Introducing School District Fiscal Reform Activist Peyton Wolcott

If you live in Texas, and some other states, you probably already know about school reform activist Peyton Wolcott, who has a website a http://www.peytonwolcott.com/  . 

Peyton started several grass roots school fiscal and policy reform groups in Texas and is nationally known as the leader to get schools to publish their entire check register online to provide transparency over spending.  Peyton also reads this blog and periodically sends me tips.  Today I got another one regarding the Monroe County School District $180,000 fraud we have been covering.

If you go to Peyton's "Faq" page, it will give you a detailed history.   She also has now broadened her objectives to provide tips and info to other school reform activist groups, and she just might be eying Florida as her next fixit task!  

So, I don't need to rewrite what is on Peyton's website - go check it out.

And, I have always planned to start recommending that local agencies start online publishing not only of DETAILED budgets, but monthly "financials" (really kindergarten level budget status reports) and online check registers.   There is too much money being spent by the staff and or elected officials without much transparency in Lake County.
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Here is an extract of one single article written by Peyton in 2007, followed by a response from Peyton about the value of requiring online check registers, with an example from Miami Dade County.

Most parents and taxpayers
are rational beings whose lives
work because we operate in
them rationally.

When we experience a
precipitating incident which
warrants our dealing with our
local school districts, most of us
generally approach them armed
with facts and the same rational
thinking that enables us to pay
for our houses and cars and the
property taxes that fund our local
schools.  

Generally this is our first
mistake.  

If we compound our mistake by
also being angry, we might as
well go stand in front of the
administration building and
shake a big bag filled with
rattlesnakes; no good acting
surprised when the rattlesnakes
react by hissing and trying to
bite us.

Watching pushback from
schools, especially here in
Texas, escalate over the past
few years (more at right) leaves
me troubled; I believe based on
my own experiences and
observation of others' that many
of the difficulties parents and
taxpayers are experiencing can
be avoided by changing our
approach.

Heads-up to citizen journalists, bloggers The Internet is a tremendous gift.  We've seen changes here in Texas public education in the past five years which I do not believe would have been possible without the Internet.   Many parents and taxpayers are finding themselves pressed into service as citizen journalists who have no formal journalism background.  Most often, it is these well-intentioned folks who appear to be getting into the most trouble.  We've seen here in Texas in the past two years alone one SLAPP suit filed and another on the way, plus an amicus curiae by a third district.   Worse, we've had onerous anti-sunshine legislation encumbered on all of us as a result during this past Lege. Citizen journalism 101:

How to change
rattlesnakes
into teddy bears
It starts with changing our
mindset.  

After trying rational thinking, facts
and figures, reports and studies
with our local administrators, all
to no avail -- including a
memorable detainment by three
armed public school district
police officers for taking photos
in an administration building
during summer with no
schoolchildren present -- I
realized a new way of doing
things was necessary.

Because of my experiences over
the years as a volunteer
organizing other volunteers for
charity fund raisers, it was a
natural next step for me to
organize friends into a group...  the rest is Texas history...

================================================================

Recent memo from Peyton to FiscalRangers.com regarding value of requiring online check registers for school districts with an example from Miami-Dade County in Florida:

I'm all for audits, and in fact spent a year of my life lobbying (successfully as it turned out) for a fancy state audit of our local schools despite fierce opposition from the top three school administrators and three strongest and longest-serving elected trustees.  Within ten days of the state Comptroller's announcement she was going to start the audit the supe and ass't supe had resigned, and a few months later the three trustees suddenly decided not to run for reelection.  The third administrator left a year or so later.  So from this personal experience I know audits can be a strong accountability tool. 

 

Please tell me where I'm wrong on this next:  Online check registers accomplish the same thing as audits and faster, because they are easier to bring into being, and the entire sentient population can get online at 3 p.m. or 3 a.m. and peruse their district's checkbook, start asking questions and bring about necessary changes.  Also, online checks can cure problem situations sooner than audits; with an audit you have to wait for the fiscal year to end, then the audit itself especially if you're going for a real one -- a forensic audit -- might take another year.  Then it takes them a while to formulate and release their preliminary findings to the governmental entity which takes some more time back and forth before the public actually gets to see anything.  Whereas with online registers, checks to the superintendent's son's new employer who also happens to be a district vendor show up the next month. 

 

This last was a real-life situation in Miami-Dade County Public Schools just last year and the checks were to Scientific Learning; after they came to light the superintendent despite having achieved the highest accolade in the national world of school superintendency just months earlier was by July-August scrambling to negotiate the best exit package possible.  There was lots more such an an election which I don't mean to gloss over; there are currently 70 Google hits for my name and "Rudy Crew" if you'd like a fuller picture.  And he still hasn't landed another superintendent position. 

 

Also, audits generally bring to light bad business practices, especially situations where superintendents are doing business with no-bid vendors, or districts are doing business with "friends" and relatives of trustees.  These are ethics issues.  We had exactly this situation in my own local district, the one where our property taxes go, several years ago.  At one point six of the seven trustees were doing business with the school district, all legally.  While such questionable deals are a problem in themselves, it leads to a climate of trustees rubber-stamping the superintendent's recommendation in order to solifiy their own business positions.  And with our situation the trustees appeared to be doing side deals with each other for votes. 

 

So we organized a group and found five candidates for the empty spots coming available -- yes, it was that bad that in addition to the normal due to normal term-end rotation two other trustees resigned -- and got all five to sign a public pledge that they wouldn't do business with the school district during their term.  Our idea was to hold them accountable in the most effective court of all, the court of public opinion.  It worked, and all five not only won their spots but also honored their publicly signed promise.  There's a button on the tool bar on my site linking to an article in Human Events with more.

You have an accounting background -- and thank you also for your service to our country (my husband is a retired Marine) -- and likely have a much neater and tidier mind than mine.  I'm a word person, not a number person.  

 

So having worked for all three -- tough outside school audit, online checks, and ethics pledges, the latter two have achieved a great deal more, and sooner, in the way of ending corruption, which I assume is your primary goal. 

 

Looking forward to your insights and feedback at your convenience --

 

Peyton