
Also, (yes, there's more!) Heath also got the school board to sign off on a change in the manner in which the school board provides oversight regarding the amounts the school can spend without getting approval from the school board.
Until recently, it was $25,000. That's right. The school could cut a check to a consultant, a highly paid custodian, a contractor, whoever, and with no more verification on the receipt than 'job done!' that person the check was written to would get $25,000 bucks without anyone outside the administration signing off on it.
Now, cutting checks left and right for a few hundred bucks is one thing, but when you start doing it for $25,000, well, now we're talking real money, right?
Except that Heath got the school board to RAISE the amount.. to $50,000. That's right. Heath can take the CISD check book, cut a check for $50,000 dollars to whoever he wants, and there is no one to say 1) hey, what was THIS all about? or 2) catch him BEFORE he cuts the check, to put the brakes on and say 'do we REALLY need to do this?'
The reason that these amounts are so scary, and should be lower, and should have the school board looking into the 'why' and the 'how much' on a lot of these expenditures, is that it is EASY for people to embezzle money from public institutions such as ... Cle burne ISD. Google it. Happens at other schools across the country all the time, usually due to school boards who have dropped the ball.
At this point, the good news for the school board, is that there is absolutely no reason for them to bother holding meetings anymore. Why waste the time? What's the point? These people budgeted a hot dog stand at Wheat Middle School for $245,000, which is insane for a kitchen, storeroom, and some bathrooms, at a middle school, where the facility will be used 8 times a year, and the school STILL went over budget, to a total of $277,000 (or more, depending on who you ask). And who thinks they will do a good job of providing any oversight on $130 Million Dollars?
And the people of Cleburne, through their lack of civic responsibility, just handed an administration without ANY OVERSIGHT whatsoever from this sorry excuse of a school board, $130 Million Dollars.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, stay tuned to 2016cleburneisdschoolbond.blogspot.com, or google 'Cleburne School Bond Scam', because I have a feeling, the drama, the incompetence, the lyin', cheatin' and stealin', it ain't over yet!
P.S. Want to have some real fun? When they start construction on the school and sports plex, take LOTS OF PICTURES of the construction, every day now! We can all compare pictures later, and they will come in handy when the numbers don't match up on what they spent vs what was done, and the state comes in to AUDIT this project, and they'll want to see pictures of what is physically there at the construction site, to match to the checks they wrote for materials and labor. Why, just imagine! If someone cut a check for $100,000 on $50,000 worth of work, well, I guess all those pictures and an audit would catch that wouldn't it? We don't need no stinkin' school board, we can be our OWN oversight committee!
Sure, the bond passed, but let's face it. A lot of folks in Cle burne aren't very computer savvy and thus don't read social media, the Cleburne Times Review actually doesn't have that big of a circulation in Cleb urne since it got sold to an out of town company, and the CISD administration did have $120,000 of taxpayer money to promote the bond. I bet if about 17,000 more people had known all of the reasons to vote that thing down, more of them would have gone and voted. People that were 'low information voters' unfortunately made the assumption that the people in charge wouldn't screw them, but as we've seen, respect for authority, when those in authority are idiots, has gotten us into wars for oil, gave us Obamacare, and resulted in one country being a good start for a world war, not once, but TWICE.
Always always question the action of those in charge, especially when it affects your pocketbook.
Anyway, let's talk about that school board there in C leburne.
Turns out, Heath, the Superintendent, told the school board he felt that he should be able to hire two new Principals for the, what was it, middle school and high school? to replace the folks that left recently, without any oversight, authorization, or input from the school board. Of course, this applies to what they get paid, too. No input from the school board, the entity whose sole reason for being is to act as oversight into the expenditure of public monies.
Of course, the reason the school board is SUPPOSED to have a voice in who is hired, is because that keeps a Superintendent from hiring his buddies, who may or may not be qualified for the gig.
Sure enough, Heath hired two people he worked with in Mansfield, his previous posting.
Word for the day! 'Cronyism'- the appointment of friends and associates to positions of authority, without proper regard to their qualifications.
You should all remember that word, because you're going to need it in the future when describing Heath's hiring practices..
Also, (yes, there's more!) Heath also got the school board to sign off on a change in the manner in which the school board provides oversight regarding the amounts the school can spend without getting approval from the school board.
Until recently, it was $25,000. That's right. The school could cut a check to a consultant, a highly paid custodian, a contractor, whoever, and with no more verification on the receipt than 'job done!' that person the check was written to would get $25,000 bucks without anyone outside the administration signing off on it.
Now, cutting checks left and right for a few hundred bucks is one thing, but when you start doing it for $25,000, well, now we're talking real money, right?
Except that Heath got the school board to RAISE the amount.. to $50,000. That's right. Heath can take the CISD check book, cut a check for $50,000 dollars to whoever he wants, and there is no one to say 1) hey, what was THIS all about? or 2) catch him BEFORE he cuts the check, to put the brakes on and say 'do we REALLY need to do this?'
The reason that these amounts are so scary, and should be lower, and should have the school board looking into the 'why' and the 'how much' on a lot of these expenditures, is that it is EASY for people to embezzle money from public institutions such as ... Cle burne ISD. Google it. Happens at other schools across the country all the time, usually due to school boards who have dropped the ball.
At this point, the good news for the school board, is that there is absolutely no reason for them to bother holding meetings anymore. Why waste the time? What's the point? These people budgeted a hot dog stand at Wheat Middle School for $245,000, which is insane for a kitchen, storeroom, and some bathrooms, at a middle school, where the facility will be used 8 times a year, and the school STILL went over budget, to a total of $277,000 (or more, depending on who you ask). And who thinks they will do a good job of providing any oversight on $130 Million Dollars?
And the people of Cleburne, through their lack of civic responsibility, just handed an administration without ANY OVERSIGHT whatsoever from this sorry excuse of a school board, $130 Million Dollars.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, stay tuned to 2016cleburneisdschoolbond.blogspot.com, or google 'Cleburne School Bond Scam', because I have a feeling, the drama, the incompetence, the lyin', cheatin' and stealin', it ain't over yet!
P.S. Want to have some real fun? When they start construction on the school and sports plex, take LOTS OF PICTURES of the construction, every day now! We can all compare pictures later, and they will come in handy when the numbers don't match up on what they spent vs what was done, and the state comes in to AUDIT this project, and they'll want to see pictures of what is physically there at the construction site, to match to the checks they wrote for materials and labor. Why, just imagine! If someone cut a check for $100,000 on $50,000 worth of work, well, I guess all those pictures and an audit would catch that wouldn't it? We don't need no stinkin' school board, we can be our OWN oversight committee!
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
2016 Cleburne ISD School Bond passes due to a better campaign and a budget of $120,000 of TAXPAYER MONEY.
Assuming that there wasn't some type of vote fraud on Saturday, it looks like the taxpayers of Cleburne, at least those who voted, have spoken, at least for all the others who didn't vote, and this $130 Million Dollar School Bond Scam has passed.
The administration did a good job of mailing out flyers and voting pamphlets to high school students old enough to vote, and CISD alumni who are in college. Of course, focusing on getting the 'youth' vote is a great way to pass financial boondoggles, because the young have no concept of long term debt, taxes, or barely, even balancing their checkbook, but they do love to buy stuff, especially with what they perceive is other people's money.
Actually, if none of the kids who voted for this thing move back to Cleburne, it WILL be other people's money!
So let's see here... once we build this thing, along with a new football stadium, (because that was really the goal here, this had nothing to do with a new high school or anything that will actually better educate the kids), we're to assume that..
A) more children will magically show up for an education in Cleburne.. and
B) their quality of education will magically go up so that they are no longer testing in the bottom 10% of the state of Texas.
Here's a question. When those two things don't happen.. who is responsible? Who's getting fired? Who's GOIN' TO JAIL?
These people couldn't even build a hot dog stand efficiently, spending more than any house in Cleburne on.. a hot dog stand, at Wheat Middle School. $277,000 and for what? to sell nachos and hot dogs 8 times a year at middle school football games?
These people in the administration, and apparently in Cain's office as well, are incompetent, based on the lies and misinformation they've pushed in the attempted passage of the first bond scam 'We NEED a new football stadium, the school's are FINE', to pushing the bond scam AGAIN, rebranded as 'We NEED a new high school, because the old one is in such bad shape because we DIDN'T TAKE CARE OF IT'.
Get real.
Well Cleburne, you're going to find out how Detroit became Detroit. And we'll be here to bring into the light, every dumb, criminal, incompetent action of the school administration, city government, and school board along the way.
Stay tuned!
The administration did a good job of mailing out flyers and voting pamphlets to high school students old enough to vote, and CISD alumni who are in college. Of course, focusing on getting the 'youth' vote is a great way to pass financial boondoggles, because the young have no concept of long term debt, taxes, or barely, even balancing their checkbook, but they do love to buy stuff, especially with what they perceive is other people's money.
Actually, if none of the kids who voted for this thing move back to Cleburne, it WILL be other people's money!
So let's see here... once we build this thing, along with a new football stadium, (because that was really the goal here, this had nothing to do with a new high school or anything that will actually better educate the kids), we're to assume that..
A) more children will magically show up for an education in Cleburne.. and
B) their quality of education will magically go up so that they are no longer testing in the bottom 10% of the state of Texas.
Here's a question. When those two things don't happen.. who is responsible? Who's getting fired? Who's GOIN' TO JAIL?
These people couldn't even build a hot dog stand efficiently, spending more than any house in Cleburne on.. a hot dog stand, at Wheat Middle School. $277,000 and for what? to sell nachos and hot dogs 8 times a year at middle school football games?
These people in the administration, and apparently in Cain's office as well, are incompetent, based on the lies and misinformation they've pushed in the attempted passage of the first bond scam 'We NEED a new football stadium, the school's are FINE', to pushing the bond scam AGAIN, rebranded as 'We NEED a new high school, because the old one is in such bad shape because we DIDN'T TAKE CARE OF IT'.
Get real.
Well Cleburne, you're going to find out how Detroit became Detroit. And we'll be here to bring into the light, every dumb, criminal, incompetent action of the school administration, city government, and school board along the way.
Stay tuned!
Thursday, May 5, 2016
2016 Cleburne ISD School Bond SCAM, questions to ask about the bond
This is it Cleburne! Get out there Saturday, and vote NO! on this school bond SCAM.
If they need a new high school so bad, why did they ask for a football stadium the first time around?
Why did they spend $277,000 on a hot dog stand at Wheat Middle School?
How do they know how much anything will cost if they don't even have an architect hired?
Why does one of the two 'artists renderings' pictures they have to pitch this thing show a big SPORTS PLEX?
Why does this thing smell like a pitch for a Time Share Condo?
How will one building over another educate the kids better so they aren't testing in the bottom ten percent of the state?
How will one building over another help most incoming freshmen read over a 6th grade level?
Why did the CISD administration tell everyone that your taxes won't go up if you're 65, when in fact, tax assessments in October happen after the voting for the bond, meaning that your taxes WILL go up if you are currently 65?
How did the high school get in such a state of disrepair?
Who is responsible?
Where did the money go?
Why did the last bond have $20 million earmarked to repair Cooke and Coleman, and yet this bond only has $2.5 million?
Why does the contractor that donated $5000 to the Cleburne PAC promoting this bond, list on the front page of their website, that their specialty is 'Building New Football Stadiums?'
Why are the Yes Matters! people stealing and burning Vote NO! political signs?
Why do the Yes Matters! people need the Hilton of High Schools? Why can't we just fix the one we've got?
If Cleburne said NO last time to a $150 Million Dollar Bond, why did the school administration turn right around and propose one for $130 Million, even though studies showed that Cleburne would decline any bond over $100 Million?
Why did the administration repeatedly say that the high school was too crowded, when studies that the administration have, and the school board members who inspected the schools and counted heads and rooms, show that the school, at current growth rates in Cleburne, won't be full for a decade?
After repeatedly saying that the high school was too crowded, why did Heath the Superintendent state, when asked directly by the newspaper, that classrooms didn't have any space issues, that it was just the hallways? Does he not realize that all the kids in the classrooms end up in the hallways when the bell rings?
If we have a good oversight process to verify how, when, where, and how much taxpayer money is spent on a project, how did the administration build a $277,000 hot dog stand at Wheat Middle School that was budgeted for $245,000?
If we have a good oversight process to verify how, when, where, and how much taxpayer money is spent on a project, how is it that Cleburne built a hot dog stand that is more expensive than the largest three story house, with a garage, and a pool, in Cleburne?
If the bond committee meetings achieved such great consensus, why did 1/3 of the attendees stop coming to the meetings due to feeling manipulated?
Why does the administration keep saying that if we build a huge expensive high school, that people will move to Cleburne to have their kids go there? Has anyone ever moved to a specific area because of a high school whose students regularly test in the bottom ten percent of the state?
After all this, would you trust these people with $130 Million Dollars of YOUR money? OUR money? Anyone's money?
Why are the police and the Cleburne Times Review not investigating the theft and burning of Vote NO! signs at that party the other night?
Why is no one auditing the financials on that $277,000 hot dog stand at Wheat Middle School to find out why it was so expensive?
Why is no one auditing CISD to find out what happened to the maintenance budget for Cooke, Coleman, and the high school?
Is this bond proposal merely incompetence? or a criminal scam?
How much of a bond does Cleburne REALLY need to just repair the schools they have?
When this bond scam fails, if the administration proposes another $100 Million Dollar plus bond, who will be held accountable?
It is really true that the administration has spent $120,000 promoting each of these recent bond scams?
Other than a new high school and Sports Plex, what are the administrations plans to increase the quality of education at CISD, at least so the students aren't testing in the lower 10 percent of the state?
Is it true that the administration can cut a check to anyone for $25,000 without having to say why, to the school board, or anyone?
How often, if at all, has the school board ever denied the administration any expenditures?
Why does the school board not take detailed minutes about the meetings so that there is a record of what they talked about when discussing public monies?
Why do the school board hold all of their meetings after all the fluff of awards and whatnot, behind closed doors? Since they use public funds? What's the secret?
Why are the school board meetings not videotaped and put up on youtube like other schools? In the spirit of Transparency?
If you had a choice of a school that was renowned for giving a great education to it's students, or Cleburne, that regularly tests in the bottom 10 percent of the state, which school would you send your kids to?
If this bond is such a good idea, why are so many people screaming about it?
Does $232 Million, after interest, of debt for Cleburne, for the next 25 years, sound like a good thing?
If 2/3rds of the tax revenue for the bond comes from businesses, what will happen if the economy stalls again? Would Cleburne default on the bond payments?
Why is the administration going to put electronic tablets for the kids on a bond meant for infrastructure? Won't the tablets go out of date long before the bond is paid off? Even if the amount of the tablets is paid off in a few years, isn't this like taking out a 5 year note for a $200 computer? Does that make any sense?
If the bond for the football stadium had passed, would CISD administration be asking for a bond for a new high school now?
Is there a conflict of interest when a member of the school board is married to a person that owns an engineering company that receives money approved by the school board, from the school?
Who is going to be fired when this bond scam fails?
Go Vote NO! on the 2016 Cleburne ISD School Bond Scam!
There have been enough articles in the Cleburne Times Review to get both sides of this thing, but some simple questions are, if we need a new high school so bad, why did they try to pitch us a $150 Million Dollar Football Stadium first?
New high schools don't bring people into town, jobs do. Growth in Cleburne is stagnant, and telling us we need a new high school and sports plex to cover up the fact that the administration hasn't been repairing the schools they've got is joke.
Cleburne ISD students routinely test in the bottom ten percent of the state. How will a new set of classrooms that smell like paint, vs the existing set of classrooms, (that Heath admitted we do not have space constraints in!) change that?
The administration has been misleading or just lied about a number of things. If you want real information about this bond scam, go see any of the gentlemen who wrote dissenting articles in the Cleburne Times Review, stating why we should vote NO! on this bond scam.
Vote NO! May 7th! If you don't, these incompetent, or criminal, elements pushing this thing will have gotten away with it, and Cleburne will be well on it's way to being a little Detroit. It isn't a far hop for a business to leave Cleburne and go to Burleson. Plus, the Cleburne Times Review stated, in that students article, that what? 2/3rds of the tax base is from business? Another good economic hit, and Cleburne would default on the bond.
It's a bad idea folks. Force them to create a small bond that repairs the schools we've got. $10 million should be more than enough, but $130 million, $150 million, it's just a joke, and it is a SCAM.
Sunday, May 1, 2016
In response to the 5/1 editorials on the Cleburne Times Review acting as Propaganda for this bond scam
In response to the 5/1 editorials on the Cleburne Times Review. Had to trim this down to get it to fit in comments section, feel free to share with a friend!
Good Lord. What is this, the bonus round for non-factual propaganda? A plea to 'keep up with the Joneses? a multi-stage sales pitch for a bad real-estate deal where the junior salespeople get to come in on the action and see if they can find a sucker? An emotional appeal to fork out money ,you know, for the kids? When the money is really going to a scammer sitting in Nigeria? Assuming that someone has come into this little party late in the game and knows nothing about the history on this bond scam, and the last one, let's run through a few things.
First, go to votenocleburne.blogspot.com or 2016cleburneisdschoolbond.blogspot.com for more information about this thing. Go to youtube and search for '*INSIDERS* EXPOSE CISD Bond!'. Look at the comments under all the other cleburne times review articles about the bond. Search google for '2016 Cleburne School Bond Scam'. Read craigslist rants and raves under 'all Dallas'. google Facebook Cleburne Gossip, and read additional information there.
Let's start with some of the newly discovered facts..
Turns out, if you're 65, your taxes WILL go up, because the bond will be over and done with before tax assessments in October. They keep saying 'If you're 65, you're taxes are frozen!' Not quite so. Plan on age 66, and that only applies to the address you live at in Cleburne, not your business or rental properties. Also, they never seem to mention that everyone who DOES have a business in Cleburne and has to raise their prices to cover the new taxes, will cause EVERYONE'S cost of living to go up, regardless of age.
It was said by the school administration until recently that, 'Our current high school is just TOO DARN SMALL'. Then, a couple of weeks back, when asked directly about it, Heath had to say, 'Well, we don't actually have a space issue with the classrooms, it's just that the hallways are crowded'. Like.. when the bell rings? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is like having to ask a 5 year old probing questions to get him to admit he had his hand in the cookie jar!
Per the Cleburne Times Review, when speaking to the Lions Club, Heath admitted that the administration has no architect as of yet, has no contractor hired, has had no feasibility studies done. All they have is two pictures to wave around to sell this thing, one of a photo shopped generic high school, and the other of the new layout of the grounds, which suspiciously looks like it has a new sports plex, including some new large locker rooms that could be part of a.. new football stadium. Here's what's so crazy. If they haven't had any of the studies done, haven't hired anyone, then HOW DO THEY KNOW how much any of this will cost? How do they know?
NONE of this money in this bond will go to increase the quality of education at CISD, unless you consider $2.5 million of electronic tablets they'll get for the kids, paid for by a bond meant for infrastructure, and will be out of date long before the bond is paid off. Sure, they say they'll have 'that part' of the bond paid for in 5 years, but that still means they are taking out a 5 year note on a $200 widget. That's crazy, and fiscally, kinda stupid.
The administration keeps going on about the state of disrepair the school is in. Are you kidding me? The people who are supposed to maintain this thing, and didn't, are complaining at the results of their incompetency? I don't recall the football program running short of money. I do recall the school spending absolutely stupid money on a hot dog stand at Wheat High School two years ago. These people have the fiscal responsibility of a kid in a toy store, and they want $130 Million Dollars of our money, plus interest, across 2 generations? Get real.
Let's talk about that hot dog stand. Go drive over to Wheat Middle School, and check it out. Ask the school for a tour. Heck, get wild and crazy, and AUDIT THE FINANCIALS ON THE THING. $277,000 they spent on this thing, when it was budgeted for $245,000, which is still stupid money for a hot dog stand. Go look up home prices in Cleburne. You can barely find a house that expensive, and when you do, it's a three store home with attached garage and a swimming pool! The CISD used that much money to build...
a hot dog stand. That will be used 8 times a year.
Let's talk about how we got here.
First, we've already gone through all this once, when they tried to sell a new football stadium, on a $150 Million Dollar Bond. So, knowing that we had all these problems with the school, because all of these 'issues' they're selling didn't just crop up in the last 2 years, so knowing the state of repair of Cooke, Coleman, the high school, they pitched a new football stadium. Which got voted down by the taxpayers of Cleburne, and rightly so. It was astoundingly stupid that it made it to a vote at all.
Now, here were are again, similar amount of money, but with a different sales pitch. Another bond steering committee packed with CISD employees, conflict of interest anyone? with everyone else experiencing attempted manipulation by the bond consultants, with the result that about 1/3 of the attendees just stopped coming. That manipulation was called 'The Delphi Technique' where a crowd is manipulated with 'false consensus' to come up with a pre-ordained result. Used by Time-Share salesmen around the world.
The administration ,the bond consultants, and the Cleburne PAC promoting this thing have been obtuse, tried to limit knowledge of the bond, have websites no more informative than fluff about it, have used $120,000 dollars of taxpayer money to promote this thing so far, on top of the LAST bond scam, have denigrated and demonized anyone with the bravery to disagree in public with them about the fiscal responsibility or educational potential of this bond, have done background checks on those folks I like to call 'FRC's', or, Fiscally Responsible Citizens, though they refer to them by the misnomer CAVE people. The Mayor has attempted to coin a phrase 'Don't mess with Cleburne! har har!' and fraudulently disenfranchise folks who, while living out of town, will still have properties they own in Cleburne affected by the bond. These same YES Matters people are now stealing and burning 'Vote NO' political signs, you should see the game camera footage! The fact that we are doing this again shows that the administration is going against the will of the people, because we already voted this thing down once.
How many times do we have to say no? Put together a bond that repairs the high school and Cooke and Coleman, audit CISD to find out where the money went that was SUPPOSED to repair the schools, consider firing anyone who promoted this bond scam, and then hire some people who have experience in better education instead of 'school expansion'. Develop an oversight committee that can put the brakes on spending BEFORE they cut the check. Get rid of conflicts of interest, like Mrs. Childress on the school board having direct and indirect control of funds paid to her husbands engineering company. Investigate who started this bond scam, and sue the crap out of them for spending $240,000 of taxpayer money over two bond proposals to promote this tripe.
Did you know the school can cut a check for $20,000 without having to report it to the school board, who even if itwas larger, would just rubber stamp it anyway? If you go to the school board meetings, did you know they hardly take minutes, so that there is no history of what they talk about, and when they do talk about anything other than giving awards and whatnot, they do it behind closed doors even though it is public monies they are discussing, and thus should be having that discussion in a public forum. Want to have some real fun? Start videotaping the school board meetings, and putting them up by date on youtube the way everyone else does. That way, you, the public, can see exactly how they are using YOUR money.
Vote this thing down everyone. Either these folks in the administration pushing this thing are really really incompetent, or, it's a scam that someone is planning on embezzling from. I honestly don't know which, but regardless, it needs to be voted down.
Vote NO!
Good Lord. What is this, the bonus round for non-factual propaganda? A plea to 'keep up with the Joneses? a multi-stage sales pitch for a bad real-estate deal where the junior salespeople get to come in on the action and see if they can find a sucker? An emotional appeal to fork out money ,you know, for the kids? When the money is really going to a scammer sitting in Nigeria? Assuming that someone has come into this little party late in the game and knows nothing about the history on this bond scam, and the last one, let's run through a few things.
First, go to votenocleburne.blogspot.com or 2016cleburneisdschoolbond.blogspot.com for more information about this thing. Go to youtube and search for '*INSIDERS* EXPOSE CISD Bond!'. Look at the comments under all the other cleburne times review articles about the bond. Search google for '2016 Cleburne School Bond Scam'. Read craigslist rants and raves under 'all Dallas'. google Facebook Cleburne Gossip, and read additional information there.
Let's start with some of the newly discovered facts..
Turns out, if you're 65, your taxes WILL go up, because the bond will be over and done with before tax assessments in October. They keep saying 'If you're 65, you're taxes are frozen!' Not quite so. Plan on age 66, and that only applies to the address you live at in Cleburne, not your business or rental properties. Also, they never seem to mention that everyone who DOES have a business in Cleburne and has to raise their prices to cover the new taxes, will cause EVERYONE'S cost of living to go up, regardless of age.
It was said by the school administration until recently that, 'Our current high school is just TOO DARN SMALL'. Then, a couple of weeks back, when asked directly about it, Heath had to say, 'Well, we don't actually have a space issue with the classrooms, it's just that the hallways are crowded'. Like.. when the bell rings? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is like having to ask a 5 year old probing questions to get him to admit he had his hand in the cookie jar!
Per the Cleburne Times Review, when speaking to the Lions Club, Heath admitted that the administration has no architect as of yet, has no contractor hired, has had no feasibility studies done. All they have is two pictures to wave around to sell this thing, one of a photo shopped generic high school, and the other of the new layout of the grounds, which suspiciously looks like it has a new sports plex, including some new large locker rooms that could be part of a.. new football stadium. Here's what's so crazy. If they haven't had any of the studies done, haven't hired anyone, then HOW DO THEY KNOW how much any of this will cost? How do they know?
NONE of this money in this bond will go to increase the quality of education at CISD, unless you consider $2.5 million of electronic tablets they'll get for the kids, paid for by a bond meant for infrastructure, and will be out of date long before the bond is paid off. Sure, they say they'll have 'that part' of the bond paid for in 5 years, but that still means they are taking out a 5 year note on a $200 widget. That's crazy, and fiscally, kinda stupid.
The administration keeps going on about the state of disrepair the school is in. Are you kidding me? The people who are supposed to maintain this thing, and didn't, are complaining at the results of their incompetency? I don't recall the football program running short of money. I do recall the school spending absolutely stupid money on a hot dog stand at Wheat High School two years ago. These people have the fiscal responsibility of a kid in a toy store, and they want $130 Million Dollars of our money, plus interest, across 2 generations? Get real.
Let's talk about that hot dog stand. Go drive over to Wheat Middle School, and check it out. Ask the school for a tour. Heck, get wild and crazy, and AUDIT THE FINANCIALS ON THE THING. $277,000 they spent on this thing, when it was budgeted for $245,000, which is still stupid money for a hot dog stand. Go look up home prices in Cleburne. You can barely find a house that expensive, and when you do, it's a three store home with attached garage and a swimming pool! The CISD used that much money to build...
a hot dog stand. That will be used 8 times a year.
Let's talk about how we got here.
First, we've already gone through all this once, when they tried to sell a new football stadium, on a $150 Million Dollar Bond. So, knowing that we had all these problems with the school, because all of these 'issues' they're selling didn't just crop up in the last 2 years, so knowing the state of repair of Cooke, Coleman, the high school, they pitched a new football stadium. Which got voted down by the taxpayers of Cleburne, and rightly so. It was astoundingly stupid that it made it to a vote at all.
Now, here were are again, similar amount of money, but with a different sales pitch. Another bond steering committee packed with CISD employees, conflict of interest anyone? with everyone else experiencing attempted manipulation by the bond consultants, with the result that about 1/3 of the attendees just stopped coming. That manipulation was called 'The Delphi Technique' where a crowd is manipulated with 'false consensus' to come up with a pre-ordained result. Used by Time-Share salesmen around the world.
The administration ,the bond consultants, and the Cleburne PAC promoting this thing have been obtuse, tried to limit knowledge of the bond, have websites no more informative than fluff about it, have used $120,000 dollars of taxpayer money to promote this thing so far, on top of the LAST bond scam, have denigrated and demonized anyone with the bravery to disagree in public with them about the fiscal responsibility or educational potential of this bond, have done background checks on those folks I like to call 'FRC's', or, Fiscally Responsible Citizens, though they refer to them by the misnomer CAVE people. The Mayor has attempted to coin a phrase 'Don't mess with Cleburne! har har!' and fraudulently disenfranchise folks who, while living out of town, will still have properties they own in Cleburne affected by the bond. These same YES Matters people are now stealing and burning 'Vote NO' political signs, you should see the game camera footage! The fact that we are doing this again shows that the administration is going against the will of the people, because we already voted this thing down once.
How many times do we have to say no? Put together a bond that repairs the high school and Cooke and Coleman, audit CISD to find out where the money went that was SUPPOSED to repair the schools, consider firing anyone who promoted this bond scam, and then hire some people who have experience in better education instead of 'school expansion'. Develop an oversight committee that can put the brakes on spending BEFORE they cut the check. Get rid of conflicts of interest, like Mrs. Childress on the school board having direct and indirect control of funds paid to her husbands engineering company. Investigate who started this bond scam, and sue the crap out of them for spending $240,000 of taxpayer money over two bond proposals to promote this tripe.
Did you know the school can cut a check for $20,000 without having to report it to the school board, who even if itwas larger, would just rubber stamp it anyway? If you go to the school board meetings, did you know they hardly take minutes, so that there is no history of what they talk about, and when they do talk about anything other than giving awards and whatnot, they do it behind closed doors even though it is public monies they are discussing, and thus should be having that discussion in a public forum. Want to have some real fun? Start videotaping the school board meetings, and putting them up by date on youtube the way everyone else does. That way, you, the public, can see exactly how they are using YOUR money.
Vote this thing down everyone. Either these folks in the administration pushing this thing are really really incompetent, or, it's a scam that someone is planning on embezzling from. I honestly don't know which, but regardless, it needs to be voted down.
Vote NO!
Cleburne Times Review articles about the 2016 Cleburne ISD School Bond Scam
Want to have a little fun? Go read all of the articles about this 2016 Cleburne School Bond Scam on the Cleburne Times Review, on their website 'cleburnetimesreview.com'.
At the bottom of all these articles are the option to comment on the article.
Just search on their website.. 'bond', and that should bring most or all of the articles up, and then read the comments at the bottom.
A lot of these Cleburne Times Review articles, especially the one by the mayor the other day, read like fairy tales. Now, you can certainly read a dissenting viewpoint in the comments below these articles, but you can also do your OWN due diligence, and research these issues yourself.
Any of the school administrators and bond consultants would be more than happy to run their sales pitch by you, but you might find their pitch to be high on fluffyness and low on facts.
All of the major players on the VOTE NO side have been mentioned in the paper, go call THEM up, and have THEM tell you directly why you should vote no on this bond scam. Still have questions? The vote no guys are probably more likely to direct you in a direction you can find TRUTH, instead of a fuzzy sales pitch for a bad real estate deal that really looks like a SCAM.
vote NO on this bond scam, early voting now, or main voting on May 7th. And when this gets voted down, every administrator that perpetrated this scam needs to be investigated, fired, and possibly run to jail. A full audit of CISD needs to be done, because if they couldn't even build a hot dog stand at Wheat Middle School for less than $277,000 on a budget of $245,000, and then have been brazen enough to hit up the taxpayers not once, but TWICE for a huge bond scam, spending $120,000 of our money to promote it each time, how do we know they are spending the money they have access to responsibly?
Show them that the people of Cleburne are not a bunch of suckers to be taken in by a con. Vote NO!
At the bottom of all these articles are the option to comment on the article.
Just search on their website.. 'bond', and that should bring most or all of the articles up, and then read the comments at the bottom.
A lot of these Cleburne Times Review articles, especially the one by the mayor the other day, read like fairy tales. Now, you can certainly read a dissenting viewpoint in the comments below these articles, but you can also do your OWN due diligence, and research these issues yourself.
Any of the school administrators and bond consultants would be more than happy to run their sales pitch by you, but you might find their pitch to be high on fluffyness and low on facts.
All of the major players on the VOTE NO side have been mentioned in the paper, go call THEM up, and have THEM tell you directly why you should vote no on this bond scam. Still have questions? The vote no guys are probably more likely to direct you in a direction you can find TRUTH, instead of a fuzzy sales pitch for a bad real estate deal that really looks like a SCAM.
vote NO on this bond scam, early voting now, or main voting on May 7th. And when this gets voted down, every administrator that perpetrated this scam needs to be investigated, fired, and possibly run to jail. A full audit of CISD needs to be done, because if they couldn't even build a hot dog stand at Wheat Middle School for less than $277,000 on a budget of $245,000, and then have been brazen enough to hit up the taxpayers not once, but TWICE for a huge bond scam, spending $120,000 of our money to promote it each time, how do we know they are spending the money they have access to responsibly?
Show them that the people of Cleburne are not a bunch of suckers to be taken in by a con. Vote NO!
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