I have been following the story of the missing $7,300,000 over in the Hallsville, Texas ISD. The money should have been paid to the state under a ‘Robin Hood’ plan where affluent school districts share money with those who have less.
This caught my attention because my nephew lives in Hallsville and his twin sons are in 2nd grade there. Hallsville has great schools. The system is about 1/3 the size of Bossier Parish Schools, with 4,260 students compared to Bossier’s 12,046. An interesting side note is that Hallsville has 350 teachers compared to Bossier’s 770.
Hallsville is one of four schools in class 4A and 5A in the entire state who achieved Exemplary Ratings for the District and all Campuses.
Here is what happened. The district was notified that they had not made their $7.3 million dollar payment. The assistant superindendent for finance, who was in charge of taking care of it, had recently resigned.
The money is unaccounted for – in other words, no one knows where it is – and outside auditors are coming in.
There have been no accusations of theft. The district has borrowed money to send the state and said they will pay it back over a four year period.
That is, I suppose, unless the $7.3 mil pops up somewhere.
Strange situation.
What's the big deal here? Hallsville, Texas ISD should have hired Bossier City's finance director. He can be in a $6,000,000 hole one day and six months later have a $6,000,000 surplus. Damnedest thing I ever saw.
ReplyDeleteEither the Bossier City turn around was a miracle or there was some shenanigans going on. My bet would be the shenanigans.
So, if Hallsville ISD needs any pointers call the Bossier City finance director, I'm certain he'll be delighted to help.