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FBI Raids HISD Offices

Viper

By Viper
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Viper

Viper 12159

Posted
Posted

Anyone know what's going on? Is this related to the state taking over the district?

 

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/FBI-conducts-court-authorized-law-enforcement-15088916.php

Quote

FBI agents are conducting an investigation at the HISD administrative offices, but what they are looking for is unclear.

The FBI sent out a news release Thursday morning, describing their presence at the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center in northwest Houston as "conducting court authorized law enforcement activity." They would not elaborate.

At least a dozen federal authorities were seen at the building at 4400 West 18th Street. At least six unmarked vehicles were parked nearby.

 

Thursday afternoon, a federal agent was seen loading what appeared to be a black trunk into a vehicle.  Earlier, media outlets reported that authorities were seen carrying out white boxes from the building.

Authorities are also at the Cypress area home of an HISD administrator.

Sonia Gonzalez, an attorney with the Houston Federation of Teachers, said she went to the administration building when she heard of the activity. She said she saw one person from the IRS working with the FBI.

 

“Anytime something happens in the district, it affects our teachers, so of course it worries us,” she said.

The FBI sent out the following news release Thursday morning:

The FBI is conducting court authorized law enforcement activity at the Hattie Mae White, HISD Administration Building. We want to assure the public there is no danger to the HISD students, staff or greater Houston community. We will provide any additional information once it becomes public. We have no further comment at this time.

 

HISD released the following statement in response to the investigation:

HISD can confirm that the FBI is in the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center this morning regarding a court authorized law enforcement matter. The district is fully cooperating. There is no danger to students, staff or the community.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

 

Channel 11 says they also raided the home of HISD Chief Operating Officer Brian Busby.

https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/fbi-conducting-activity-at-houston-school-district-building-hisd/285-83ffcae8-a191-4eb8-94b3-465833de62ac

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Yes but they were forced to do this because we don’t give them enough money. 
lots of highly educated successful people on this Board can all look back and remember that mid-level district administrator, not teacher or coach, that was the big difference maker for them growing up.  

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Hawndoh

Hawndoh 2401

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30 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

School districts are such a mess.  A hive of corruption.  They seem to be the worst form of local government entity for that reason.

Why?

Is this what happens when you put el ed majors in charge of millions of dollars?

Uh, if you are looking for corruption you go look at cops. 

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Fuck Tim Beck

Fuck Tim Beck 3855

Posted
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31 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

School districts are such a mess.  A hive of corruption.  They seem to be the worst form of local government entity for that reason.

Why?

Is this what happens when you put el ed majors in charge of millions of dollars?

Yep. Killeen ISD is a cespool of corruption and the good ol boy network. It's all sickening 

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Doc Reeves

Doc Reeves 6434

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1 hour ago, Fuck Tim Beck said:

Yep. Killeen ISD is a cespool of corruption and the good ol boy network. It's all sickening 

Lol. Refreshing for someone to call out K-town. People literally have no fucking idea. I know for an absolute fact administrators who have embezzled insane amounts of money from the Military Fed impact aid over 15-20 years. 

 

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Fuck Tim Beck

Fuck Tim Beck 3855

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, Doc Reeves said:

Lol. Refreshing for someone to call out K-town. People literally have no fucking idea. I know for an absolute fact administrators who have embezzled insane amounts of money from the Military Fed impact aid over 15-20 years. 

 

Not to mention the behind the scenes deals regarding the school board, the "fuzzy math" of accounting, etc. And the board gave the superintendent a 

15% ($42,000) raise last year. That amount is almost a teacher salary. 

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Armybrat

Armybrat 41013

Posted
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2 hours ago, Lobo said:

Yes but they were forced to do this because we don’t give them enough money. 
lots of highly educated successful people on this Board can all look back and remember that herd of mid-level district administrators, not teacher or coach, that was the big difference maker for them growing up.  

Fify

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deadshank

deadshank 24653

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I have a friend that was an HISD attorney.  He left for private practice.  Could not take the outright, bald faced corrupt goings on at HISD.  The complete mishandling of funds, free-for-all money grab and cliquish protectionism.  He laughed when HISD was all high and mighty and looking down its nose at North Forest ISD. 

HISD is run by buffoons looking to enrich themselves.  They don't need more taxe revenue.  HISD needs management that will do the right thing and provide sound money stewardship.  

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Armybrat

Armybrat 41013

Posted
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13 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

When I lived in the RGV, FBI raids on school districts didn't even make the front page of the local newspaper.

 

Up until recently, Austin ISD was the only school district in US History ever to be charged with a felony. (their Office of Research & Evaluation for falsifying state testing scores). Plead deal reduced it to a misdemeanor so nobody went to jail.

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Armybrat

Armybrat 41013

Posted
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25 minutes ago, deadshank said:

I have a friend that was an HISD attorney.  He left for private practice.  Could not take the outright, bald faced corrupt goings on at HISD.  The complete mishandling of funds, free-for-all money grab and cliquish protectionism.  He laughed when HISD was all high and mighty and looking down its nose at North Forest ISD. 

HISD is run by buffoons looking to enrich themselves.  They don't need more taxe revenue.  HISD needs management that will do the right thing and provide sound money stewardship.  

My brother’s SIL was president of the HISD school board in the late 1980s or early 1990s. It was a joke then.

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tx ind

tx ind 7014

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Posted

That Busby dude is in the same neighborhood as me, wondered why there were cops when I left yesterday morning!

Based on his house and the cars he had parked out front you could always tell he had an alternate income source other than being an HISD administrator.


Dude is lucky that water main broke yesterday as that is sucking up all the news in Houston.

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HouTex

HouTex 1902

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Posted

School districts everywhere have had embezzlement issues. The Maintenance departments are a treasure trove for the higher ups in the department. Its very hard to trace where all of the bulk building supplies go. There was a case in the late 80’s in the Goose Creek ISD when the maintenance director built a bay cabin with misappropriated school district materials.

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Zwylde

Zwylde 813

Posted
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My ex-wife ran for school board at one of the largest ISD's in the State about 6 or 7 years ago.  It was so eye opening to see how hard the incumbents fought for their positions.  I kept asking myself why?  Why would they fight with such vitriol for a VOLUNTEER, UNPAID position.  It made no sense.  I told her there is only one reason and one reason only they would fight that hard and it wasn't for the children.

 

 

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gmr548

gmr548 16644

Posted
Posted
On 2/27/2020 at 2:56 PM, TwiceHorn said:

School districts are such a mess.  A hive of corruption.  They seem to be the worst form of local government entity for that reason.

Why?

Is this what happens when you put el ed majors in charge of millions of dollars?

In my anecdotal experience, good, dedicated educators aren't often the ones that end up going into management. It's a catch-22.

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XYZ

XYZ 2154

Posted
Posted

I used to have a co-worker who was in sales and he would sell infrastructure type projects to municipalities, school districts, etc. One time the topic of corruption came up and he was like “you have no idea”. One time, for example, he was putting together an RFP response for a city near Houston, and one of the city council board members approaches him and says “I can make sure that you win this project, but on the condition that you hire such-and-such company as a sub”. He declined, and the council member made sure our company wasn’t awarded the project. He said he could fill a book with anecdotes like that. That kind of shit happens all the time.

One of the biggest disservices that Americans do their country is to tell themselves every day “at least we are not as corrupt as those banana republics”. Yes, you are. America is corrupt as fuck.

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Nueces River Rat

Nueces River Rat 5605

Posted
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On 2/27/2020 at 3:29 PM, Fuck Tim Beck said:

Yep. Killeen ISD is a cespool of corruption and the good ol boy network. It's all sickening 

A number of Rio Grande Valley ISD's say hold my beer.

The old Compadre system is still alive and well down there.   I believe the FBI has a special unit focused just on government corruption in the RGV which includes everything from the local water districts to the county courthouses.  

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MaybeACoordinator

MaybeACoordinator 8350

Posted
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On 2/27/2020 at 5:22 PM, High Plains Drifter said:

 

When I lived in the RGV, FBI raids on school districts didn't even make the front page of the local newspaper.

 

 

2 hours ago, Nueces River Rat said:

A number of Rio Grande Valley ISD's say hold my beer.

The old Compadre system is still alive and well down there.   I believe the FBI has a special unit focused just on government corruption in the RGV which includes everything from the local water districts to the county courthouses.  

I remember reading about an eightysomething abuela caught rigging an RGV school board election by handing out $10 bags of cocaine to voters. Laugh at the small dollar amount but ten bucks gets you a lot of yay on the border.

I just looked back into it and it turns out she was one of several politiqueras working for a boss man who was campaign manager for four members of the school board. After the conspiracy started to unravel the head of the school board hung himself on New Year's Day.

Or did he?  

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Armybrat

Armybrat 41013

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7 hours ago, XYZ said:

I used to have a co-worker who was in sales and he would sell infrastructure type projects to municipalities, school districts, etc. One time the topic of corruption came up and he was like “you have no idea”. One time, for example, he was putting together an RFP response for a city near Houston, and one of the city council board members approaches him and says “I can make sure that you win this project, but on the condition that you hire such-and-such company as a sub”. He declined, and the council member made sure our company wasn’t awarded the project. He said he could fill a book with anecdotes like that. That kind of shit happens all the time.

One of the biggest disservices that Americans do their country is to tell themselves every day “at least we are not as corrupt as those banana republics”. Yes, you are. America is corrupt as fuck.

You are correct, and the City of Austin is no exception.

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ShaggyBevo RIP

ShaggyBevo RIP 3868

Posted
Posted
On 2/27/2020 at 3:56 PM, TwiceHorn said:

School districts are such a mess.  A hive of corruption.  They seem to be the worst form of local government entity for that reason.

Why?

Is this what happens when you put el ed majors in charge of millions of dollars?

Pretty much sums up what happened when higher education was deregulated in the '80s under the premise that competition would make higher education more affordable.  

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Nueces River Rat

Nueces River Rat 5605

Posted
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5 hours ago, MaybeACoordinator said:

 

I remember reading about an eightysomething abuela caught rigging an RGV school board election by handing out $10 bags of cocaine to voters. Laugh at the small dollar amount but ten bucks gets you a lot of yay on the border.

I just looked back into it and it turns out she was one of several politiqueras working for a boss man who was campaign manager for four members of the school board. After the conspiracy started to unravel the head of the school board hung himself on New Year's Day.

Or did he?  

That occurred in my hometown.  The school board has two former members serving time in the Fed Pen for soliciting bribes from a building contractor.  One of the things they asked for was Spurs and concert tickets. 

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Jiggy-Z

Jiggy-Z 3469

Posted
Posted

Does this kind of thing happen in "rich" school districts?

I am also curious how this sort of thing goes down on the construction side of things for big SD projects.

I can see bribery as a problem but for the most part all of those large GC's are pretty much the same as far as quality subs and management personnel.  Most of the contracts are management fee, OH, and the cost plus rather hard bid.  If the required bribes are outrageous, I could see the GC's jacking up the sub numbers and getting some kickbacks to make up the difference.  If the jobs are run legit once the contracts are awarded, then this is not a big a problem as we are making it out to be.

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