MANOR, Texas -- From wrongful terminations to firing and rehiring a superintendent, Manor Independent School District has been in the limelight for the past two years.
A recent audit of Manor ISD conducted by an outside agency found reasons for concern, including misused funds and personnel issues.
"The mismanagement of our funds is beyond alarming," said Roy Knight, acting superintendent for Manor ISD.
Knight retired as superintendent of Lufkin ISD three years ago and has since worked as a consultant and acting superintendent at various districts. He says MISD hired him in December and named him acting superintendent on Tuesday. Part of his job is to help clean up the current mess while superintendent Kevin Brackmeyer is on family medical leave.
The problem with the district's funds was firs recognized last September.
"Every year, a school district is required to do an annual financial audit, by state law. Our annual audit team found some irregularities in payroll," Knight said. "So, they stopped the audit process and couldn't continue the audit process until we had a more detailed forensic audit done. They required that of us and we're grateful they did."
In October, the district placed the executive director of the business office and color guard director, Charles Brown, and the payroll supervisor, Olivia Flores Garcia, on paid leave. The district then hired Don Southerland Jr, a CPA and Knight says former FBI agent, to audit the payroll department.
The audit uncovered multiple accusations of misconduct.
The observations made against Brown are as follows:
- Did not require employees to adhere to their work duty hours;
- Approved timesheets for overtime, extra duty and compensatory payments, which he did not review or knew to be accurate;
- Hired and paid Manor ISD color guard coaches outside of the HR process for new employees; those employees were not subject to fingerprint or background checks;
- Manually added color guard coaches to the payroll each period;
- Used a derogatory term to refer to the dance instructor at a school event that was attended by Manor ISD staff and parents;
- Did not detect over-payments to present and former Manor ISD employees in a timely manner; as a result, a former employee mistakenly received a check for $70,004.82 and she spent the money on a Mercedes Benz before the error was detected. The former employee has entered into a repayment agreement with the district;
- Did not make sure timesheets were processes with the appropriate supervisor's signature;
- Was absent on some Fridays to attend personal interest without taking approved leave; as a result, Manor ISD's payroll taxes were paid late and Manor ISD was penalized;
- Had transnational and approval authority of his credit card expenditures; credit card was used to pay for color guard activity instead of the color guard's account;
- Made amendments to the color guard budget without approval of the budget director;
- Promote funding of the color guard while negatively impacting the funding of other programs; for fiscal year, 2015-2016 the budget of the color guard, which has 18 members, is $92,000 while the dance team, which has 200 members, has a budget of $3,000 and the cheerleading team, which has 30 members, has a budget of $15,000;
- Slashed the WAMM budget from $60,000 to $28,000
- Denied travel to a conference for the dance team instructor, which he did not have the authority to do; the dance team instructor left the district due to stress caused by budget issues and the treatment she received from Brown;
- Provided fraudulent information to the cheerleading coach in response to her information request;
- Misrepresented that all staff salaries were included in the budgets;
Brown resigned from Manor ISD on December 16, 2015.
The observations made against Flores Garcia are as follows:
- Processed timesheets for an employee without the appropriate supervisor's signature;
- Processed over-payments to former employees, which resulted in a loss in funds to Manor ISD;
- Her absences resulted in the Manor ISD payroll not being processed accurately or efficiently;
- Submitted timesheets to her supervisor for approval, which were inaccurate as to the hours worked and compensation due;
Flores Garcia also resigned from Manor ISD on December 16, 2015.
The auditor also looked at other employees including Rebecca Resendes who was the mentor office secretary and LEAP clerk. The auditor found Resendes submitted timesheets for her LEAP time that overlapped her duties in the mentor office; alleging she was paid twice for working the same hours. She resigned from Manor ISD on November 20, 2015.
"They obviously denied me the joy of firing them," said Knight. "There's nothing I can do about that. They certainly won't be using us for references for jobs. I don't have to condemn people, the audit speaks for itself."
Some employees that the auditor investigated still work for the district. Lisa Barrett Johnson, the Director of the Manor ISD Fine Arts Department, is one of them. The observations made against her are as follows:
- Non-certified teachers taught for credit classes in the fine arts department but certified instructors were listed as the instructors on record;
- Did not elevate a conduct issue when Brown admitted to using a derogatory term in reference to the dance team instructor;
- Did not take proper steps after a theft was made from the student activity fund of the band department;
- Approved extra duty payments for employees that shouldn't have received them;
- Was not truthful with investigators regarding her involvement with the color guard program; investigators found an email to Johnson discussing offering a scholarship to two students to cover "every cost of the color guard for the fall and winter seasons;"
Johnson oversaw the federally funded Gear Up program. These are the issues the audit found with the program:
- Cynthia Gill, who was the Gear Up coordinator, received extra duty pay per the timesheets she provided, but she was an exempt, salaried employee;
- Gill and others charged items and activities to Gear Up (including food purchases) that were not allowed under the federal regulations;
- Gear Up tutors were used as substitute teachers however that is not allowed under the program;
The auditor also looked into Julie Galindo, an hourly employee of the district and found she adjusted her own duty time frequently and approved her own extra duty time. She also hired workers, some of whom were related to her, to clean the stadium and perform other tasks and then approved their timesheets.
"Under the law, those employees are afforded due process," said Knight about their future with the district. "So by the law they have a chance to respond to each and every one of those allegations and they deserve their fair due process. And then I'll make a decision on what an appropriate action will be."
The additional areas of concern the auditor found are:
- Lack of oversight of Color Guard spending;
- Records are missing and not secured;
- Questionable payments to former employee Jamie Stone; Stone wrote herself into federal grants as the district "shepherd" to augment her salary even though her position does not allow her to act as a paid shepherd; she received two extra payments of $7,500 each;
- Hourly employees are paid for 40 hours whether their clock-in and clock-out records show they worked 40-hours or not;
- Supervisors routinely signed timesheets without knowing whether they were accurate
Knight said it was the superintendent's responsibility to catch all of this misconduct.
"In any school district, the person sitting at the top of the chair in any year is ultimately responsible," he said.
Knight added it's now his responsibility to restore trust in the district.
"In the central office, we've earned a poor reputation and we own that. What I want our taxpayers and our mamas and daddies to know is I'm here to help us fix that." Knight said.
Knight said the color guard coaches that were not properly hired are no longer working with students and the district has moved money around to support the dance team and cheerleaders.
"There were a series of things that were done in that office with those people named, where they would borrow from Peter to pay Paul; prop up one program at the expense of another and that's not how we ought to be doing school business. We're through doing those kinds of things now," Knight said.
The district also hired a new executive director for the business office, Jennifer Land, who is a CPA. The auditor commended the hire in the report and said Land has "implemented significant financial and accounting controls."
The district's attorney is also looking into the misuse of federal funds and will determine what legal action or reporting will be done on behalf of the district.
