State puts North Forest ISD on Probation

By BOBBY HORN JR.
Citing “serious and persistent deficiencies in both the academic and financial performance of the district,” the Texas Education Agency has placed the North Forest ISD on probation.
In a letter to William Jones, interim superintendent of North Forest dated June 13, 2008 TEA Commissioner Robert Scott told the district it was assigned “Accredited-Probation” status following a special accreditation investigation.
Under state guidelines, the district must notify parents and taxpayers of the problems in the district and how those problems will be addressed. North Forest has until June 30 to submit the notification to the state for their approval.
The “probation” status is not subject to another record review or appeal.

During the 2007-08 school year, data was compiled by a “TEA-assigned management team” as part of the investigation. The 14-page summery report found troubles in the “integrity of financial data,” how the district reported disciplinary action to the state, multiple areas of “financial deficiencies” as well as “program deficiencies” and problems with attendance reporting and student records.
Investigators noted that for three straight years the district had failed to meet the Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas standards. Among the problems were improperly coded financial transactions and staff training. Investigators were told that staff would be trained by the end of February 2008. As of May 6, they had not received the training.
Investigators also learned that from September 2006 through February 2008, the school district did not report its monthly staff counts.
Since July 2007 the school district has been borrowing money from its Capital Project Fund to meet cash shortfalls in the General Fund. According to the report “the chief financial officer indicated that he was not made aware of the borrowing of bond monies until after the fact.” The report also said that the district could be in “violation of state law and its bond covenants in using these monies for purposes which are not allowable under state regulations.”
In the area of academics, the report noted that in 2007 the district had five of its 11 campuses rated “Academically Unacceptable”, five were “Academically Acceptable” and one was “Recognized.” Of the five “unacceptable” one had earned that rating for the past four consecutive years. Smiley High School had been rated “unacceptable” four out of the last five years.
The investigators also found trouble with how student records were kept at both high schools.
According to the report, “the TEA-assigned conservator was unable to determine whether graduating seniors received the correct number of credits because there are no documents in the cumulative folders at either campus that reflects this information.”